Hank and Jimmy

My brother's cattle dogs

Jimmy is a Border Collie. He's the younger of my brother's two cattle dogs. Both dogs are intensely attached to my brother, and they aren't friendly with strangers. They consider it their duty to protect their people --it's a characteristic of their breed.

I really felt honored when Jimmie let me pet him on the last day of my recent visit to my brother's ranch in Kansas. Hank, the older dog, would not make friends with me. When I took the photo below, Hank knew I was looking at him with my camera, so he carefully ignored me.

I think Hank is also a full-blooded Border Collie, but I could be wrong. A cow kicked Hank a few years ago and broke his leg. After several surgeries, his bad leg still bothers him. He can't run as fast or jump as well as he used to, but he still likes to help.

Hank and Jimmy love to go for an adventure. Here they are in the back of the truck. When my brother goes to the pastures to check his cows, they ride in the back of the 4-wheeler.

As soon as they enter the pasture, Jimmy jumps out and runs. Pretty soon, my brother asks Hank if he wants to run too, and he usually does. The dogs run in front of the 4-wheeler and smell all the important places along the trail. Many sites need pee from both dogs. They also check certain clumps of bushes for rabbits and deer every day. A good chase is remembered forever.

One evening while I was there, we found the neighbor's bull in the pasture with my brother's cows. The dogs saw him immediately and knew that he did not belong there. Here's Jimmy, heading the bull down the road to another pasture.

My brother commented that this bull seemed accustomed to being driven by dogs, because he didn't fight Jimmy much. Still, the bull didn't really want to leave the cows. My brother put the 4-wheeler between the bull and the dog a few times when the bull put down his head and charged at Jimmy. It made me nervous.

Here we go over the hill and across the pasture with the bull. When we got to the corner of the pasture, one of my brother's bulls spotted the stray and headed toward us. The situation could have turned ugly, but my brother got the gate open while the dogs held the red bull, and we got the red bull through the gate and into the corral before the black bull arrived. They bellowed fiercely, but two fences were separating them.

I admired and respected the nerve of the cattle dogs, and I said so to my brother. Oh, he said, things like that are what the dogs live for.

A ride around the pasture fences revealed no broken wires, so the stray bull's method of entry into my brother's pasture remained a mystery. We had seen him on the road earlier in the day. My brother speculated that the bull might have walked across or jumped across the cattle guard. (Some cattle learn to do that.) Or someone might have put him in the pasture to get him off the road. The poorly-kept fences around the bull's home pasture are teaching him to be "breechy" --that is, good at (and fond of) going over, under, around, and through fences.

Every pasture ride with the dogs ends with a race. My brother backs up to a little high spot so Hank can jump into the back of the 4-wheeler (he has the bad leg). Then Jimmie takes off like a greyhound, and my brother drives fast on the 4-wheeler behind him. Hank barks wildly with the excitement of chasing Jimmy, and Jimmy wins the race. Riding along is an exhilarating experience.

My brother says his dogs listen to everything he says and are always thinking about what he means. They don't always understand, but they always want to understand. They have large vocabularies and excellent memories. They love him, and he loves them. They love my sister-in-law too, but my brother is their favorite and, in their eyes, the esteemed leader of their pack.

I can't write about my brother's dogs without mentioning Sammi, his first cattle dog. She was a sweet, smart Australian Shepherd - Border Collie mix. She helped my brother train Hank, her successor. I showed my son this photo of Sammi's grave tonight, and I may have seen a tear in his eye. Sammi was dearly loved by my children, and she lives on forever in their memories of childhood visits to the ranch.

A Dog in a Cat Family

Cats and dog make peace

About a year ago, Dennis brought home a little homeless Basset hound that had been hanging around his workplace and beseeching him for friendship.

I felt sorry for the little dog, but I was dubious that she would fit into a household that already had two cats. That's an understatement. To be more accurate, I was furious with Sophie for scaring the cats so badly. Every chance she got, she gave them a merry chase -- merry for her, but terrifying for Casper and Skittles, who wondered why we were allowing a monster to live at our house.

Isaac theorized that Sophie thought the cats were members of the rabbit family ("house rabbits", Isaac said,) and, being a Basset hound and natural born rabbit-chaser, she was only following her instincts. I understood that, but it was hard to feel any sympathy for Sophie as, night after night,  I had to coax Casper out of the neighbor's barns where he had taken refuge.

After a few weeks, Skittles had had enough. She decided that Sophie would not interfere with her life, and  when Sophie tried to chase, Skittles didn't run anymore. She stopped and turned around, and Sophie backed off.

Casper remained afraid, though, and Sophie took every chance to intimidate him. She restrained herself in our presence, but when she thought we weren't watching, she chased Casper, just for the joy of making him run.

I wished I could tell Casper that if he would just once turn around and give Sophie a claw in the nose, she would never bother him again.  But little by little, Casper became braver. He finally realized that Sophie didn't bother him when I was carrying him. Then, he learned that if a human was between him and Sophie, he could safely creep by.

We kept Sophie outside most of the time, but one day, she was visiting inside the house and she fell asleep. With great caution, Casper crept close to her. He was ready to run, but she stayed asleep as he sniffed her all over. I guess he had been wondering exactly what she was.

Sophie had an accident a few months ago. We don't know what happened, but she cracked her pelvis and injured one of her hip joints. She spent several weeks inside the house. If the cats were surprised at this turn of events, they quickly saw that she wasn't interested in them anymore. She only wanted to sleep (the effect of her pain pills.) We are still bringing Sophie inside at night to sleep in her crate, and I anticipate that this will continue.

Yesterday, we came to a milestone. When Dennis got home from work, Sophie came inside with him. A few minutes later, I saw Sophie and Casper, lying on the kitchen floor within four feet of each other. I would never have predicted that degree of comfort between them, a year ago.

I wouldn't say that the cats and the dog are friends, but they do accept that they are relatives. This sort of truce often exists between members of a family.

Related:
Partners in Crime
The Life of Skittles
Extreme Cat Moods
Making Friends
Kids and Kittens

Sophie Joins the Menagerie

Dog/cat issues slowly resolving

In April, a little Basset hound showed up at my husband's workplace. It was obvious to my husband that she didn't have a home.

Of course, Dennis gave her a few meals. Soon, every time he went outside, the little dog was waiting for him, begging for his attention and affection.

When Dennis came home talking about her, I knew what was bound to happen. Sure enough, in a few days, he called me at work and told me that he had brought the little hound home.

Sophie, as we named her, has never met a human she didn't like. She does well enough as a watchdog, but she's definitely not a guard dog. When the propane-tank painters arrived a few days ago, Sophie barked loudly to announce their arrival.  I walked outside to see what was happening, and Sophie was already lying on the ground, getting her belly scratched by her new friends.

I can't even begin to explain what a change Sophie has made in our cats' lives. They had always gone in and out of the house whenever they wanted, as long as someone was there to open the door for them. Then one day, a dog-monster took up residence in their territory, barking and charging at them whenever they dared to peek out the door. It was traumatizing to them!

The dog/cat situation has improved somewhat.Sometimes Sophie still has the momentary urge to chase the cats, but then she recognizes them and stops. "Oh, it's you again," she seems to think. We read that it is hard for Basset hounds to refrain from chasing cats because they're bred to chase rabbits. Cats resemble rabbits in a Basset's eyes, I guess. At any rate, I'm glad that Sophie has learned that the cats are "house-rabbits" who shouldn't be molested, at least when the people are around.

The cats know that Sophie is asleep at night, so that is their favorite time to slip outside. In the daytime,  Skittles is brave enough to walk in front of Sophie and come into the house. Casper is still a "scaredy-cat" and must be carried through the door if Sophie is present. However, he is slowly growing in confidence. He now understands that he is safe in a human's arms, and he no longer tries to escape and run when Sophie approaches.

Sophie has several interests beyond barking, getting petted, and chasing rabbits. She also likes to take break-of-day walks with Dennis, rearrange her bedding, take naps, and score doggie treats. In other words, she's nearly worthless. :) Her favorite human is Dennis, and she leaps around excitedly and talks eloquently to him when he comes home from work.

At present, Sophie's operations are conducted from a large wooden crate, laid sideways on the porch. This fall, when it's not so hot to work in the shed, I will build her a proper, insulated dog house. I've been studying doghouse plans on the internet.