April 08, 2026, 12:36 PM
slosigHe seems nice. Let’s pet him…
Not too long after buying the ranch I rolled into the barnyard in the taco just as one was waddling out into a field. Started after him for a closer look. Went three strides, then ran back to the truck, grabbed the ever present square point shovel and took off after him again. Had maybe gone 50 yards from the truck and was closing on him, perhaps 10’ behind him, when he stopped, looked over his shoulder, gave a solid “Grrr don’t even think about f***ing with me,” and continued on his way. His face was black and white and he was quite cute. Having gotten the look at his face that I was after, I declared victory and returned to the truck. 
In the 26 years since, I’ve seen three more, the first two a gray and white one, and a red and white one (think the red like a red tri Aussie). They were both heads out of their burrows along a ditch beside a road in the back of the canyon, both cute as hell, and both easily pottable with the 228, but I figured live and let live. It was maybe a month between the two sightings and they were probably less than 200’ apart.
The third one was a few years later and wasn’t so cute. He or she was the carcass that was left over after Mazie (one of the female Anatolian Shepherd dogs protecting the goats) killified the heck out of it. I had seen the one (relatively nasty) scratch on the side of her muzzle and wondered where it came from a couple of days before. Looking at the claws on the carcass, she must have been darned quick to have not gotten torn up more.
