Mac the Dog Says

Hello. My name is Mac.

I am an Australian Shepherd Mix. I don’t bark much. I whine a lot. My owners love me. I got a rough start in life. I was supposed to herd sheep, but I failed at that. The people yelled at me.

I HATE loud noises. When dove season begins, I hear the shots far away before my owners. I also hear thunder before they do. I pull my leash to make it clear I wanna go back home.

When I moved in with my current owners I could barely walk. I was introduced to my doggy sister named Millie.

Millie ran everywhere. I finally learned to keep up with her, and then I could herd her! I had learned to herd another animal even if it was not a sheep, so I was happy and proud!

Millie was a Beagle Yorkie Mix. A Borkie or a Yeargle. Millie could be a bit of a brat.

Millie taught me a great game, though. She taught me to knock down fence posts and run to the front yard!

My new owners replaced those fence posts one at a time.

We moved to a larger house with a bigger back yard when my owners needed to care for their mom and dad. The new home had an iron fence with spaces between it.

One time I made myself two-dimensional and killed a raccoon two houses away. My owners were very relieved I didn’t kill someone’s pet. I never did that again. I am not sure how I did it!

Millie used her Beagle talents to dig under the fence.

After awhile I got tired of escaping. Millie still enjoyed escaping and running around the neighborhood. My owner’s parents used to get extremely worried when she did that.

Every morning Millie and I ran to the resaca behind our house. A resaca is a lake that used to be a river but is not connected to a river anymore, so it is a skinny winding lake.

I was so proud of my ability to herd Millie, and I always whined and let my owners know if she got out. Grandpa got so worried about Millie he almost cried. Millie always came bounding back, and she never told anyone about her adventures. She just looked at everyone with a gleam in her eye.

My owner’s mom always reminded her daughter to take us to get groomed. Our grandparents gave us a lot of treats! Grandpa used to say,

“No toast and butter for dogs! Then he would give us toast with butter!”

Grandma gave us lots of food off of her plate!

Grandpa also told Millie to take a ten mile hike! He never told me that! I don’t know if he was joking.

When our grandparents passed away, we comforted our owners.

One day, three months after our grandparents died, Millie got out. She ate something she should not have eaten. Maybe a snake bit her. No one knew. She got very sick. Our mom planned to take her to the vet in the morning.

She didn’t wake up in the morning.

I was so sad. I didn’t run to the resaca for at least a month. I hobbled outside for a month.

I finally adjusted by learning to herd the cat. She doesn’t run with me, but she does let me lick her and guide her every morning. She likes to spend the night outside.

I think she chases lizards and bugs . I prefer to sleep indoors, and I still go for daily walks.

I am about seventy years old now in dog years. I have more trouble jumping into the back of the car to go to the vet.

Once in awhile, I see a big bird on the resaca, and I chase it. I have never fallen in the water, and I’m gonna keep it that way. My mom got very excited this morning because I saw a pelican and I busted out running to that resaca! I still got it!

I am tagging Lu Skerdoo because Casey reminds me of Millie. It’s been two years since Millie died.

I still miss Millie a lot. But I am glad Millie is in heaven keeping my grandparents company who feed her toast and butter all the time now. And she can take a ten mile hike every day.