Watching

Holly has been hyper-vigilant lately. We're hearing the coyotes moving around and howling a lot at night......maybe teaching pups to hunt? Not sure. In any case, Holly is on the job. A few days ago, I opened the gate to what we call the outfield, hoping the adult ewes would go over during the daytime and graze. Our fields have suffered from the drought and are looking pretty sad right now. The outfield has not had animals on it since back in the early summer, so there is a lot of grass there. Holly has been very uneasy about the sheep being in the newly accessible field. The first few days after I opened the gate, as soon as the ewes would wander over and start grazing, Holly would round them up and force them back into the other field. The outfield is bordered by woods and a creek and eventually turns into cliffs overlooking the Kentucky River. There's a lot of wildlife traffic on that land, so I know Holly is just doing her best to protect her sheep. (which is what I remind myself when she wakes me up barking at 3 am!)

(I love this image. The ewe has her head tucked right into Holly's chest. There's some comforting going on here, I'm sure of it.)