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1st Aug 2006: We no longer keep dogs, we find we don't need them to gather any more as the more Merino in our sheep the better they bunch up... We no longer eat mutton either, so don't need dogs to get sheep in to kill, and it is a boring life for a sheepdog without work. Sam was very old and growing blind and deaf when we finally had to make 'that' awful decision to put him down, and we got homes for the others where they would get the work they so much enjoyed. But am leaving this page on the site for now, for old times' sake...
Dogs are important to most Island farmers, even in nowadays
when motorbikes and four-wheelers are used for gathering sheep, rather than the more traditional horses. By law all dogs have to be kept in cages, and supervised when running out, but we always rear puppies and young dogs in our garden to accustom them to people. They are brought into the house as well for some attention and later grow up as well-balanced individuals who know us and respond well.
Even if they aren't needed to round up the sheep, dogs are invaluable at gateways where sheep, used to open miles of ground and fences that sometimes 'bite', being solar-powered, are reluctant to venture through the gaps. Push them too hard and they will break back and dive past you. Better to sit back and let them take their time.
Which is where a good collie or three will make such a difference.
Once they've helped you gather the camp to the open gateway, they will
hold the sheep close to it using their eye power alone, until someone
finally decides to go through and take the rest with them. And they
will turn back anyone rash enough to try and escape. They'll also
work tirelessly on a long drive, taking sheep back to the settlement
for shearing etc or controlling them as they return to their camps.
(vast 'fields').
Border collies are the main working dogs used here, thought there are others such as Huntaways in the Islands. We have six collies and
all are characters. Sam and Floss head the clan. Then there's Trim and Jess, from one of their daughters, and the youngsters Hale and Pace also out of Sam and Floss. (We've reared more than enough pups now, and hope not to have any more of these rascals to worry over... The two little innocents shown here are Hale and Pace - aged just over seven weeks at the time - who are starting to take an interest in sheep now they are a year old. Pace is the more confident one on the left, very like his father Sam, while Hale takes life a little more seriously. Floss only had two pups this time, fortunately, so we didn't need to find homes for any of this litter. Not a planned pregnancy... She was delighted when we weaned them early, being huge pups.
Grandfather Sam (born on the 4th of July) is an amazing dog, full of fun despite being ten now and always eager to work. Hand-reared from two days old, his mother Pan having died due to complications at
whelping, he doesn't let his love for us divert him from the other
important part of his life - ie sheep.
More on our dogs to come - check back later in the year for pictures
of them at work.
Our current cat population numbers just four. None are allowed in the house for long, being unreliable in the house-training department.
Instead they have comfortable beds in the porch, coming and going
through a pophole. (It was a proper catflap until one of our collies
decided to exit through it taking the plastic bit with her as a
girdle.)
There's elderly Proper, a blue-grey who came here as a wild kitten from town with sister Prim (long gone). He's 16, getting rickety on his pins and is totally deaf - though it's amazing how he picks up the vibrations of a food dish being filled. Still catches mice but has to suck them to death, being almost toothless. Talkative and friendly.
Chivers is a lovely plush sort of cat, a happy ginger fellow who delights in attention. Very laid back. His brother Hartley (they came from a marmalade mother) has gone AWOL and I fear he is dead.
Manxie is a fat little tabby with a stub tail, which she lost somehow in town when she lived there (somewhat careless of her).
Bossy and self-opinionated. When her previous owner was leaving the
Islands we traded a meal ticket for life (hers) for an elderly fridge
that we wanted... This has become an expensive fridge but she seems
happy with the deal.
As for Baldrick... well just read his Diary and judge for yourself.