Let me tell you a story about a special dog we had. He’s been gone over ten years now, but he was brought to mind recently when my #2 son and his wife were planning a move. As they were packing, he found some old pictures and shared them with the family.

(with my last Sheltie, Artie)

Years ago after we had moved to Washington (I can’t believe we’ve been in the Evergreen state for  twenty-five years already) and our last big dog passed away, I was looking for another family watch dog. We had three young sons and were living in the mountains surrounded by wildlife so this was an “essential”.

I’ve always loved the herding breeds for their intelligence and trainability. At that point, I wanted a medium sized, smart, family dog. After doing some research, I was leaning towards an Australian Cattle Dog or ACD (sometimes know as blue heelers or red heelers). They are not the type of dog for the average person and surely not the first time dog owner. They are a working breed and need a job or an active family to keep their mind and body stimulated.

I looked around our area and ended up finding our pup at a local home. He was smart from the start! And oh so cute! We named him Jack. It seemed like a strong, boy name (and might have been partly influenced by our reading of Little House in the Big Woods. Laura’s dog’s name was Jack).

The boys loved him. We all did. And he kept us on our toes with his energy and smarts. He would retrieve for hours if you had the energy. Hubby used to use a baseball bat to hit balls out into the horse pasture so Jack could go get them. He’d bring them back and the game would start again.

Over the years he was the best watch dog, protector and family friend. Our boys grew up with Jack.

Two special times stand out when Jack proved his loyalty, courage and devotion to our family.

The first time he was still young, probably about a year old. The kids were still small and we had a new foal from my horse and our chickens. We heard him doing a persistent barking and found him at the bottom of a tree looking up. The tree was only one hundred and fifty feet from the house. We followed his gaze up the tree and found he had treed a mountain lion! We had to call the tribal game warden to come get the kitty out of the tree after we pulled Jack off and took him in the house. There was no fear in that dog.

Another time I was home with the youngest son. Hubby was at work and the older two were probably at school.

We heard Jack doing a persistent, urgent bark. So we ran out to see what the matter was. Our horse are kept in with hot wire fencing. A deer had likely crashed through the fence and knocked it down on the north side. (The north side of us is just dense woods with a thick layer of pine needles on the forest floor). The hot wire had sparked a fire and Jack was barking to alert us! If he hadn’t it could’ve taken off and become a huge forest fire. We were able to grab buckets of water and a shovel and put the fire out before it grew too large.

Sadly, Jack developed a tumor on his liver later in life and we had to say good-bye to “the best dog in the world”.

But he is one for the books and will never be forgotten! <3

I found an artist on Facebook that did an amazing picture of him🥰