I have just a second to jot down why King wasn't at the fence when the coyote episode lead to Jeremiah being outside in his underwear holding a loaded shotgun in freezing temps the other morning.
The day before when Jeremiah was leaving for work we saw King up near the road. This time of year without leaves on the trees, we can see much of the road. Jeremiah said the dog was up near the road and of course I freaked out and sternly told him to come to which he obliged but somewhat unhappily.
I've come to learn that LGD's have a mind of their own, or at least this one does. Not that most animals don't but I've been told LGD's can be somewhat stubborn and take a firmer hand but that's part of why they are so smart, at least with King. He's obedient, though somewhat unhappily at times. Butters was just an idiot. Not that we didn't love him and not that he wasn't a kind idiot, we tried and tried to get him to stop running, in the end, that was just Butters. But aside from that and back to my story, I called King back and Jeremiah said he had a bloody paw. By the looks of things, I figured he was eating on something.
Sure enough, no sooner than I put him in the garage to deal with the morning, Jeremiah called from the road in the car to say a deer had been hit and was laying in the ditch. That's not uncommon at all. Uncommon thus far to have one hit in the front yard, but dead animals are a pretty common site along the road.
At any rate, I knew if I put him back in the goat pen he'd just get back out so what's a girl to do but drag the dead deer carcass to him? So, that's what I did and he was happy. If you'll remember right, King needed a new home, which is how he came to us, because at his last owners he was visiting the meat locker in town. I had gotten him a bone a couple of days before but why would a bone be good enough when he had a whole damn deer at his disposal?
That was the night of the "Gunpowder and Lead" episode. I drug the deer into an "open" pen so that he could chew on it without the goats getting to it. It wasn't that I thought they'd gnaw on it, I just didn't want them to see their fellow kind lying dead and disemboweled. Sorry, maybe that's too much information.
I know what some of you are thinking, you're letting the same dog who is eating on a deer live amongst your goats??? Well, yes, yes I am. What can I say? Obviously he knows the difference and it's not like he went out and killed the deer. He was just getting some good eats.
And some of you may also be thinking, "OH LORD, SHE DRUG A DEAD DEER TO THE BACK FOR HER DOG TO CHEW ON??" Yes, I did that too. What else was I supposed to do? I wasn't about to bury it. It's good meat, our dog wanted it, and it's not like I killed it! So, why be wasteful!? Perhaps I'll need to flip the "Trashy People Live Here" sign back because we were doing so good for so long. What, with me hanging laundry to dry on an actual clothes line instead of our cattle panel back yard fence-never mind that it's sunk into the loamy soil so far that the jeans drag on the ground and the fact my boys still pee in the yard and now we had a whole dead deer I pilfered off the road and drug into the back yard for dog food!
Now that that's out of the way- I had shut the gate partially enough to the (renamed "dead deer") pen so the goats probably wouldn't spend the time trying to squeeze though but the dog could. It ended up that he got locked into that pen and so the morning of the coyote sighting the poor guy was locked up and best I can figure he knew where his carcass was, he couldn't get out so why bother barking? I don't know if that's true. I do know he coudn't get out. I know I didn't hear him and I know that's why he didn't come when I called. Maybe he thought he was in trouble and should mind his P's and Q's. I can't say for sure. Hell, maybe he was way out back, I don't know. What I do know is he was locked in that pen when Jeremiah and I went out once we were dressed.
What I can say is that yes, he's naughty for getting out to get the deer, but we can't stop that. Seriously, we really can't. Even if we put up a block wall around the whole entire property, he'd get out. It scares me that he goes up to the road but I can only hope that he has enough good sense, and he seems to, to stay the hell off of it. If not, what else can we do? Chain him? What good is he then and what kind of life is that? So, in the end King will do what he wants. He knows where he lives, he's not a jumpety dog who runs everywhere he goes and so we hope for the best. It's not as if he spends every night out...he's just curious and while he has gotten out of the pen, it's normally because we're on the other side and he just wants to be with someone other than goats who have disdain for him and babies that like to jump on him. Do you blame him?
Anyway, I can say without a shadow of a doubt he's a good protector. We've had coyotes here every night/morning and he's sent them on their way. Jeremiah has gone out a number of mornings to do some population control only for them to be gone by the time he was dressed and ready to go because of King. A couple days ago the dang deer smelled so bad Jeremiah and I drug it out of the pen to the back 40, hauled the trailer out there and have plans to do a steak out. I think the trailer has kind of thwarted our efforts because I haven't heard coyotes in a few mornings until this morning when I got Jeremiah up again at about 4:30 AM to go out with the gun but King had chased them off, literally. He got out of the pen and chased them somewhere out back. They were close this morning again too. By the sound of it, probably out back by the deer carcass so not as near as the back yard like the other day but still, they don't need to be here. They can go eat someone elses cats...or goats.
All of this sounds like we're on high alert with these darn coyotes. To be honest, since getting King I haven't felt at all afraid for the goats...well, except the one morning when I was woken from a sound sleep and can't hear my dog! He's there and he does his job well..except when he's not and he isn't...you know? I know I can count on King...except when I can't :o)...unlike all the other stupid dogs in the neighborhood, to alert me when something's there because he only barks when something is. Or at least I assume. While the other dogs are yapping away, he's gone quiet. He knows. And while I don't have a problem initiating some population control on the coyote population, I also don't feel we have to either because the goats are safe. So, at least for today, the coyotes will live another day.
Yesterday morning around about 7:45 while I was in the milk room he started in barking and running to the east fence, I looked out and saw 4 deer jumping across the pasture to the north. So pretty much, he hates coyotes and deer. He knows the difference too between domestic dog and coyote...it's uncanny.
So, that's that. We're back to being trashy, our dog does well when he's not locked up with a carcass and being outside in your underwear before it's light out and freezing makes for a good story.
The end.
We sat and watched the quilt auction for a while- beautiful work! We looked through all the garage sale goodies and found some fabric and embroidered vintage napkins. Rachel found a pink 1950's apron. 
It was a lovely spring day. Spring is finally here. We made it through the first winter. Phew!
