St Patrick's Day

Happy Gotcha Day to Me

03/14/2024 by ladysmith@cowdogsadvice.com

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since I came here to my forever home! It was on St Patrick’s Day, just last year, when I was surrounded by my own bunch of Saints. Unbeknownst to me, a plan was underway that would fly me 820 nautical miles, from my kind foster mom who found me in the Arizona desert, to my foothills ranch in the northern Rockies.

These Saints volunteer with Pilots N Paws. It took three pilots and a determined coordinator, to overcome weeks of nasty Spring weather and finally put together the three legs to get me here.

I’ll never forget Crystal, Tim, Stewart, Chris and Jerome, and many others behind the scenes, who made this miracle flight happen for me. And to think they, and hundreds more, do this every day for dogs and cats that just need to get to a good home!

My year has been busy and exciting. I’ve had a lot of learning and growing to do – My doctor estimates I’m only a little over 3 years old right now.

Right away when I arrived, I found I had a well-stocked toy box all my own and several comfy beds.

I get big fresh bones and plenty of treats.

Before long, I took over any couch I liked too.

I found there were two cats who also called this home, so I had to learn to respect them a little. They are OK until they start racing and running laps at 3 am, and need a cowdog to herd them. But I’m not allowed to stick my very competent Heeler nose in their business!

Once in awhile I still try, but I know what “NO CATS!” means.

There was snow when I got here, and a couple big blizzards after. I love the winter here, rolling in the snow, making snowdog angels, helping feed, and keeping an eye on the many wild critters who visit.

I love the Spring, and found more mud than there is in all of Arizona I think! There were so many new smells as I ran the creek bottoms. I help from up on the four-wheeler much of the time.

I love the summer here, it was not at all hot like my former world. I played in the pond every day with the little boys who call mom “Grandma”, and get cool drinks, lay in the shade, wade and swim in the creek when we are out working nearby too.

I love the fall, when the hills explode in colors, the nights get cool, and the chickens go in earlier.

I put up with with the boys dressing me up, at least to celebrate freedom and Gotcha Day.

I was saddened at the end of this year, when my dad went home to heaven, and left me here to ramrod this place for him.

He always said he was glad I chose mom as my person, and I think it was because he knew that before long, she would need me a lot.

So I follow her closely, stare, practice my best coyote yip-yaps and howling, and give her every chance to play with me, pet me, hug me. There is nothing like a good dog to get a person through sorrow I say.

I ride along most of the time, and I know that this Sunday, after church, Mom and the little boy will take me out for a puppy cone, to celebrate my first year.

I think I’ll get a cake and a steak for dinner that night too!

So this St Patty’s Day, join me in celebrating my Gotcha Day too, and send out a prayer and a cheer to all those that make a day like that happen for all cats and dogs – shelters, fosters, volunteers, pilots, drivers, flight coordinators, adopters – you are all real saints!

You can read my Freedom Flight story here:https://cowdogsadvice.com/2023/03/introducing-redhawk-rose-the-flying-heeler/

A Cowdog’s Spring

03/17/2023 by ladysmith@cowdogsadvice.com

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It is March, and a Cowdog’s Spring! In fact, they say there are three official starts to Spring.

First, Solar Spring is high encouragement that things will turn around soon. You may still be knee-deep in snow, but you will at least have more daylight to enjoy. Most of the U.S. gains 15-20 minutes of daylight per week!

There is meteorological Spring that starts on the first of the month. This goes for 3 complete months, and makes historical comparisons easy for meteorologists.

Then we have the Astronomical Spring, in which the start and end dates of spring are based on the changing position of Earth in relation to the sun, causing equinoxes and solstices. In the Northern Hemisphere winter ends and spring starts at the moment of the equinox, which occurs every year between March 19 and March 21.

But there is also, and more importantly, a Cowdog Spring. Also known as Heeler Spring. Here, that can be crazier than a cat in a patch of catnip or a Heeler on the tail of a bunch of wild cows.

We are teased by sunny days in the fifties, only to wake up to a merciless winter again. March is the most capricious of months, mixing it up by the hour. It can be a wild swing of 50 degrees or more – rain, snow, ice.

This could be the start of gentle and gradual easing of an icy grip.

If I were a betting dog, however, I’d go with a few more feet of snow. Around here, March and April are known as the highest snowfall months. Just yesterday, on the verge of “wearin’ o’ the green”, we had a nasty blizzard!

Heeler Spring means new smells in the wet dirt and old grass. The sun melts out all kind of surprises, old treasures held in ice, now new.

There is poop, grass, old bones and even winter-killed carcasses. There are many gifts for the happy, active nose. It is the joy of NEW.

A Cowdog’s Spring means new footing, fresh breezes through my winter-matted coat, and sudden storms while I earnestly try to get through the snow that still buries my creek bottom and favorite pastures.

I don’t like the mud between my toes,

but sure enjoy a good truck ride, and I love more daylight!

Suddenly, all the outside comes alive.

Those infernal turkeys strutting, gobbling and fighting in my yard,

more deer shedding and begging for scraps of hay and chicken feed,

more eagles circling overhead.

To quote the old cowboy crooner Ian Tyson, ” Magpies ganging up everywhere!” It is the anthem of Spring and you can listen to it here: https://amzn.to/3HHFSLX

It is great to lay on the porch without freezing my old joints into stiffness, but still good to rest easy at night inside. Mom has seeds started all over now. Tiny green shoots promise tomatoes, peppers and flowers soon.