Thanks Matt. I'm blessed. I have four nice looking (and nice) shepherds.
Got my first dog ever, at 65. Don't know what I'd do without them now.
KC was my first true shepherd. We got him from the humane society when he was just under 6 months old. He was a stray picked up in another part of the state. He showed his appreciation everyday. He was scared of loud noises (thunder, lawn mowers, fireworks,...etc). I think that as such a young stray that he must have been terrified.
He was actually my daughter's dog. She chose him and paid for him. He got to be my wife and my dog 3 years later when my daughter moved south to pursue her equestrian competition dreams. He became my wife's shadow which is the shepherd way of showing the world who their favorite person is, but I was a damn close 2nd. I retired for the last time 2 years ago and we were tight ! Both dogs and I went to the park everyday for a mile plus walk....rain or shine (Tilly joined us in March 2022), the older ones had seemed to have tired of the 3 acres they have under Invisible Fence. Their home domain included a pine woods, apple orchard, creek, the barn (with horses), and the yard. Now you would think that would be enough, but they found great joy in the walks and all the good scents.
KC loved apples and if the horses nudged a piece out of their feed buckets...KC was there almost before they struck the floor. His favorite thing , in the world...besides being with my wife, was to go in the orchard and grab a fallen apple. He would trot down to the yard to eat them, in the same spot. That is where I buried him. As he got older and less capable of the long walks, I shortened them, but added a walk around the perimeter of their boundary line. I had started buying bags of apples so he could have them everyday. The other pups like them enough, but KC loved them !
I am guilty of spoiling my dogs. If they rode around with me to run errands, I would buy a slim jim beef stick. I would peel it back about 2 inches at a time and they would gently take their bites like that until it was gone. KC, probably due to his past as a stray, was very food oriented. My wife channeled that by getting some brain teasers where you hid treats and he had to figure out how to get them. He was a master right off the bat. We had to get tougher and tougher ones, but he made them look easy.
KC had a love of all living things that was a joy to behold. He never hurt a fly, well maybe when they bugged him just a little too much. He never bit any animal or person, never even seemed to have crossed his mind. All of our cats would snuggle with him because he was big and warm. He always barked when he saw wlker, joggers, and bikers go by our property. He was just doing his job. No malice, just letting folks know it was his property.
When we had horses, he used to herd them to the barn from the pastures for every meal. That was really cool, but I worried he would get kicked or trampled. Thankfully that never happened. The horses were really calm around him in the barn. He would go in their stalls and check on them. They would stand easy and sometimes touch muzzles with him.
Anyway, I could go on and on and on with KC stories. I will spare everyone that...this diatribe is long enough, but I have to thank everyone for all the thoughts and prayers. Writing these thoughts of my boy KC has been a real cathartic for me, and I have only welled up a couple of times.
Thank you all and God bless you for the kindness in my hour of need !
