Unlikely Friends on the Porch

Just the guys, staying out of the rain.

Moses and Samson are livestock guardian dogs. They are littermates of an Anatolian Shepherd mom and Great Pyrenees dad. They spend most of their day out working. Adding them to the farm has been the single most effective thing we did to protect our birds from predators (well, them and the motion-sensitive flood lights that can be seen from space).

When it’s rainy, at feeding time and whenever the humans are ‘setting’ (southernese for an evening non-active activity) on the porch, the dogs are content to spend some time there. But the minute the gate is opened they go running back to their stations eagerly. Moses has a big crush on Lima Bean (one of our Highland cows) but Samson prefers the goats. They both could do without the cats.

Wilkenson, our Muscovy duck, loves the porch. When that gate opens, he stays put, finishes any dog food they didn’t eat and waits for the next time the dogs come back so he can be one of the pack. Unlikely friends, but friends.

I guess he figured out that if you can’t run with the big dogs, you stay on the porch.