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Registered: June 2005
Location: new york
Posts: 1439
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City Girl turns City Clicker, by Jeannine De Palma (C)06
Well what a adventure, I took a local cow poke from these here parts went from Niagara NY to Flint Hills VA , to pick up my new herd of sheep.Rare Karakuls that originate from the same area ( Central Asia), time (oldest sheep - oldest landrace of dogs) and color( black mask, tan, gray, brown,goldish , white being rare) as my Central Asian Shepherd dogs.
The mapfinder said 8 hrs we made it with a great sunny day in 7.5 to the bottom of what I call a dam mountain _outside of Flint Hills
Driving thru NY, PA, MD, WV and then VA. Great views loved the ride. Was all down hill and kinda looked dangersous at nite so
my driver Dave said " lets go my way on the way home" well that was a big BOO BOO.
Back to the story the mapfinder directions turned hay wire at the hill. No correct way to get up that mountain +the person we are meeting simply could not help us since it was more of a dirt road thing.
We made turns that made my heart skip a beat, then we went up a section of rolling hills that I finally said screw it and started acting like I was in a rollar coaster ride. Mind you we have a huge horse trailer behind us so the push of wind at the bottom of each hill was hard. We ran accross old VA plantations - truth is pictures and movies simply dont hold a candle to seeing all this in person.
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We finally found our dirt road after being on 3 of them so tight we barely could fit the truck. the peak of the hill is where the sheep and my dogs were.... As we drive up the dogs FF Bam Bam and FF Hallie run up growling following the truck on their side of a wel fenced hot wire pasture.
I get out and Bam Bam ( Coz x Ali 03 litter) is giving me the evil eye, Hallie who is only 5 months old remembers me in one second.
But im smart i dont reach thru the fence cause Bam Bam is waiting for that he is testing me. So i put on the sure thing the JD PUPPPIES call so loud - it rings a bell in his eyes after one minute he is like hey you old grandma i remember you its only been about 2 years since we have seen each other. At that time he goes to gate side and says mom let me out to see her...
He just body checks me in the knees and wants some kisses, a Coz thing. I am amazed how big he got. huge bone biggest ive seen Coz produce, big chest , narrow lite head which is why he is neutered a pin head of sorts. . Now i got both of them on me i was so happy to see my babes. Which is the main reason why I dont sell outside of the USA, im a very selfish person when it comes to my dogs _ I want to see my babes again.
Now on to wrangling 7 sheep., First I get the 250lbs ram Ivan , she says take control grab him by the horns, which i do & I wrap a lead around his neck, im like this is easy , they are smaller than my horses and bigger than my dogs..
He decides to lay down and forces me to pull him up to the back of the trailer I get him in using parts of my body I did not know still existed. Dave gets me out the side door and the ram _rams the door so hard sending dave back a bit he barely gets it closed before Ivan would of got out.. Now on to the 3 Big Adult Ewes, about 100-150lbs each , they make us rope them, which until that day would not known I could do.... THe first one is passive and does the lie down thing too , okay but now Ivan wants out and we got to get her in, I had to climb out the top of the trailer .. Now that they are paired up they chill a bit. The next one makes us chase her around and around I rope her and she bucks like a wild pony, I was having a ball.
You see if my friends could see me now, here the song in your head yet? I was a Brooklyn girl with Big hair and makeup was a requirement daily to take out the garbage, with long nails and new clothes. Here I was with no nails in a jeans and boots wrangling sheep..... As I go back for the small girls the new babies 1 sheep jumps 5 ft into the air and messes me by a inch.
I was amazed how high they could jump.... Now all of us are trying to catch the babies 1 Ram , and 2 ewes barely a few months old. This I looked like a fool Dave got 1 MID AIR. his cow boy _ ness comes in handy ....
All 7 are louded up , I take some great pics of my dogs..Went there also to check on his Avid chip, since he is being transferred with some sheep down the road to a Ailing Akbash who is 10 and is starting to lose sheep the the coyotes for the 1st time.
FF Hallie is going for some Lgd training with a younger Akbash. Chip still there and redid the reg part .
Both of the dogs were so bonded with the sheep it amazed me one golden eye acts like a dog and follows the dogs and not the sheep. Hallie Is too young to be left alone since the older Akbash is too old to keep a young lgd in line.. And Bam Bam is needed out in his new job. Its hard for a pet owner turned breeder to make these choices on working dogs.
But he looked so happy in that field, and I offered his owner that I would help transport him to her when she sets up her new farm out in the MI way, as long as they get him off that dam mountian and meet me at route 66..
He is too big to be crated , and dont trust anyone with horse transport to move him so I will make the trip take him here for the day and move him out west.....
If he gets killed WORKING that is what they were bred to do, I have to just accept this. and understand they are happier working then being just a pet. They need something to guard and a owner who understands that be it human sheep or land.
My working dogs seem to have jobs despite divorces and things that go wrong in the human family.
All it takes is a good breeder to help a working dog and his owner find WORK a JOB. .Where the pets are just disposable it seems when things fall apart.
And most of my show dogs sold well are not taken care of - killed, dumped etc.
Well any way the trip home will be referred to as the Nite from HELL., In which I tried to remember the lords prayer & did .Dangerous, getting lost, not having finding a open diesel station, ( 225 bucks in gas) because my cow boy friend wanted to take the back road which lets just say kinda changed since the last time he ventured in these here parts.
The 8 hr drip turned into 12 hrs, got hom at 6 am left VA at 5 am with a dinner at Victorias in VA ( great cooking).I was up 24 hrs drank 5 Double shot Starbucks and was so happy i was home safe i almost could not fall a sleep.
Got the ram out and the girls just followed.
I love how my oldest dog could smell them from in the house and she cried and took off like a bullit for a 9.5 year old I was impressed. Started to observe pack behavior in the sheep the leader is not the ram but a female I call Blaze who stomps here feet to test the dogs. I took out the one I expected to FAIL with the sheep 1st, my Tasha whose grandparents were the russian lines NOT used for LGD work and whose parents never worked. SHe did great not growling and remained curious the sheep tested each dog i intro'd.. Today is their 1st day out in the fields so im off ot make sure they find comfort in the new home.
And I am totally excited with my new venture, and will spend the year getting ready for next years livestock fairs.
Showed dogs for 10 years now its time to show sheep..Learned what i needed about how to show a lgd , made great friends, networked and won some ribbons for my ego . Now onto something new.
FoxFire Central Asian Shepherd dogs and now Karakul Sheep
http://www.planetmolosser.com/gallery/data/544/babamscratch_myback.jpg
http://www.casdog.com/photopost/data/669/ffhallie_withsheep.jpg
http://www.casdog.com/photopost/data/670/ffworkindogsbambamhalliecasdog.jpg
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