Crocket’s True Purpose
Crocket, my 150 lb. Anatolian Shepherd Livestock Guard Dog is finally guarding. What’s so unusual about that? He’s been living on our farm for 4 years without guarding anything but his food and pasture he lives in, next to 3 Great Pyrenees he plays with when he decides it’s time to play and for how long.
My husband and I answered an ad for 2, 6-month-old Anatolian Shepherds and what we saw when we visited the farm they lived on was indescribable. Crocket was living in a small mud laden kennel with no water or food bowl and a too small plastic house with no bedding in the middle of an Ohio January.
The livestock he should have been guarding were acres away from him and he craned his neck to see the goats, his laser focus turning only briefly to us as we spoke to him. There was a moment his eyes met mine and the sadness I saw in his dark eyes literally took my breath away. I had to get him out of his frozen Hell regardless of whether or not he would ever guard for us.
The young female dog, Caramel, had been pampered and made into a house dog; the children of the family taught her tricks. It was likely both dogs were ruined for guarding but we couldn’t leave them behind, their owner was planning on breeding them soon and Caramel would have likely not survived having puppies since she was so young and so much smaller than Crocket.
Livestock Guard Dogs have a window of opportunity — an age when they learn how to guard from their parents or another older experienced dog. Both of these dogs were way past that window. They most likely would not guard for us but leaving them behind was not an option.
We immediately had them altered before Caramel could become a mom, but it was very clear she was not in any way interested in guarding so I found her a loving home as a pampered pet.
Crocket had some issues including food aggression and general problems with sharing anything close to his pasture. He’d had nothing for so long he was on overload just having a food bowl. He was going to take some time and lots of hard work before he could even become a decent pet.
Years passed and Crocket was living happily in his own pasture guarding nothing but his belongings, pasture and surroundings. Until a month ago when I went out to find Crocket in the pasture with the other guard dogs — I have no idea how he got in with them — and some sheep who were frantically running from their idea of Cujo. I immediately put him back in his pasture and within a few hours he was in the pasture with the dogs and sheep again.
Terrorizing my sheep is never my goal so I decided to put Crocket in another pasture with 3 very calm sheep who would more likely accept him. It took a little time to introduce them and get them comfortable with each other, but it worked. It actually worked. It was one of the most unbelievable things that had evet happened in the 18 years I’ve been blessed to work alongside Livestock Guard Dogs. I would call it a miracle that a non-guarding dog finally decides he’s a guard after 4 years.
I guess that makes Crocket a late bloomer and I can personally relate to that. Alot of my life I’ve had an idea that there was one purpose for my life — one true calling. I didn’t know what that calling was so went looking in many directions to find it, only to come up feeling empty and frustrated.
I now believe that we can have many callings over different seasons of life depending on where we are and our life experiences. Instead of spending time being frustrated about my calling, I have learned to embrace what God has for me now, in this moment — who I can touch or what my purpose is in this moment. To be present in the present without worrying about missing an elusive purpose. God will make sure I don’t miss it.
Crocket has taught me that even if you don’t find what you were made for right away it’s ok. That when you get sidetracked you still have a purpose and it’s also ok if you never figure out the grand design and purpose for your life.
God knows my purpose and I believe now I am finally able to let go of my preconceived ideas of what that is.
All because of a rescue dog named Crocket.
Jackie Deems copyright 2021
