Spike
Puppy School graduate. Observes first. Soft pressure. Dry comedy. Can overthink.
← Home
The farm story
Meet the Mount Mee herd
Spike thinks. Suzy explores. One looks. One sparks. Both work.
Spike and Suzy used to eat shoes — not one shoe, the pair. They were kelpie pups with more job in them than house.
Now the job is the paddock: ten Cap-10 heifers, one announcing bull, sheep, goats, chickens, quails, and two dogs who take the work seriously (and still steal socks).
The dogs
Suzy
Never Puppy School. Explores first. Discovers the gap in the fence. Needs the closeness after.
The bull
Little Thunder
He does not herd. He announces.
He stands on the stump and tells the herd the grass is the best grass, tremendous grass, the finest grass anyone has ever seen. The grass is, in fact, the same grass. While he announces, the kelpies do the actual work.
Cap-10 cattle
Each heifer carries her capital on her forehead — locked looks from the Character Bible.
Canberra
Australia
The steady one. Keeps the herd walking in a line.
Harare
Zimbabwe
The sun-chaser. Always looking for greener grass.
Beijing
China
Patience is power. Waits, then one clean step.
Tokyo
Japan
The quick one. Darts between the herd before you blink.
Moscow
Russia
The stubborn one. Will not budge without a very firm stare.
London
England
The polite one. Queues patiently at the gate.
Denver
Colorado, USA
The sturdy one. Built for the high paddock.
Paris
France
The stylish one. Fussy about which grass she'll eat.
Nairobi
Kenya
The adventurous one. Leads the herd to new fields.
Manila
Philippines
The neighbour. Stands just the other side of the fence.
The rest of the yard
Goats · Boer · 5
Five Boer goats. Marmite is the mostly-white one; the other four wear the usual red cap.
Sheep · 9
Nine sheep who follow whichever sheep is walking, even if it is lost.
Chickens · 12
Twelve chickens. Pavlova is the white one and behaves as though the whole yard is hers.
Quails · 42
Forty-two quails. One personality between them: leave. Then come back. Then leave again.
Guinea fowls · 2
Siren screams first. Alarm screams because Siren screamed. Nobody knows why either of them screamed.