Mark and I did consider keeping the stray, even though he killed a chicken, requiring us to tie him up. He's very responsive, and I'm confident we could turn him into an asset to the farm just like Lucy is...but it would take a lot of work. We had to give Lucy about an hour of training per day for a month or two before she turned into the well-behaved guardian she is, and neither Mark nor I feel up to throwing that kind of concerted attention at a dog while we're waiting for our first goat-kidding experience.

So, instead, we called two local vets and the animal-control officer and put up a flier in the post office an an ad on craigslist...but no nibbles yet. In the meantime, I've been grumpy because a tied dog makes me sad, and his presence also means that our shy cat only came inside for two hours Monday night before fleeing back to a dog-free zone. I never realize how carefully managed our farm is until someone inserts a monkey wrench and our systems all get twisted askew.

Mark and I have learned one very important thing from this experience, though: no matter how well-behaved a dog seems, it should be treated as a chicken-killer until proven otherwise. The next nice stray who arrives will be tied up immediately to protect our flock.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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