Rosie

This is part two of our day after Thanksgiving. Little did I know when I woke up that morning that hubby had a surprise for me - which turned into three surprises! Part one is here: Bringing Home the Bacon. Come back Wednesday for part three.

Rosie

The day we went to buy the piglets, we continued driving for another half an hour to look at a litter of great Pyrenees/Anatolian puppies. Cracker is a wonderful "critter dog", keeping coyotes and other predators away, but he is just one dog protecting a lot of ground. Rather than staying with our animals, he protects them by patrolling our land. We knew we needed a second LGD (livestock guardian dog).

Cracker and Rosie



The sellers were a colorful elderly couple who raise ducks, geese and chickens, as well as a donkey and a mini horse.

We met the father of the pups, who sniffed us at length before deciding we were "okay", eventually nudging our hands so we'd pet him. The mother stayed at the back of the property; she had recently weaned the puppies and evidently was enjoying her "me time". The parents had guarded goats as well, but the couple had recently sold the herd.



Most of the pups were white or white and grey. There were two reddish pups, a male and a female. We chose the red and cream-colored female pup, and started on our journey home with the puppy on my lap.

The puppy was carsick - a lot. When she wasn't being sick, she was drooling all over my leg. Finally she fell asleep for awhile, then woke up and was sick again. Fortunately I'd thrown a towel in the truck before we left. It's a good thing we have strong stomachs.



Rosie is still settling in. The vet has pronounced her healthy, and she weighs 19.5 pounds at nine weeks old. And yes, she was carsick on the way to the vet's office. I was smart enough to put her in one of the wire dog crates in the back of the truck.



For now she stays in a pen inside the goat pen if I can't keep an eye on her. She can wriggle right through the holes in the cattle panel fencing, and we don't want her to follow Cracker off into the wilderness, so the chain-link enclosure is best for now. She's let out with the goats under supervision, as well as out to play with the other dogs and run off some energy. After she runs around for awhile, knocking over cats and investigating the chickens, she lays on the ground and watches the goats, just like an LGD should.



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