Today in the orchard
At 6 AM this morning the thermometer on the back porch read —22F. Wow. Even the collies looked cold.
When we were kids (maybe you too) there was always someone’s house where everyone went to hang out. There was something about it. Fun. Welcoming. Snacks. Basketball hoop. Understanding Mom, etc. Well, we seem to have created the collie-version of that old neighborhood hang out. If you stopped over these days, you’d wonder why we had so many kids (Collies). Well we don’t. They just love being here. Currently we have three, though only one is “ours.” But they treat our home as their default hangout. They come over and don’t leave except when they all spontaneously start barking and then race off into the woods to chase the latest marauder. Most of the time, they lay around. Occasionally they pretend-fight. They line up dutifully for treats if you get close to the car and they think there’s a chance you are leaving on an errand. They love to go on walks with us. You’d think all three were ours.
Collies are the perfect farm dog. They’re happy to bark all night and do a flawless job at protecting orchards and gardens. They chase away the deer, raccoons, squirrels, even bears if you have them. We do though we never see them..because of our collies. (Porcupines are tricky. We have pulled out a lot of quills over the years.) Until we got our first Collie several decades ago, we’d sometimes have deer peeking in our windows at night. In many parts of Maine, it’s nearly impossible to grow an apple tree or a broccoli plant without a serious fence… or a Collie. (These are—I should mention—the Standard type, not the Border collies which are a bit too hyper for my taste.)
Collies have incredibly thick coats and will gladly sleep outside 24-7-365. They love to nestle up in a good snowstorm and make sure no one’s messing with our Black Oxfords. As mentioned, they often bark all night. That’s actually a good thing, although it can get to be a bit much now and then. When it is, we invite them in to sleep inside. We never reprimand them (after all they were just doing their job). Then we go back to sleep.
Collies welcome all visitors. They love everyone unconditionally. They don’t bite the UPS guy. Or FedX. Oh my word, what is there not to love about collies?
We’ve had a succession of collies over the years. We've always preferred females although I’ve met a number of terrific male collies so gender may not matter all that much. You might say, they are—in actual fact—the best dogs that ever were. This year one of our Collies moved on the orchard in the sky. Radar had been protecting the farm for a very long time. We miss her everyday. What great dogs.