Animal Control

  
     It's 3:00 a.m. There's a nose nudging my arm from the bedside, an insistent push, then another. It's our 14 year old Border Collie, Baby - looking for love, reassurance? Did I remember to let her out last night before bed? I drop my arm over the bedside, rub her chest, scratch her ears, wind up with a 4 tap bounce on the top of her head, our established signal that her massage session is over, and curl my arm back under the covers.

     5:45 a.m. Chip, our 8 year old Border Collie, begins his morning "Come on you guys, are you ever gonna get up?" vocalizations. I limp out of bed, flashlight in hand, and head for the front door. Chip flies through the living room at breakneck speed, nearly knocking over the coffee table, spinning his wheels so he can be first out the door. Baby drops off the lazy boy, her back legs giving out on landing but making a quick recovery. My little pet dog, Teddy, jumps off our bed and not so patiently waits his turn. I open the door and they scramble outside. I crawl back into bed.

     6:00 a.m. Ted scratches at the front door. I let him in, go to the kitchen door, ask Doc (he's an 11 year old retired guardian dog who has wormed his way into the house due to a series of events that nearly killed him) to move aside, let Baby in, ask Chip if he wants in. "No thanks," he says with his eyes. "I'll wait for the boss to get up and out." Again I go back to bed.

     7:00-7:30 a.m. The real boss, me, gets up, I grind the coffee, put on the kettle, start the fire, and settle down with my iPad. Chip's boss gets up, lets Ted out again and encourages Baby out the door with hand signals (she's quite deaf), lets Doc out, then head's out with dog cookies in hand for the 2 guardian dogs waiting for him outside. At this time of year he feeds a grain supplement to the sheep, then he heads down the driveway or across the field for a morning walk with our household dog family. The 2 active guardians, Josie and Thor, stay with the sheep. They like people, but the sheep are their family.

Josie and Thor

     The day moves on, the dogs go in and out, go crazy if left in while the "boss" is outside doing something no doubt interesting. I am tasked with making sure Ted doesn't go out when Chip is working. (Sometimes I think we keep the sheep in our "retirement years" just so Chip has something to play with. If you've ever owned a Border Collie you know, he must have a job to keep him busy!) Ted tries to help but often interferes. He's tough though  and can run amazingly fast for a tiny dog, is willing to stand nose to nose with an obstinate ewe. But he tends to counteract Chip's good work with the sheep.

     I start the should-be-daily task of preparing one room or another for Roomba to vacuum, sweep the dried sand from the breakfast nook, shake the mats and rugs, and brush the dog hair from the entry mat. Every few days, when meat is available (right now deer scraps from a friend), I set a big pot on the stove to make dog food (meat, carrots, potatoes, zucchini or squash, dried beans, rice) to supplement the store bought stuff which keeps climbing in price.

     It may be obvious, we love our dogs! Chip, Ted and Baby go with us on many excursions, always when we go south to visit our southern family. They do cause a lot of work and a certain amount of expense but... question is, who is in control? The workers do their job, the retirees do what retirees do, the pet does the pet thing, and we are the willing staff! We have accepted the fact that there's places we cannot go because the dogs can't come with us (music festivals, travel), and lament this a bit, but... they are family!  I'm sure we are not alone in this, many people are controlled by love for their pets, not really a bad thing, not everyone's thing, but it is our thing.