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Rosie the Guardian

While we peacefully sleep or work, she protects

By Laura LeitePublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Rosie guarding her flock of ungrateful feathered friends.

Rosie usually works nights and during the day she sleeps like the dead, but her charges are up with the sun and eager to see what they can get into.

The night is in Rosie’s blood, she is alert to the slightest smell and vigilant to the sound of padded feet stealing their way into the farmyard in search of a meal. At the sign of danger, she alerts the farmyard and lets the intruder know that they are not welcome. A warning bark comes first and then a growl and finally the chase.

I am sometimes awoken to the sound of her rushing by the house window in fast pursuit of a thief in the night. Occasionally, the bark changes and I know she has something treed or cornered. That is when I groggily don my glasses, shoes and depending on the weather the needed layers and wander out with flashlight in hand to see what is happening. Other nights the bark is frantic, and I am jolted from my sleep flying out of the house with flashlight, shoes and hopefully my glasses, calling her name to make sure she is ok. Some nights her chase takes her bark far from home but if I hear her, I feel that she is ok. There have been many mornings when she didn’t come home, and I was combing the countryside and contacting neighbors to assure myself of her safety.

Rosie is my business partner, guardian, and best friend. She has been with us since we moved back to the family farm and actively keeps chickens, goats, ducks, cats, and calves alive. In addition, I often catch her watchful eye on me. When someone comes to the farm that she doesn’t know, she will often stand between them and myself and the stranger, at other times, she intently watches my face to make sure I am okay with the person and not in distress.

She may not be in the house with me, but she is the ruler of the barnyard and makes it possible for me to work inside and to have farm fresh eggs from free range chickens and ducks.

Although, she would rather sleep during the day, she instantly alerts to the scent or sound of the daytime predators. It amazed me one day to see her alert to a bald eagle that had decided to look over his morning buffet of chickens enjoying their breakfast. Rosie ran to the tree and barked at the Eagle which led to me, the crazy human running outside waving my arms and screaming like a banshee, it has been mentioned that it is a good thing that we do not have neighbors.

One day, during daylight hours, I heard Rosie’s upset bark as she ran out near the goat pen. Her actions alerted me inside the house and her urgency brought me out to see what was happening. A baby goat had gotten her head stuck in the fence in such a way that she couldn’t breathe, and Rosie knew she was in trouble. Her quick action in getting me outside saved the little goats life.

Rosie can be seen sleeping with a kitten on her back and as I walk by, she will give me a look of, "I would move, but I can’t disturb the little one." When I bring Rosie her morning vitamins and bone, she will carefully eat them, not moving, so to not disturb the kitten that has adopted her as a warm bed, her patience is remarkable.

The chickens and ducks are safe day and night because of their exhausted, always alert guardian but they still steal her food and walk over her when she is sound asleep, not respecting that she gives her all for them. We have decided to add a couple more employees for Rosie to train and to hopefully take on enough work to give Rosie a rest and more protection for her ungrateful feathered friends.

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About the Creator

Laura Leite

Just a farm girl that loves to write about and photograph our beautiful strange world.

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