Miss Matilda

MEET MATILDA

Matilda, 3 1/2 months old

I have to start off saying that we never thought we would get another dog BUT now I believe Matilda was meant for us.

The story of Matilda begins when we first went to Salem Farms to pick up our boy goats Brady & Bruschi.  The kids were off playing with the baby goats and as Jamie & I are talking to the owners, out of the barn comes a little puff ball of white fur.  I immediately looked at Jamie and said where is Hailey?  Pat, the owner, told us Matilda was spoken for which was a good thing because she would have probably been Hailey's if she wasn't.  I called Hailey over and told her that she already had a family but she can hold her.  So for the next hour Hailey held Matilda and carried her around.  Below is a picture of what Matilda looked like that day.

Hailey with Matilda, 5 weeks old

We went home and got a call from Katie, owner of Matilda, a few days later saying that Matilda was now available.  I told her to go ahead and contact the next person interested in her because I thought Jamie would not want Matilda.  He was afraid she would scare deer off the property.  Later on that night I told Jamie about Matilda being available again and how I told Katie no.  Surprisingly he started talking about the benefits of having her here.  We decided to go ahead and get her if the 2nd person who was now coming to look at her decided no.

Matilda at 5 weeks old with her mom, Moonshine

We got an email a few days later letting us know that she was ours.  Jamie & I decided to keep it a secret.  We wanted to surprise the kids.

Hailey with Matilda, 3 months old

We got to see Matilda again at 3 months old, see picture above.  We went to the farm to pick up some hay.  Hailey still didn't know at this point Matilda was ours.  It was so nice to see them together.  I'm not sure if Matilda remembered Hailey or if Hailey is a dog whisperer too, she's also a goat whisperer. But Matilda came right up to her and sat down and spent quite a bit of time with Hailey becoming fast friends.

Friday, June 10th. Pat & Katie delivered our 5 girl goats to us along with Matilda and the secret was reveiled.  Hailey almost cried and then gave everyone hugs and continues to say thank you for Matilda even now, days later.  Drew said thank you also but I really think Matilda is going to be Hailey's dog.

Hailey, Matilda & Drew

Matilda is a new member of the family now but she is a working dog.  Her breed is a Great Pyrenees.  Most people down here call her a LGD.  This means Livestock Guardian Dog.  Matilda will live with the goats 24/7.  She will always be with the girls and babies to help protect and guard them from any dangerous predators like coyotes.  She is already doing her job well,  I have witnessed her walking the perimeter of the pasture.  She will also get up and move closer to the girl goats if they start grazing too far from her.  Where the goats go, she goes.

Matilda with all the girl goat babies

It's only been 3 days now and Matilda is doing well.  We did have a little set back with Matilda killing 2 of our chickens.  She was raised around chickens but not as many as we have.  We were told that she will protect the coop also so we had connected the chicken yard with the goat pasture.  Some of the chickens were in the goat pasture with Matilda and we think she thought of them as a toy.  She wanted to play with them but with her not knowing her own strength ended up killing it. This one was a meat chicken. Then her instinct kicked in to eat it as she will clean up anything that would attract a predator.  We closed up the opening and unfortunately somehow the next day she got another chicken, this one a layer.  The layer chickens are older and are able to fly, we think the layer flew over the fence and Matilda got it.  Last night Jamie & I put up some extra fencing and are keeping a close watch on Matilda today.  Soon the meat chickens will be butchered and we will only have the 5 layers left for over the fall and winter. The biggest thing we keep trying to remember is she IS a baby and as we all know ANY kinda baby gets itself into trouble  We are hoping with less temptation with the fewer birds and maturing over the fall and winter that she will eventually leave the chickens alone and we will be able to open the connector again.  Only time will tell.