Perfect

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."        ~ Josh Billings

Anybody who knows me, knows I love dogs. This little pup was out at the ranch on Saturday and he never stopped running and playing the entire day. I've never seen a cattle dog colored quite like this. I'm not sure where the brindle coloring comes from  and I  could never figure out who belonged to this dog.  There were several dogs running around during the round-up and they seemed to be just fine that way. They moved when a horse came by and the puppies wisely stayed out of the corrals. I saw a couple of Jack Russell terriers who tried to immulate the border collies but they quickly high-tailed it out of the cow pen when they found themselves staring eye-to-eye with a calf and having no instinctual idea what the heck they were supposed to do.  Run.  That's what Jack Russells do best.  And they did. It made me laugh!

The other dogs were border collies. There were three of them, ranging in age from old to a puppy that I would guess to be about 9 months old. I never got a photo of the puppy as she was constantly moving. She'd run around for a while and then she'd saddle up next to me and let me love on her a while. I absolutely go head over heels over a dog that leans into me when it's parked at my side. If I could have found who she belonged to, I might have begged, borrowed and stolen to bring her home with me. I carry a canvas kennel in my car ~ it could have worked!

Gene fell in love with this old guy. I suspect this border collie was about 6 or 7 years old. He ran most of the day and his age was starting to show as the day worn on. He was limping a bit but his DNA wouldn't let him get far from the herd.  He knew where to get the love though and I watched as he'd work for a while and then he'd swagger over to Gene for a good session of head scratching and smooth talk. 

All these dogs had names but I don't recall any of them except I heard them call one of them "Perfect".  What a great name for a dog!

If I had to choose my favorite part of my experience on Saturday, it would be watching the dogs work and seeing the puppies roam freely, learning where to be and where not to be so as not to get trampled on. I imagine on the ranch, it's the survival of the fittest and a working dog had better figure it out fairly quickly or it won't survive.

Well, I suppose I'd better get my mind back on being a city girl once again. It was a lovely transport to another world this weekend. One I won't forget for a long time.

"People's dreams are made out of what they do all day. The same way a dog that runs after rabbits will dream of rabbits. It's what you do that makes your soul, not the other way around."  ~ Barbara Kingsolver, American Writer

love, susan