11/12/2025
Our Security System at The Rancho has been penetrated with the loss of our MooMoo girl!
She was hit by a car on Highway 180 early Sunday morning.
Without a doubt she died while guarding her family. Recently, she has been seen by the gate running off a coyote. A very large coyote that would come over from the north side of 180.
She was sweet and docile, but a fierce protector!
When she came to us as a 2 year old, she was 109% feral. She was born on our friend’s ranch in Cowhill.
They moved to Idaho so we adopted her into our livestock family! She was an excellent working dog and she was a daughter of Maui so it was a no brainer!
I decided to make it my soul purpose to make her my friend! It took a year. Then we moved to Weatherford! She wasn’t sure of her new surroundings but her livestock was there so she carried on as the guardian!
The process started by talking to her every time I saw her. Even though she kept her distance. Eventually, she came in closer.
When she had her litter of pups, we handled them daily. We kept her well fed with lots of meat scraps from home. This was her love language! She knew we were good and meant well.
After months of this, we could be in the corral together and she wouldn’t shy off. If I didn’t pay attention to her(although she was the center of my focus) she would move closer.
One day I reached over and touched her head. She jumped away and we had to work on trust again.
Over and over, moving in closer on her, pouring words of love on her and feeding her soul with left overs from our kitchen table she finally let down her guard and allowed human affection.
It took 2 solid years and a move to Parker County to get her to be my pet!
Bret and the kids worked on her too.
When Bret had to move her Welping kennel from the Ranch to Weatherford. He picked it up and put it in the trailer and she followed him in. He closed the door and then drove her through the metroplex to the new Homestead.
When he unloaded her, I swiftly went out and greeted her in the field. From that point on, she was always there.
When the sheep would have their babies, we would go out, my sister-in-law and I would move the babies into the barn to what we called the nursery!
We had a record number of twins and triplets that winter, and they all survived having the comfort of the stalls and MooMoo as the guardian.
When we decided it was time to not breed for guardian pups, we decided to have her fixed.
Bret was over at the Ranch, so my sister-in-law helped me load her in the back of the horse trailer.
For the most part, we just had to leave the door open, walk in and walk out to show her It was a safe place. Maybe 10 minutes later I put a leash on her and we walked her in and closed the door and drove her to the vets office.
The vets office has a back door where you can pull a trailer right up to and unload straight into a holding room. I’ve had to use that room more than once for these guardian dogs, but I’m grateful to know it’s there.
When we brought her home, we put her in the barn stall for a few days to love on her and feed her well. We eventually had to sell the sheep because there wasn’t enough rain to grow the feed.
Her job as a sheep guardian ended so she moved to our house and guarded us. She also guarded the neighbors horses.
She became the official greeter of all cars, UpS box trucks and Amazon Vans! She knew no stranger!
In the last month, she made me laugh every morning. I have my parents dogs here in the back kennel. She would do her morning walk and every time she arrived at the kennel, the dogs would bark at her as she walked by like she couldn’t care any less. I wish that I would have taken a video . Bret would ask me why the dogs were losing their mind. I would say I think Moomoo is on her morning “walk about” where she would cruise through the middle of the yard like she did daily checking all four corners of the family farm.
Last week, on the ritual morning walk, she brought an armadillo to Maggie’s Welping kennel(it was a fresh kill)!!! She did this often for every litter because she was the sweetest girl!
Needless to say, she will leave a gaping whole in our family! I feel less protected from the predators knowing she is gone. She was laid to rest with the Aussie Posse under the mighty oak in the front pasture.
Some dogs are irreplaceable! Moomoo is one of them!
🕊️ 🤍 🐶 🤍 🕊️
