Just to Have a Friend

Early on, Gandy had a friend, Jessie–a 130 pound Golden Retriever–who came down for play dates every week or so. But she did something about a year ago that has made Jessie not willing to even get out of the Jeep when his owner comes down for a visit.

There was the neighbor’s dog, Feather–a wispy wavy-white dog of Gandy’s age and size that she did not tolerate. Let Feather show up along the edges of our pasture and Gandy aggressively drove the intruder home. Until a few months ago.

Since then, Feather is pretty much around all the time. She slept on our back porch again last night.

Feather followed a cyclist up out of the valley last Wednesday and did not come home. She was missing for three days, and Gandy was bewildered. We did not expect to see Feather again when we learned she had been seen on Daniel’s Run–one of the busiest  roads in Floyd County.

Saturday (we don’t know the full story) she came down the hill in the back of her owner’s pick-up. Ten minutes later, she appeared at the back door asking if Gandy could come out and play. And they have been tussling and running together ever since.