Well I love talking about my dogs possibly even more than I love talking about my horses! This is a LONG one, but I have to shine the spotlight on our rescue, Sadie, this week. We brought Sadie home from a local shelter at the age of 9 months. She was very intelligent for her age, but had WAY more energy than we could accomodate living in town. Her previous owners had been abusive so she was torn between wanting attention and being afraid to get too close. Many times, if she would sit down at all, she would sit just out of arms reach from us. She's mostly huskie and blue heeler so that makes for a very smart, fast, dog with a lot of endurance. She drove us nuts for a while causing trouble because she had no job. We moved to the country a few years ago and got a puppy that she loved to play with and dominate. Sadly about 4 months later the puppy ran out in front me one night when I came home and before I even knew where she was I hit her with the car and she died. Sadie was upset, I was upset, my husband was upset that we were both upset so we got a new puppy. Enter Dooley. He's not smart, but he's a great cuddle buddy. Poor Dooley is a bit lacking in the brains department so Sadie made it her mission to herd him. Anytime we come home she runs him from the front fence all the way up to the porch. She also herds us up and down the driveway when we are coming/going throughout the day. We got into horses a couple years ago and Sadie was delighted. She quickly became friends with my horse Masi, but Dooley wasn't smart enough to stay out from under her feet so we adjusted the fence to keep them out of the back pasture. Last spring my huband got a horse, Rosie. This meant taking up more yard for pasture so the horses and dogs were together part of the time. Any time they would lay down Sadie would go out to investigate and bark at them to get up. Once or twice she helped us run them from the front pasture to the back pasture, and they spent a lot of time chasing each other around.
Sunday I opened the back door to let the dogs in to feed them. Sadie looked like she was in work mode and was looking out into the pasture, very concerned. When Dooley started to come to the door she did a half whine, half bark at him and he ran back to her to look at the pasture. Putting on my boots out of obligation to make sure everything was ok I went out to look, just in case. Masi was up in the shed which isn't unusual. Rosie was standing at one of the feed spots and at first I thought she just had her leg cocked, then I saw her face. I could tell something was not right. She's normally very happy and bright eyed, she was tense and upset. I squished out through the mud and when I got to her my heart sank. Her back left leg was fractured just below the hock, so severely that is had punctured through her skin and nicked an artery. I went and got my husband and while we were waiting for the vet to come Sadie laid by the water tank, watching us and Rosie intently with her head on her paws and a sad look in her eyes. She looked defeated. Rosie was struggling in the mud and Sadie and Dooley ran up to the fence on the other side, but by this time I knew the vet would be getting close and I didn't want the dogs upsetting Rosie so I put them inside. After poor Rosie had been put down and loaded onto a flat trailer we let the dogs back out. When we were leaving with her, Sadie tried to jump on the trailer and as we were pulling out of the drive way she let out a distressed bark, a bit like a scream. We were having Rosie disposed of when my neighbor called to say the dogs had gotten out of the yard. Sadie hadn't broken through our invisible fence in over a year. I filled my neighbor in on where we were and she said, oh they must have been going to visit the horses down the road. I figured out then that Sadie had tried to follow us. We normally go the opposite direction when we leave home. When we got back she sniffed all over the trailer and came and sat by me on the porch, seeming very dissatisfied. I gave her a hug and told her she did a good job that day, and that it wasn't her fault. She let us know something was wrong and as a result Rosie didn't have to suffer very long. Sadie licked my face then came inside for a nap. Later in the day my horse whinnied loudly and Sadie went running to check on her. The dog that was once so destructive because of her pent up energy and lack of purpose now has a job as herd dog. I must say I'm glad I have her looking out for the horses. She's a good girl and her first owners never deserved to have her.