Farm Fresh Blog

There are mountains, and then there are The Twin Peaks - Judge & Jury.

Jury has the wide blaze and freckles. Judge has the narrow blaze. Judge is more verbal and protective. Jury hangs tighter with the flock and kicks Judge's butt at meal time.  This cute little passive face transmogrifies into a beast toward his brother when food appears. He is so food aggressive the little snot must be fed separately so Judge doesn't get a complex.

They are adjusting quite well to life here, and the farm is slowly absorbing them into the fold. They were raised with goats, and thus, they prefer the goats to the sheep.

The goats are not as impressed.

The Boyz are already stepping up to the plate and making an attempt to protect their goats (whether they need it or not!) A few days ago the pups discovered the Barn Cats. They sent the cats packing a couple of times, but one cat simply refused to stay gone. She would get just outside their 'bubble' and then encroach again on the other side of the water tank, just to spy on them. This simply would not do. Jury was more about staying with the herd, but Judge made it his mission to push that cat away from the goats. Once the cat was outside his 'bubble', Judge would back off and return to the goats.

I thought it was cute, but what happened next really impressed me. Judge had repeatedly chased the cat away from the water tank. At this point the cat was simply lurking in the brush on the back side of the tank when one of the goats wandered too close to the cat for Judge's comfort. (This particular goat is one of the two that have been battling parasites so she's in pretty poor condition right now.)

As soon as the goat got too close to the cat, Judge began to talk and worry that goat until she returned to the rest of the herd. Then he came back with her. It was the cutest thing.

The goat was not impressed. She was quite annoyed, but the important thing was that Judge made a decision, acted on it, and the goat followed his instructions. Today it is a barn cat, but next week it could be a bobcat. I hope not. Judge isn't ready for the Big League yet; he is barely the size of a bobcat now.

Fortunately for Judge & Jury, Briar is on duty too.