Farm Fresh Blog

I stared at it for a moment in stunned silence. I looked up at the house and back down again. No doubt. Nope. Ten dogs is not too many dogs . . . .

It snowed last night. This added another dimension to our morning patrol.

Each day after I feed the livestock I take the dogs for a walk so they can spread their scent along the predator side of the fence line.

Today our patrol started out as great fun for all of us but soon the dogs got serious.

Afraid we'd run into a pack of wild hogs, I called the dogs back. We returned to the house where I locked them in kennels and went inside for breakfast. A hour or so later Other Half and I fed the cattle and the horses some more groceries, and then we went to check the deer feeder at the blind near the pasture below the house.

I whipped out the camera to photograph tracks in the snow.

The more I looked, the more animals I found. And all was well until I found this:

That's a cat. That's a cat the size of Briar. I can only think of one cat around here the size of a Great Pyrenees.

Yes, a cougar. A cougar was within shouting distance of the house this morning. The cat was uncomfortably close to little Melvin.

The cat was also pretty close to where the dogs and I turned around and went back, where I walked alone into the forest with six dogs and no gun.

No, ten dogs is not too many.