Murphy is a Hero!

Yesterday, while talking on the phone to Mama, I looked out the living room window and saw two cows standing in the yard.  This situation is always an effective conversation stopper.

Our former neighbor still keeps a few cows in our lower pasture and they occasionally find ways to get out and have a bit of a stroll around the place.  Sometimes it's a broken fence, but today it was an open gate that somebody appears to have left open. 

Bruce (bless his heart) was off on a bike ride, so I was on my own getting them back into their pasture.  Sometimes, when cows are in a frisky mood, they enjoy playing a game called "Outmaneuver the Stupid Humans."  Herding them then, especially single-handedly, involves a lot of running around and cussing as they joyfully bolt, scatter and crash over and through everything and anything in their paths. 

Luckily for me, though, these girls are pregnant and were only interested in chowing down the horses' hay flakes that Bruce had stacked in the cart the night before. 







I was able to ease them off into the direction of the open gate, which was just down the hill.  Just as I was congratulating myself that this was going to be a piece of cake,  they got stupid and took off -- right past the gate and along the fence below the house.  I grabbed a stick and the running and cussing commenced as I tried to head them off.

And then...

From out of nowhere, enter my own fuzzy knight errant:

      Murphy the Wonder Pup!

Without any hope of him actually following directions (he's never worked a cow in his life), I yelled, "Hold them, Murph!"  And he stopped and did.  He never moved a paw as the cows calmed down and I worked myself to block the other side.  Then I softly called, "Ok, Murph, let's get 'em." I think that the Border Collie half of Murphy kicked in, because he glanced over at me to see what I was doing.  Then he began moving towards them, step-by-step, just like I was. 



Murphy is just behind the center post



And, just like that, both cows calmly walked through the gate and into the pasture with Murphy right behind them.

Most excellent little dog!