THE BEST SHEEP
DOG IN THE DISTRICT By Gerard O'Neil
Spot was an adorable fluffy puppy. Everyday the farmers children
spent hours playing with her and provided she ran after them, returned their
silly stick when they threw it, didn’t pull out the ribbons they put in her hair,
she was treated like a princess.
Life was one great uncomplicated ball until one evening Spot’s
mother her children around her and said:
“In the next few weeks most of you will be ‘chosen’ and taken away by
men, never to return to the farm again. You aren’t to despair however, as one
day you will all receive ‘The Great Reward’.”
A few days later ‘The Great
Selection’ process began. Men would arrive, point to one of Spot’s brothers or
sisters, hand over some money, bundle them into a cardboard box and then drive away.
One day a man arrived and pointed
to Spot.
‘Not that one,’ the farmer said.
‘She’s the children’s favorite.’
‘But she’s just what I’m looking
for,’ the man replied. ‘I’ll pay you an extra 50 dollars for her.’
‘No sorry,’ said the farmer.
‘70 dollars more,’ said the man!
‘No sorry,’ said the farmer.
‘100 dollars more,’ said the man!
‘Well…’ said the farmer. ‘If you
really want her that much…. (Just then the farmers children arrived) …but I’m
afraid she’s not for sale.’
The man selected one of Spot’s
remaining sisters and went on his way.
‘Well girl it’s time to end your
holiday and return to being a sheepdog,’ the farmer announced to Spots mother
soon after the “Great Selection” process was over.
‘What’s a ‘Sheepdog’ Mum,’ Spot
asked?
‘A sheepdog is a highly skill dog
trained to look after the world’s stupidest animals - sheep. If you can make
just one sheep do what you want them to do, the rest will follow!’ Your training begins tomorrow!’
That night Spot was so excited
she had difficulty sleeping.
At 4:30 am the next morning farmer called all his dogs
together. They were so excited. Everyone
except poor Spot that was, who was so tired she could hardly keep her eyes
open.
At first light they set off. The
farmer rode on his horse in front and the dogs ran beside. Well in reality: in
front, some times behind, sometimes backward. Any excuse: the finding of a
bird’s nest, an unexplored hole, a feather etc. was a reason for an unscheduled
detour.
After a period the farmer
stopped, got out his binoculars and surveyed the hills. High above them he spotted
a group of sheep. He whistled a few times. Everybody began barking excitedly
and then they were off running, each claiming they would reach the mob first
and boasting that they were the best sheepdog in the district.
‘Not you Spot!’ ‘You stay here
with me and learn,’ said the farmer.
During the next few hours Spot
witnessed an amazing display of communication between man and beast. Via his
binoculars the farmer controlled the whole operation. He directed the dogs
using a serious of long whistles. They rounded up small groups of sheep and organized
them into larger mobs. When all the sheep were together they then brought them
off the hillside and into the yards. Soon
after large sheep trucks rumbled up and were loaded. Once full they set off in
the direction of the freezing works in the city.
As the weeks passed, Spot learnt by
watching the older dogs at work. Then one day the farmer took from his knapsack
a special dog collar. It had a battery attachment and a radio antenna. Spot was initially delighted as she thought
it was some type of Walkman similar to that she had seen the farmer’s children
using. She had delusions of being able to listen to music while she worked. She
was sorely disappointed however; as she soon discovered that the device was in
fact a piece of training equipment used to control direction.
‘If you run in the wrong
direction,’ the farmer explained, ‘I’ll press this button here on my remote
control. It will give you an electric shock.’ ‘See,’ he said pressing the
button.
Spot let out a yelp of surprise
and pain.
The first few days with the collar were very
unpleasant for Spot. She lost count of
the number of times the farmer pressed his button, but after a period she
learned that if he whistled a certain way, she was to run to the right. If he whistled another way, she was to run to
the left.
With the passing of the years
Spot grew into an experienced and respected worker and eventually replaced her
mother as team leader. Spots mother for her part quietly went into
well-deserved retirement. She often spoke of ‘The Great Reward’ that would soon
be hers.
One beautiful spring morning Spot
woke up to discover her mother was no longer there. She never saw her again.
Spot didn’t feel sad however as she knew her mother had gone to receive that
which she had waited all her life for!
Not long after Spots mother departed
an event occurred that would prove to be the highlight of Spots long and
lustrous career. The farmer and his dogs had been causally moving a large mob
of sheep towards the next paddock. When the sheep approached the open gate
however, the lead sheep for some reason only known to her, refused to pass
through and in stead turned back. Other sheep followed her lead and soon there
was an immense confusion of sheep going in all directions, except through the
gate. A whirlpool of sheep began to form. Round and round the flock went, only
as more and more and more sheep joined, the inter cycle of the whirlpool
tightened and the sheep in the middle began to suffocate. The farmer and his
dogs leapt in to action. They climbed over the backs of sheep in order to get
to the center of the whirlpool. Once there they tried desperately to redirect
the sheep towards the gate. Their efforts were in vain however. As the pressure
in the middle increased, more and more sheep began to fall down and be
trampled. It became obvious that the situation was rapidly getting out of
control and that a great disaster was about to occur. Spot was in the thick of
the action, pulling sheep this way and that. Trying desperately to get those
that had fallen back on there feet before it was too late. At one point Spot was forced to stop for a
moment to gasp for breath. When she did so her attention was drawn to strange
dog standing off to one side observing the confusion. A few seconds later a Spot
recognized the strange dog as being her mother.
Spot’s mother spoke: (her words floating crystal clear across all the
noise, confusion and dust), ‘Remember sheep are the world’s stupidest animals.
Just get one moving in the right direction and all the others will follow!’
No sooner had she spoken these
words than the sheep Spot had been standing on moved. She looked away for a
split second and when she looked back her mother had disappeared. Her words
however still rang in Spots ears.
Ignoring the protests of her companions and the desperate pleas of the
farmer, Spot abandoned the battle in the middle of the whirlpool and raced for
the gate. Once at there she grabbed the nearest sheep by its ears and dragged
her though the gate. Then she grabbed another and another. As more and more
sheep entered the next paddock an amazing thing began to happen. Other sheep
saw those already in the neighboring paddock contently eating grass and decided
to calmly to pass through the gate too. The whirlpool began to slow its deadly
rotation and then stopped altogether. Where the center of the whirlpool had
been, fifty dead sheep lay dead or dying on the ground. The farmer didn’t seem
to notice however as he wore a grin from one ear to the other. Fifty lost sheep
was nothing compared to the prospect of loosing 3500 sheep as had seemed
imminent a few minutes before. When Spot returned home, the farmer gave her a
huge plate of dog biscuits and an emotional huge. The story of Spot’s feat
spread throughout the district and she even had her picture on the front page
of the local newspaper. The headline read: ‘Sheepdog Heroine Saves Flock!’ For some time afterward everywhere Spot went,
farmers would congratulate her and slip her a special treat when her owner
wasn’t looking.
There comes a time in life when even the most loyal and willing sheepdog
reaches retirement age. Spot knew her time was fast approaching, as she could
no longer keep up with the younger fitter sheepdogs. Then one day the farmer
simply said to Spot: ‘Stay here beside me in case there is an emergency and I
need to call on my best sheepdog.’
The other younger dogs were
impressed by this and as they ran be begin mustering they boasted amongst
themselves that one day they would be just as good a sheepdog as Spot was.
Initially Spot had been very disappointed with the prospect of not going
off with the other dogs but she soon learned there were compensations. When the
farmer demounted from his horse he called Spot over to sit beside him in the
shade of a large tree. After observing
the other dogs through his binoculars and seeing that they were working well
without supervision, the farmer took out from his knapsack a hot water flask
and poured himself a cup of tea. A moment later he reached inside his knapsack
again and this time drew out a handful of dog biscuits which he give to Spot saying: ‘These are for the best
friend a man could ever have!’
‘Perhaps this was the ‘Great
Reward,’ Spot thought.
The farmer began to reminisce
about the past: ‘Remember 7 years ago before the children went away to
university in the city..’ As the farmer
talked, for the first time Spot realized, that like her, he was growing old
too. Age was catching up with them and there was nothing they could do about
it.
As the farmer continued to talk Spot became
drowsy… She began to dream. She was a young dog again mustering sheep on some
far off hillside.
‘Time to wake up old girl,’ the farmer said. To Spots surprise the other
dogs were already waiting to go home, and the last loaded sheep truck was
kicking up a cloud of dust as it rattled down the farm track towards the city.
Spot couldn’t believe she had been asleep for so long.
From that time on Spot never again needed go with the other dogs to
round up sheep. Every time she began to follow the other dogs the farmer would
say:
‘Stay here Spot in case there is
an emergency and I need to call on my best dog to resolve the problem!’
Time continued to pass until one day the farmer simply didn’t call Spot
to go to work. In fact Spot was never called again. She was able to sleep until
she wanted and unlike the other dogs, she was never tied up and so could wonder
where ever she pleased. Occasionally the farmer’s children would return from
the city with their children and they would try and make Spot play with them.
They would throw a stilly stick but Spot felt under no obligation to retrieve
it. In fact Spot felt under no obligation to do anything. She spent her days
sleeping or resting or daydreaming. She relived over and over again the
highlights of her life and when she slept she transformed into a young fit
sheepdog again!
One day the farmer called Spot and said: ‘Well Spot its time for your
“Great Reward”.’ All her life Spot had waited for this moment. Slowly she
gathered up her weary bones and followed the farmer in the direction she knew
her mother had once gone all those years before. Despite her tiredness Spot
felt a tinge of excitement. After a while the farmer stopped and indicated some
a huge plate of sheep’s liver. Liver is the equivalent to caviar for dogs and
is extremely tasty, but there is a catch. Once eaten it has the same effect as
poison and so it is never given to them. All her life Spot had wanted to taste
this dish.
‘Eat as much as you like’, said
the farmer!
It was delicious, no fabulous, a taste Spot
had never experienced before. She ate and ate and ate! When she couldn’t eat
another mouth full she fell into a blissful and profound sleep.
‘Hi Spot!’ said her mother. She
was years younger than when Spot had last seen her. A mother at the peak of her
physical condition.
Spot looked at herself. She too
had been transformed and looked just like the photo that had once appeared on
front page of the local newspaper all those years ago.
‘I have come to take you to
receive your “Great Reward”,’ her mother said. ‘Come with me…’.
No comments:
Post a Comment