For those of you have have working farm dogs and crazy friends, this story is for you.  Several years ago I hooked a friend of mine up with an out of state Border Collie breeder and she wound up buying an exceptional Border collie female named Niki.  She was everything you could ask for, she had trialed and done well and was a good farm dog. Just what Linda needed.  Niki was her constant companion and helped out on the farm on a daily basis.  But when the lambs started being born she was afraid that she might hurt the newborns and wouldn't use her (uch to my dismay).  Well Linda calls me one day and has a few sheep way down in the bottoms and bad weather was supposed to move in and she asked me to help her get tem caught up and put in the barn.  Well the first ewe and her lamb were pretty easy.  Then there was the other EWE and her ewe lamb.  After an hour of circling and chasing and trying to no avail to hem them up.  I told Linda just let Niki help, she is a trained sheep dog after all.  My stubborn friend refused to use the dog, so we tried some more......Now I was training horses a lot back then and had just goten off a colt to coe help her.  I did not have on runing shoes, I had on cowboy boots with a riding heel (for those of you who don't know what a riding heel is, it is a 2-21/2 inch underslung heel made to keep your foot from going through the stirrup).  Deffinitly not made to run in. Picture this a girl running wide open across a rough pasture field with the eqivellent of high heels on in hot pursuit of one very determined newborn lamb, ducking and dodging.  Then to make matters worse she spotted the black cows and (you guessed it, her mama is black) so she takes off after the cows.  The cows are running from this little black ball of wool and I am running after that same ball of black wool.  Surely a sight to behold.  The cows turn and I think OK I've got her now when she turns to follow the cows I leap and yep you guessed it she dodged and flat on the ground I go.  Up again and still ot on her heels, I manage to get her to the edge of the woods and bayed up around a tree.  I bet your are wondering where Linda was during all of this.  Wel she got the golf cart.  Now I'm gasping for breath and I am wodering the same thing.  I look up and see her hanging half way out of the golf cart laughing her head off with tears running down her cheeks, she can't hardly breath either (but not from runing!!!!!!!).  She finally asks me if I would like some help, yes let the dog work (Niki was in the golf cart!)  Of course she said NO!  In the mean time the lamb has gotten into the tall weeds and we can't even see her anymore.  While we are arguing over using the dog, Niki quietly got out of the golf cart unnoticed and just as quietly went into the weeds and brought the lamb right out to us.  Thank God that Niki felt sorry for us and brought that lamb to us or we probably would have killed each other.  Oh by the way the lamb and ewe were both fine.  Linda tried repeatedley to give me that lamb over the next year, we named her Marathon Runner and I constantly refused.  Well a few years later she traded several sheep to Oak Hill Farm.  Yep right there in the midst of those sheep was Marathon Runner.

http://lynn-moon.fineartameica.com

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