Della, our Black Lab that guards us

This is all about Della, who is our 2 1/2 year old black lab that is smarter than both of us and most other humans.

Here on the farm, everybody has a job and Della's job, which she does quite effectively, is to protect Susan and me from strange things and strange people. She does this with a menacing bark that is directed at anybody or anything that shows up unexpectedly (Fed-ex, UPS, etc.). Once we show we are friendly with the visitors, Della is their friend too. She is all bark and will let it fly from the porch but, so far, has not tried to bite or attack anyone. Also Della has so many faces to fit her moods and I think we know them all by now. That's the good side of Della.

The bad side is Della likes to chase deer and the deer lead her on long runs in the surrounding area. Once onto the trail of a deer she is relentless but never seems to catch a live deer.

Now the worst side of Della is that while on these deer chasing jaunts, she comes up on dead deer (carcasses) left by hunters after they have cleaned off all the useable meat (at least useable by us human types). Then Della has to bring her find home so we can share in her joy, so to speak. i think she competes with the black and turkey buzzards for these finds.

Well, last night about 3 am, Della, who sleeps in our bedroom on her rug at night) stirred and Susan let her out, presumably to take care of her bladder business. Then she returned about 4 and Susan let her back in. Off to sleep until daybreak. Then when we went out to feed the chickens and goats about 7 am, Susan cried out "Come here!" And there, under the walkway that connects the garage to the house was a full grown deer carcass that Della had drug up in the night. It was huge but obviously a hunter had cleaned it so what Della got was mostly ribs and a few bones, but the skeleton was still fresh and intact. Well, we promptly loaded it in a big black trash bag and put iut in the truck to go to the dump later. Only then did we realize how strong Della can be. It weighed about 15 pounds and the nearest hunting is probably 1000 feet away. She has been recuperating all day with more sleeping than normal. We're not 100% sure it was Della that drug this carcass up to the house, but if it was not, then we've got a bigger problem I suppose (Coyote, Mountain Lion, etc.) but this is not likely or Della would have had a fit last night (remember her guard role?).

Oh, the life of a dog! We love Della as do all of our 8 grand-children but sometimes she can be very frustrating. But most of you would kill for a dog as great as Della.

And to think we got her from the local Animal Protection Society! That's the place to go for good dogs. And that's Della's story for today. I'm sure that all her chapters have not been written.