I headed out this evening with the camera to see if I could find a "blog moment." (With 75 animals, someone is bound to be doing something!) But I was barely past our back door when I turned around and saw this scene: Blind Goldie, patiently waiting by the front of the house for Alayne to come in from the pasture. (Alayne was working with our horse trainer, Nichole.)
Goldie is one of our original "Seattle six-pack" of dogs who moved with us to Montana in 2000. She is always acutely aware when either Alayne or I am away from the house. She considers us "missing in action," like her pack is not complete. And she will sit outside until the missing person comes home, no matter how long it takes. Goldie would sit like this in the broiling sun for hours or in a driving snowstorm, if we let her. When one of us is out of town on a trip, Goldie will sit outside in this spot until one of us picks her up and carries her inside.
Bear in mind Goldie can’t see a thing, so it’s not like she’s looking at Alayne in the far-off pasture. It’s just her sentinel position, where she can be the first to hear a vehicle coming into our gate 1/4 mile away, or footsteps coming from one of the barns. She does this when one of us is in town at the vet clinic, leading horses out to pasture, or on the tractor doing chores. If we’re not both together, she’s not herself … and this is where you can find her.
She also won’t eat, and no amount of coaxing will convince her to focus
on food rather than on which of us is missing at the moment. But once the missing person comes home, look out! She jumps and dances and barks with joy, then plunges into her food bowl.
(An aside: Notice the metal conduit running along the wall? That holds the cable from the satellite dish. Last year someone — we never did identify the guilty party, although we have our suspicions — chewed through the cable. Now it’s in metal conduit. Lesson learned!)
(Click on photo for larger image.)
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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