Kissing More Cow Babies





Jake and I just got back from visiting my family in the mountains of NC and spending time with Jake's favorite babies, the little cows in the pasture next to my parents' house. Jake sneaks in tons of kissing on those furry, grody noses and this time I got licked by the baby cows, too!

The extra bonus for me was my brother, his wife and their two kids. Jake LOVES babies in all shapes and sizes and my nephews(age 3 and age 1 1/2) are no exception. Jake followed them around doling out kisses and clearing up under the table after dinner. Jake especially liked to lick the youngest until he'd cover up his face with his hands, thereby letting go of the death grip he had on his fleece blanket. Jake would triumphantly race down the hallway trailing blue fleece blanket making the baby scream and chase him -- game on! Jake would do something/anything and my oldest nephew would say, "Oh, wow, that's amazing!" and we couldn't help but laugh. My brother spent hours tugging with Jake calling it a workout. We went for walks in the cove and unfortunately for Jake he cut the pad on his back left foot and will have to miss his first agility class of the year.

March Herding Fun Day

My dear friend Laurey wrote: The Carolina ACD Club held a Herding Fun Day at one of our member's homes in NC. It was great fun to see cattle dogs get out there and do what they were bred to do. The raw instinct I saw was amazing!

The best part was that Carolina R&R was 98% in attendance - all 7 members and 5 foster dogs. Only our Mississippi foster mom Jenni and foster boy Luke were absent. Even our Forever Home dog Shelbi was there with her brother McGee.

Ellen took the time to put 4 of our dogs in with the sheep to see what they could do and, boy, did they impress! We were all very surprised by Piper and Trux, who both looked like they'd been doing it all their lives. Foster Mom Janet was the proud momma, and some of us even had tears in our eyes to see our boy Trux really shine. He's one heck of a dog - the total package. To see Piper in with those sheep was something else. Look out sheepies, here we come!

Trux, R&R's resident Wild Child and Mr. Personality, surprised us all with his natural instinct right out of the gate. I think we were all prepared for him to go wild in there, but he was patient and calm and moved the sheep just as he should have. More than a couple of us had a tear in our eyes watching him work.





DUTCH aka Bucket Boy and Wild Child, Jr. who didn't sit down or stand still at any time during the entire visit to the farm, was more a chaser than a herder, but did finally start to focus on the task at hand. For a young boy with NO training or manners, I think he did pretty good! (Note: We've only had Dutch one week!)





Cassie did quite good with the sheepies. She's young and a little wild as well but she made us proud none-the-less!





And where are my own observations, you ask? I wasn't there to see Trux, Dutch, and Cassie have their turn so I need to "borrow" some words for those three. And now for my side of the story:

I had attempted to hang onto Dutch originally but that boy is a powerhouse and my chiropractor is out of town for a week. So I handed him back over to Janet and opted for the more gentle, sedate Piper. AND THEN (drumroll, please) Piper saw sheep. That was the end of gentle, sedate Piper. Don't get me wrong -- she'd stop between staring at the sheep and pleading to go see the sheep to give copious amounts of kisses and shamelessly ask for belly rubs. I wanted to scoop her up in my arms just like Lolly had Trux -- she is just so dang sweet. Here's our lovebug on the sheep:







Jake had his go at the sheep and did a marvelous job. Hubby Joe went out with Jake while Piper attempted to dislocate my shoulder to get through the fence at those sheep. Jake's report card from his teacher said his drive is excellent but he definitely needs some training to hone those skills. I sure wish we lived closer to Ellen's and we'd be there every weekend working on that. And where are the pics of Jake herding? I don't have a single one. Shame on Mommy, right? I didn't miss one minute of watching him, though there are no pics and no video. When your face is behind the camera, you miss a lot of stuff that happens so I just wanted to watch this time.