A new face joins the Bedlam Farm lexicon, Mandi Mulready, who works at the Mansion Assisted Care facility, and is a great animal lover, has signed up to be our dog sitter when we are away. She knows Red and Gus well from their work at the Mansion, and she and Fate bonded instantly.
Blessedly, my dogs love people, I would not be comfortable any other way. I’ve known Mandi for months, and watched her work, she is conscientious, a hard worker, loving and reliable.
In just a few minutes, the dogs were all over her, and she wants to learn how to do some sheepherding with Red. We’ve also signed up Sandy Adams, a former teacher and a farmer (we get our hay from here) to take care of the donkeys and sheep while we’re gone.
I like splitting up the functions.
Mandi will stay over at the farm when we’re away, the dogs lives don’t really change much. For all the hysteria about separation anxiety – hundreds of thousands of American dogs are now being medicated for that – I have never had a dog who suffered from separation anxiety. Another benefit of early crate training.
Perhaps because I’ve never seen it, I don’t really believe in it, it is to me too often just another human neuroses we are transferring to our dogs because we can’t look at ourselves.
When we leave, we don’t have a big dramatic farewell, we just go. And when we come home, we just go about our business as if nothing has happened. Because we don’t make it a big deal, the dogs don’t know it’s a big deal, so they skip the drama.
Our dogs have never battened an eye or suffered a minute of anxiety.
Maria and i mostly take short one or two night treks when we can, this year we are going away for 10 days in October to New Mexico, our longest-ever vacation together. We are pretty cranked up about it. And we need it.
It is a great feeling to have Mandi and Sandy lined up. Mandi will get to know the dogs feedlng and sleeping and other routines in the coming weeks, and when I’m away on a trip, she can bring Red into the Mansion to visit the residents. Gus, too. Mandi has known Red for some months and seen him work. She was astonished at the farm yesterday to see the other side of Red, the herding side.
I have no problem with kennels, they are fine once the dogs get used to them, but I think this is easier for them, especially with two border collies and a puppy.
I’m showing her how to run the dogs in the pasture, it will be fun to teach her how to get Red to handle the sheep. It isn’t that we plan to go away a lot – we really are too busy to do that – but when we do, it’s great to have people like Sandy and Mandy around, we don’t have a thing to worry about and the farm and the dogs are in very good hands. It is a gift to be able to go away.
Mandi is a lot of fun, we are lucky to have found her, and the dogs are already on board. It took her about two minutes. They won’t even know we are gone.