“Bye. I’ll never forget you.”

 

Oh friends. They grow up too fast! I’m not even talking about my kids, because we all know they grow up way too fast! We just celebrated Pinecone’s 3rd birthday yesterday, but I’m actually talking about these little Great Pyrenees puppies that were born just yesterday! Or maybe it was actually 8 weeks ago, but those 8 weeks just flew by!

 

Now the puppies are going to their new homes. That was always the plan. We needed more livestock protection here, particularly for the sheep, but we knew that the other puppies would be sold to work on other farms and  provide security just like we needed. But, now they are actually old enough to go. And the first one did. Today.

 

Yesterday, we put 2 of the puppies that are staying on the farm with the new Jacob sheep that we just brought home. Today the first puppy to leave left. The farmer (that actually lives just about 45 minutes away) contacted us to inquire about a pup to be paired up with a dog that they already have working on their place. These dogs work great in teams and we had a puppy available. We labeled the puppy with her own ribbon collar when they went in for their first shots and we knew she’d be going down to Anthony’s Roots when she left here. This afternoon the Anthony family came to pick up the little girl.

Then it stormed. Crazy-don’t-wanna-get-struck-by-lightning-why-are-we-still-standing-on-the-front-porch-storm. The storm that makes you invite a family into your messy house (because you didn’t clean up from the birthday party-that only included grandparents and an aunt), but if it wasn’t storming then they never would have seen the kiddie pool that was used to rehabilitate a duck on the front porch that needs to be repainted that led into the house that wasn’t cleaned… But, it did storm and that family did come in and they did see the dirty dishes and they didn’t judge. At least they said they wouldn’t and it was good.

It was good because we chatted and the kids played and I was encouraged about blogging by a blogger and we talked about butchering animals and Andy offered to help, because he’s butchered them and then the storm stopped. So, it was time for the Anthony family and their new puppy to leave our farm and go to their farm where the puppy would be settling into her new role.

So, they loaded into their van and the oldest daughter yelled to our oldest son: “Bye, I’ll never forget you!” I realized later that this was a first for us. We’ve had a thousand firsts since we started farming and this was one of them. Saying goodbye to our first LGD puppy. I’ll never forget it.

XO.