I was touched by the comments on another thread about "frosty muzzled dogs"....senior dogs.
Some great thoughts and tributes.
I found myself wanting to see the dogs people were talking about.....and hear their stories.
This is a link to a pix of our Frosty Muzzle dog. We are pretty sure she is a Border Collie/Chessie mix...with some hound thrown in.
Java Bean
She is our retired farm dog that refused to accept that she was retired.....and took on a coyote without back up.
Lots of surgery and rehab later...she is going strong.
We have to keep a close eye on her now, or she will wander off and go on patrol....you can see the leash in the pix.
Sweet "Frosty Muzzle" story:
After a lifetime of working on the farm and guarding us and the animals from everything from snakes (allowed at the barn, and fields, but NOT at the house :grin
possums, coons, foxes, coyotes, hawks....(yes, she has rocketed across the farm yard, taken a 4 ft vertical leap, and come back down with a huge mouthful of red tail feathers.....the hawk was trying to kill one of her chickens)stray dogs and unapproved strangers.
She has pulled half drowned baby chicks out of water troughs and mothered them or brought them to us to bring them back to health.
The chickens and guineas were trained...by her...to run for cover if she alarm barked. They had it down to a science...she would bark, the hens would run for safety and the roosters would come stand by her, ready to protect. The guineas would fly to the barn...or if that was too far they would fly to HER, land and either stay, or when she said so, would fly on to the barn.
She has protected me on many occasions....the one that comes to mind is when a drunk and irate landlord caught me outside alone....except for Java.
The landlord and her also drunk husband were yelling at me and getting more aggressive...started walking threateningly toward me...I saw Java slink in that border collie way around to flank them.....when she got in position, she lowered her head and gave one big woof....and stood there rumbling....they left.
So many more stories....
Those were a small pix of her working life...so now for her safety she is a house dog, and plays with the kids....but she is still a working dog at heart......
So here is the Frosty Muzzle story....
We heard her barking in one of the kids rooms one night....it was "that" bark..the "you better bring the gun" bark...the "I've treed something and aam holding it at bay..hurry up" bark.
I looked at my husband, and we both dashed into the room.
The lights were off...she did have something cornered against the wall...every time she barked it moved...it looked like a black snake.
We turned on the lights...yup..a snake....I move closer...and.......its.....part of a black trash bag that had gotten ripped off. It was stretched out and so when she barked the air from her bark was making it move.
Well I naturally picked up a broom and whacked it a few times...with her bouncing behind me..we killed it and I threw it away......everyone praised her mightily for saving the children.....she pranced and smiled.
We love our Java Bean.