On Boudica

I think there is something outside, and by “something,” I think it might be a skunk. Boudica wants to go back outside, but Ron just made her come in the house because she was barking like a wild dog. The way she’s barking, we know something is out there, but she has a track record with skunks of late. She was stinky for weeks this fall. Another time, she didn’t really get sprayed, but it was a close call–and she was a little bit stinky then too.

She’s usually so level headed, but there is something about small mammals that makes her go wild.

I don’t know what I would do without her taking care of me. She is the first guardian dog I ever owned (and I hate that word for her), and I have been in awe of just how much she works, how much she knows, and how much she takes care of all of us. Sometimes, I think she thinks I can’t care for myself, and I am pretty sure she knows I would be lost without her. I hope that makes her determined to stay.

There is something not right with her, and she has an appointment with the vet in a couple of weeks. It’s the earliest appointment they had. I hope it’s just arthritis, but it’s been a year since her last check up. I know a lot can go wrong in a year.

She’s also been extra close to me for the last couple of months. I have been extra close to her. At night, when she is finished working on the farm, she will sit with me on the sofa while I grade essays. I pet her often and try to massage her legs where they might hurt. She has been slower to get up, and we decided we should probably not take her on long walks anymore until we figure out what is going on.

As I type these words, I am so scared, and I both want her vet appointment to hurry and get here and also to never get here. I want to know it’s just arthritis, and hopefully, the natural meds I bought for her will be all she needs. But, of course, I am so worried there is something bigger wrong. I won’t think about it right now though. My heart can’t handle it.

Still, Boudica’s slowness reminds me that she won’t live forever. She will be 9 years old this year, and I know she’s getting up there. But since she was about 2 years old, we have been cooking for her, so she has eaten really well most of her life. I learned some years ago that the Great Pyrenees, who still live in the region where the breed originates, live several years longer than the Great Pyrenees in the U.S. Some of it could be genetics, but breeders speculate that it’s commercial dog food shortening their lives. In the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France, the dogs are fed the same food the people eat, and they live longer.

So I am going to be hopeful, and I felt like sharing with you some of my favorite things about this amazing girl…

1. She wakes me up every morning with heavy breathing in my face. I always give her pets and then tell her I need five more minutes. I don’t know if she’s really gone five minutes, but she goes away and comes back a short time later. If I start talking to her, I get the Pyr Paw, which kind of hurts, so I get out of bed.
2. The Pyr Paw is famous amongst Pyrs. When you pet them, they pet you back, but they don’t have as much control, which means sometimes you just get bonked. Boudica has bonked me so many times, but only one time did she make me cry. She felt terrible, and when you cry, Boudica has to get right in your face to check on you.
3. Boudica is a magnificent livestock guardian dog. She understands aerial predators, and not all livestock guardian dogs can do this. Big birds are on her list, and she will chase them away. The only bad thing is the dove who visit our feeders are a little borderline for her, and she sometimes chases them away for good measure.
4. Boudica does a lot of things for good measure. She is so much like me and is a “better safe than sorry” kind of person. She worries about things and is cautious. We are sisters. We are soulmates.
5. Boudica loves organic shredded wheat cereal, like loves it. When I have cereal for breakfast, Boudica gets a bowl, and somehow, no matter where she is or what she’s doing, she knows when I am getting cereal.
6. And speaking of knowing, Boudica knows things. For years, I wasn’t sure if she just had an amazing vocabulary or if she was reading my mind. I now know she’s reading my mind. Temple Grandin says animals communicate telepathically in pictures, and I have come to understand what this means. Boudica also knows when things are about to happen–and that’s something I can’t figure out. But when my son used to be in the local orchestra, Ron would take him to rehearsals every Thursday night. I would stay home with the dogs. I started to notice that Boudica would start barking several minutes before they would pull into the driveway. I finally started timing her. When the barking would start, I would note the time, and I learned she was barking 3 to 4 minutes before they pulled into the driveway. I decided to time myself driving home and realized it takes about 3.5 minutes to get to our driveway once you turn onto our road. Our road is long, and it’s about a mile and half from the turn to our house. Boudica knew when they turned onto our road. How? I have no idea. But, one time, I was watching a nature documentary about wolves, and I saw a female pack leader, who was leading the pack on a hunt, suddenly stop in her tracks. She stopped the whole pack right in the middle of a hunt. Two miles away, there was a bison dying of old age, and she changed directions and led the pack to the bison. Two miles! Those are some superpowers. Boudica has some of those.
7. Boudica is a great teacher. She trained Gus how to be with the chickens and ducks, and she trained Bairre. We help her, of course, but she did most of the work.
8. She is getting a little grumpy in her old age, and since I am in menopause, I understand this deeply. We are grumpy about the world together. Both of us are frustrated by people doing things that just do not make sense.
9. She has been like a third parent to our son. Truly, she helped raise him. When he was little and would go outside to play on his own, Ron would tell her to “watch the boy,” and she would never leave his side. Now, when our son leaves to go on walks down the road, she barks at him when he heads out, griping at him for leaving her jurisdiction. She watches the road until he returns.
10. She’s so soft and fluffy that I could snuggle her forever. I have tried many times to get her to sleep with us at night, but she just won’t do it. Ron says it’s probably too hot for her. She does sleep in the coolest spots in the house. Of course, she doesn’t sleep, sleep. She works. I have heard her sleep, sleeping during the day though, and she has the cutest snore you have ever heard!

I wish I could think of more. I wish I could think of some way to convey how magnificent she is, how special she is. But you probably know. You probably have a friend like her who is also magnificent and special.

Boudica has been one of the best things to happen to me in my life. I have to remember how lucky I am to have the time I have with her. I don’t deserve her, but I swear, I try to, every day.