Today we had to say goodbye to Rowan. Rowan came to us as a package deal with his brother Larick and Mitch, other livestock guardians and our first goats. Rowan was okay with guarding the goats, but he did much prefer to come inside and guard Melisa. He has a much shorter coat than the other LDGs, so having him inside, especially in the winter time, wasn’t really a bad thing either. Unlike most LDGs, Rowan transitioned to house life easily and quickly.
Rowan really was a gentle giant, who loved any little critter. My favorite story about Rowan is from our time in Colorado. One day, the dogs were all outside and we heard a distubance, we went outside to investigate and the picture we saw made us laugh. One of the little kittens from the barn had crawled under the barn door in the the dog pen. A semi-circle of border collies and formed round the kitten and advanced only so far, as behind the kitten, with a paw on either side, Rowan was leaning forward, growling at the collies to keep them away from harming the kitten.
Rowan was around ten years old, quite an age for a giant breed, and had started having mobility problems that even pain medication was not helping him with, so it was a hard decision, but we had to let him go. The house seems so much emptier now.
