Miss Cleo says, "I would like to guard this farm!"
The Farmstead has another Livestock Guardian and we just couldn't be happier. Miss Cleo, short for Cleopatra because of her very dark eyeliner, came to us from Lifesavers Rescue in Yakima, Washington.
She is, from what we can decipher, an Anatolian Shepherd mixed with Great Pyrenees (as evidenced by her double dew claws). We kind of got a chuckle when we found them, since we already have Six the six-toed cat I guess it just makes sense we should now have a pup with double dew claws.
Sunday we made the trek to Yakima (about 6 hours round trip) to bring her home. When Turkish first met her he was all barks but very quickly she licked his little snout and he fell in love. Now he won't leave her side. So cute. She is also playing copy cat with him, when he barks at something she waits a few seconds then she barks too. This isn't something we worry about because Turkish only barks if there's something to bark at, so in our minds, he is teaching her what's okay and what isn't.
I asked a friend, who specializes in Livestock Guardians, how best to introduce them and she suggested a pack walk around our perimeter. We couldn't do the whole property so we did a small inner perimeter, between our forest and our "orchard" (I put it in quotes because it's the saddest orchard you've ever seen, only a year old but decimated by Mrs. Robinson). This is the same walk we started Turkish on. As she grows she'll get stronger, patrolling the whole fence line without even batting an eye but it's a process we'll work up to. I took a few photos of them walking together, and in every single one Turkish never takes his eyes off her.
Cleo hasn't had a formal introduction to the pigs, goats or sheep yet (although the sheep saw her from a distance and did their very emphatic hoof stamp, which they do when something doesn't meet their approval. They are so bossy!).
But she has met the chickens and we are THRILLED with how she acted...or I should say, how she didn't act. There was lots of flitting and floating as we were putting them away for the evening and she couldn't have cared less. Just kept walking, getting her bearings. You can see in the photo she's not making eye contact with them...we like that! Oh, and if you're curious, the pen behind is where we trained the little piggies how to respect hot wire (and also had them rototill the garden with their big powerful snouts). I should have cleaned it up already since it's now going to be for asparagus but {sigh} there just aren't enough hours in the day.
