January 10th of this past year we lost our fur-kid, Miller. He was an outstanding dog - half Border Collie, half Kelpie. He was an one year dating anniversary gift from my husband in 1995 and purchased from a cowboy at the CA Mid State Fair. I can still remember the little boy who walked with us to see the puppies out in his stock trailer. I had initially chosen a smooth coated female and was satisfied until I saw a fluffy little guy sitting over by himself in the corner staring right at me. It was then I changed my mind and never looked back.

Miller was an extremely smart dog, knew many tricks and even would lead my horses from the barn and pick up my keys and carry them if I dropped them or place them "in my hand". I completely trusted him around all of my animals. He was my best friend for so many years. This year he was celebrating his 14th birthday. He is sorely missed and left us with some mighty big shoes to fill for our next dog
A few months later, I researched livestock guardian dogs (LGD) on the internet and found a breeder who had one older puppy available. She was raised/imprinted in the goat pen with her mother and some neighboring chickens. Marc and I drove to Tehachapi, CA to meet our new puppy. She was so fluffy - and bright white. At only 14 weeks, she was about 35 pounds and already quite an arm load to carry!

We soon settled on naming her "Tonka" and these past few months have been an absolute delight! She is so smart, already mastering commands such as "sit", and "go" (which means away from me). She is already trust worthy and super friendly with all the animals - only chased the chickens once to try and play with them but they were not too impressed with a 50 pound puppy galloping through the chicken coop! She is best friends with Misty, the baby Nubian goat and working to be accepted by the older goats.

The rabbits are completely used to Tonka greeting them in the morning. We have a routine. This past week I was sitting with a litter of weaning English Lops, out in a 6x6 converted chain link kennel. The gate was partially open as I was sitting with the babies. One of the babies was being curious and wandered about half way out of the gate when she was greeted by a lolling Tonka who gingerly nudged her with her nose back into the pen. Tonka then backed up (I kid you not) and used her nose to swing the gate closed! This left me speachless. Tonka loves coming inside in the evening after a long day guarding her "flock". Her favorite toy is a stuffed bunny and she currently weighs about 75 pounds! Its a real TREAT when she decides to climb into bed at 2am! lol.