5 December

Herding: Team Bedlam, A Place Of Uproar and Confusion

by Jon Katz
Team Bedlam

The sheep don’t have a chance, and I think they know it. Team Bedlam lines up every morning together inside of the gate, and just a few feet from the sheep feeder. Red keeps order, he locks onto the sheep and keeps them in place, rounding up strays and rebels.

Fate waits for Red to make a move, and then she charges the sheep, doing her out runs in tight circles that keep them together (that is, when they are paying attention to her at all).  Gus chases after Red, then Fate, and sometimes the sheep.

Once in a while, he will plant himself in front of the sheep and bark at them, daring them to move. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

Red keeps it all together, undeterred by the two crazy dogs running around him. Team Bedlam is formidable and chaotic.  People often ask me where the name “Bedlam” came from, the inspiration was from London, from a mental hospital once called Bedlem, which gave birth to the term “Bedlam.”

It means a place of chaos and confusion. That’s me, that’s us.

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