Brisket and Barbecue

We haven't written about our new livestock guardian dog, a great Pyrenese named Brisket. Now Barbecue has a friend. Well, sort of. We literally rescued Brisket from this asshole in the city where we live... I couldn't believe the way this man was manhandling the tiny puppy who was not only shaking with fear, but infested with fleas, sticker burs and who knows what else. Mike looked at me and kind of gave me a 'do we really want this dog' look.. to which I replied by opening my eyes really wide and shaking fervently. The man was asking 75 for it and we gave it to him and got out of there. I feel like we did our good deed in rescuing this puppy. The dog smelled of oil because the man had kept it in what looked like a horse trailer that held some kind of old fire engine in it. The water bucket was at least a foot taller than the poor dog and the food was scattered everywhere. The man picked the puppy up roughly when he showed it to us. The dog just seemed so helpless and terrified. It would take a few months before it trusted humans again. It would take a few weeks for the poor dog to realize that the container that held his dry food wasn't edible and how to eat out of it. I just feel like kicking the bastard that sold it to us. REALLY hard.

Then we got it home and tortured it by giving it a bath and flea treatment and combing the sticker burs out of it. Poor thing.

But Brisket we have for livestock only. Barbecue seems to want to protect only us. Brisket stays in the barnyard while Barbecue stays in the front and back yards. It works. Except when they both want to keep us up at night by barking non-stop.

The photo shows the poor dog with Eight, a goat without horns that Brisket seems to be very fond of.

I saved Brisket from the brutality of Nine the other day because I heard a yelp in the barn and went to check it out. Nine was in another stall and Brisket was in the corner of one. I put him into the middle of the barn, he went across the way to yet another stall and Nine followed him, then just began to bash the living hell out of the poor dog into the wall behind it. Brisket hasn't forgotten and steers very clear of Nine and her kids right now. When I saw Nine ramming Brisket into the wall, I pulled her goaty tail and swung her around, yelling and screaming at her. STUPID GOAT! But then again, Brisket has to learn which goats play nice and what he can get away with. Soon, he'll be as big as they are and they won't mess with him much. I can't hardly wait for that time. For now, we will take care of each other. Brisket lets me pet him, now, something he hasn't risked for many moons.