Dog Story

I miss kneading bread.  I know that sounds silly.  I don’t always make bread.  We buy it from the store sometimes.  Sometimes I just need to knead, though.  I need to take this soft, warm dough that’s all sticky and just punch it and roll it for a 10 solid minutes (which, by the way, is exactly 3 minutes past my shoulders starting burning in anguish).  I had it down.

When you have 5 children, it’s hard to keep your cool.  I am not renowned in this house for my skills in patience, and sometimes you just need to knead.

Sometimes I just want to yank out some weeds and feel the sweat of the sun on my neck.  I miss seeing my day’s work sitting on the counter, cooling, be it bread, hot jars full of goodness to be opened this winter, or 20 meals bagged up for the freezer.

Anything that is pushing or pulling or lifting is basically off limits.  I’m sorry I’m still talking about this.  There’s very few outlets for frustration left for me.  Everyone gets frustrated.  So I was thinking there have to be things I can do.

I can do very low impact things, and I’m trying.  My new thing?

Walking the dogs.

Missy and I walk along the property at least twice a day now as Lena trots along next to us.  Missy is still on the leash, though if given time today, I’m going to test out her e-collar.  It’s finally charged now and ready to go.  She’s so nice on the leash, and doesn’t pull or tug me at all.  It’s more precautionary.

I haven’t posted about this because it was so embarrassing, but my close friends assure me the story is actually cool.  It has a happy ending, and to me that was the only cool thing about it.

We lost Missy just after we got her.  Yep.  We got this super awesome dog that protected flocks.  We drove about an hour and a half to get her, and an hour an a half back.  We knew she liked to be outside with her flock, and not penned up inside.  So until her e-collar would come in the mail, we leashed her up near the coop.  We debated about keeping her in the barn until we could get to the store and get a very long cord so she could roam the yard until she’s acclimated to her new territory, but that just seemed cruel.  She had a doghouse and leash.  She had her chickens.  So we went to bed.

The next morning, she was gone.  The tracks around the yard showed that coyotes came into the yard looking for chickens and finding Missy.  Boy, they must have been surprised.  She snapped her leash like it was fine thread and chased them all over the yard.  Then the tracks stopped.

Knut drove around for an hour looking for her.  Then I drove around for an hour, stopping by every farm to ask if they’ve seen her.  Then we were both at home in shock.  We had just gotten her.  We had such hopes.  How could we have screwed it up so royally so quickly?  We had this big training regimen planned.  She was to live her life roaming free on our land…once she knew it was hers.  The kids were crying.  I didn’t know what to think.

Then I called the humane society and told them we had a lost dog.  The lady chewed me out pretty bad for tying a dog up outside.  I explained it had shelter, and it was a working dog, not an inside dog.  She wasn’t going to be tied up her whole life, just until her training was completed.  Oh, that lady was mad. It didn’t help.

She told me to call the Sheriff’s department, as they patrol the country roads and often pick up dogs there.  The Sheriff’s department was much nicer, and very sympathetic.

Then a little miracle happened.  I got a call from one of the farms I stopped by that morning.  The lady said that her husband had seen Missy that morning, and petted her for awhile thinking it was their neighbor’s dog.  Great Pyrenees do tend to roam, and people around here are fairly used to seeing one roam around.  So we spent close to 2 hours going up and down every dirt road linked to the road she was spotted traveling on.  Nothing.

It put me in a very bad mood, to say the least.  Why can’t we do anything right?  How come we can’t seem to keep animals on our farm?  Why can’t we catch a break?  How could we have been so stupid??

Since the road she was spotted on was close to the county line, I called the humane society in the adjoining county, and they were very helpful.  I called the Sheriff’s department in the other county too, and they made a report.  I didn’t know what else to do.  Was she trying to go to her old home?  Homeward Bound in real life?  Was she just turned around?

So all weekend we heard nothing.  We drove slowly by every road we travelled looking for her.  The kids were heartbroken.

Then Monday morning, at 7:10am, I got a call from the humane society in the adjoining county…someone had found Missy.  They called the humane society first thing Monday morning to see if anyone was looking for her, but quickly wanted to add that if no one was looking for her they wanted to keep her.  She’s that lovable.  I said, “No!  We want her!  She’s ours!”

Missy had travelled 20 miles in those 2 days.  I thought she was traveling to her old home, and then turned south by mistake half way.  However, I was then told that the area she was found is where the majority of coyote dens are in this area.

She didn’t just chase them off our land.  She hunted them down…for 20 miles.  How amazing is that?

So she’s on a long metal cord now, as we begin her e-collar training.  My Papa (step-dad) is coming in August to do some more extensive training with her.  He’s a dog whisperer, like Silje.

In the mean time, she and I go for walks at least twice a day.  She loves attention from the kids in the yard, and is an all around sweetheart.  I posted this on Facebook the other day:

Missy to us: “You want to hold my dish? Please, take my dish! Can we go for a walk? I love you so much. Oooo, what’s this? I love this place. I love you. Those are my chickens. Do you like my chickens? You can hold as many as you like. I love you. You may touch my chickens. Thank you for feeding my chickens. I love to serve you. Oooo, what’s that? I love this place.”

Missy to Lena: “That’s my biscuit. It’s not yours. Don’t even look at it. The only reason you are still alive is because I allow it.”

Yep, we love her.  Lena loves her too, but Missy is without a doubt the dominant dog.  Fortunately for Lena, she (Lena) is a scaredy cat.  It works in her favor in this instance. Lena being allowed inside and Missy being only outside has not been a problem at all.  Missy doesn’t even ask to come inside.  Lena likes to be outside more than ever now.  She used to always like to snuggle inside, and now she likes to be outside, about 10 feet out of reach from Missy at all times.  She gets as close as she dares and just smiles.  When Missy is off leash and we’re watching, they play together nicely.

I think we’ll do just fine.  So thankful for second chances.  Walking dogs has been so therapeutic for me, both for my mental and physical health.  I’m so glad we got Missy just when we did.  She’s been such an answer to prayer.  Since her being found, she has chased predators away from our coop twice now with her long cord leash.  There’s one animal hole about 20 feet in front of the coop that bothers her as well, so she pees on it every time we go past it.  That’s a weird way to end a post, but there you go.