Time is just flying by!

 Sorry for not answering the comments.  I haven't even looked at this since I wrote the last post.  Quinn, I hope your wether is ok.  I haven't ever had that happen with any of my goats. 

I still haven't added any pictures on my computer.  I just haven't been in a blogging mode at all this fall. I will try to be better next year.  Hard to believe it's the end of the year already!  Christmas is a week away!

On a sad note, we lost Rocky, our other guard dog in October.  Here he is with Cinnamon, his best buddy, and Junior, one of the other kids.  Cinnamon hung out with him more than the goats, and she really didn't know what to do when he died.  When I went out to feed that morning, she came out of the stall where he was yelling and yelling, telling me he was gone.  I went in there, and sure enough, he was laying there dead.  He went downhill pretty fast.  He had an enlarged heart, something myocardiopathy.  We did get a new puppy, but he's got a long ways to go before he'll be a guardian. Luckily, the neighbors rescued an older Great pyr this summer, so she's been keeping the predators away all along their property line, which is the direction the predators used to come in from. Skippy only 6 months old. I don't have a picture of him on here yet.  He's a Grand Shepard, a mix of Anatolian, St Bernard and Mastiff.  He's a fawn color with more of a st bernard face.  I have him in the yard instead of in with the goats.  Instead of just being with the goats, I'm going back to having a "property protector", so he'll take care of everything.  Like Nellie was.  He's already been attacked by the adult goats.  The kids he's wanting to chase some, so that is not good. It took Cinnamon to stand up to him and butt him in her little way before the adult goats would stand up to him.  They ran at first.  The dairy goats still run from him, they haven't had any guard dogs over by them since they have a barn that can be closed up.

Dealing with a puppy is a lot of work!  I haven't had to do that since Rocky and Cloud 9 years ago. Skippy is a fast learner and knows the word no pretty good.  He also sits on command.  We're getting there, but this next year will be interesting. I hope we both survive!  Skippy is going to be a huge dog, he's already very solid and heavy.  He crashed into me trying to get away from one of the goats while we were in the pen feeding just before Thanksgiving, that bungled up my knee pretty good.  It's finally good enough I can walk normally and weave and spin again.  Still a bit painful, but it is improving slowly but surely. Now I keep an eye on him all the time, since he's not the most coordinated beast yet.  Although for his size and age, he's somewhat graceful at times.

Well, I hope everyone has a good rest of the year, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  I'll try to be more consistent in posting next year, and include lots of pictures, but who knows.  Time goes by so fast, it seems it's a couple of months between postings!  Who knows what next year, or even the rest of this year, will bring.  Hang onto your hats!