There is a dog in the Witzer family who can lay a large claim to the culture of our family today. Ever the epitome of "forever young," he was laid to rest on Friday July 14th, at almost 14.5 years old.
Being on the west coast, with the Witzers on the east coast, events like this don't hit as hard as they would if I were knee deep in with everyone else. But they still hit hard, and I shed some tears for Buddy, for Emili, and for the rest of my family. He was one of the sweetest, most intentionally friendly dogs I have ever known. He was smart and cuddly, sassy and dopey, loving, loving, loving, eternally loyal, and everyone's best friend. He desperately wanted to be a lap dog, despite his larger size, and constantly got as close as he could to you just to sit on your feet. He loved car rides and going on adventures in the woods/creek/hills with Emili or anyone else who would take him. As he got older, he would often fall asleep in Emili's car when it was parked in the driveway- his happy place. In his younger and older days he would sometimes wander off on his own, to be found by a neighbor or stranger, and whoever called the phone number on his collar always made mention of "how sweet and friendly he is, take your time coming to get him." Despite having some issues with chasing (and, well, sinking his teeth into) small animals when he was younger, Buddy came out the other side of a middle-life health issue friendlier to all living things, and could then often be found eating his food or napping alongside a newfound chicken friend, Harriet.
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| Buddy and Harriet |
Buddy was a gift to my sister Emili for her 13th birthday. He was picked out at Jack's Dog Farm, not too far from where my family lives. Emili went with the intent of picking out a female, but she left with Buddy, due to the uniqueness of his one white leg and paw. Buddy happened to be a mix between an Eskimo dog and a Border Collie- and that is where our story really begins.
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| brand new Buddy |
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| puppy Buddy making new friends |
Of course, when you get a 13-year-old a puppy, much of the work falls to the parents. Don't get me wrong, Buddy was ALWAYS Emili's dog through and through, but Dad also spent quite a bit of time with him. On his 40th birthday, when Buddy was six months old, Dad took Buddy to High Rocks Park and they spent a few hours together with Buddy off leash, hiking, bouldering, being explorers together. As Buddy continued to grow up and Dad spent more and more time with him, Dad began to notice a different type of intelligence than he had ever seen in a dog (and he was rarely without a dog in his childhood or beyond). Buddy had a sharpness to him, and he would zero in on small animals and stalk them. This intelligence and herding instinct- which came from the Border Collie part of Buddy's lineage- really interested Dad. He took Buddy to upstate Pennsylvania to be evaluated for sheep herding, unaware at the time that he was probably being joked about behind his back, seeing as how Buddy's mixed breed stats made him a very poor candidate for herding- but this is how Dad ended up on the path to get a full-bred Border Collie puppy, Ty. (I would be remiss to not include the detail that my sister Kirstyn is the one who ultimately came up with Ty's name.)
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| Puppy Ty with Dad and with Kirstyn |
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| Buddy and Ty |
My Dad these days is jokingly and seriously referred to as the dog whisperer, but a Border Collie puppy proved to initially be over his head. Ty was moody and withdrawn and not good around people. He thought he was top dog, and was extremely aggressive if you tried to exert dominance over him. In one specific instance, this made it near impossible for Dad to apply medicinal cream on Ty after routine surgery- and that led Dad to sort out how to express to Ty that he was the dominant one, not Ty. Dad can tell the story better than me, but he got Ty rolled over on his back with a lot of aggression on Ty's part (Dad says he was literally acting like a wild animal), and after about a minute of realizing Dad wasn't going to back down, Dad was able to visibly see Ty take a breath and calm down and release all the tension from his body. It was a big step forward that immediately made things easier between Dad and Ty.
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| Ty's first birthday |
It was quickly realized that in order to be happy, Ty needed to WORK. Border Collies are too smart to laze their days away as pets, they need something to do. About a month after the dominance issues were sorted out, Dad sent Ty away to a friend to be properly trained and he came back home a different dog- well behaved, well-adjusted, happy, and ready to work. Dad got some ducks to practice running Ty on. I'm sure a novice handler + a novice dog + a small flock of ducks was a sight to behold; both my Dad and Ty were eager to learn, and the ducks were run all over our 2 acres while Dad guided Ty with "Come by, away to me, lie down, walk on, that'll do."
Remind you of anything?
Learning the basics of running a Border Collie led Dad to the world of sheep trials. And yes, they are precisely what you can find in the original Babe movie (pig excluded). Dad started attending trials and grew his community of friends in the Border Collie world. He tried to do some trials with Ty, but they never worked out- being a novice dog plus being his own special brand of crazy, Ty was all over the field, chasing the sheep more than herding them, running them into the fence, not listening to Dad. But these trials eventually led Dad to get his second Border Collie, Hemp, a dog who had lineage from Scotland and was a Pro dog well known in the sheep trial world. She was Dad's dog through and through, they did everything together. With Hemp, Dad won the "Most Promising Novice Handler" award at a trial in 2006.
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| happy Hemp |
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| Dad and with Ty and Hemp |
During this time Dad also attempted to start a new business with Hemp at the helm- "Wild Geese Solutions." The premise of this business was to bring the dogs to public land that was inundated with geese, and run the dogs at them to make them fly away. You bring the dogs multiple times a day for a while, never at the same time, and eventually the geese stop coming back because they are under the impression that there are always predators there. Places like parks, schools, golf courses, and airfields can greatly benefit from this because cute as they are, geese are dirty, carry disease, and leave their poop and feathers everywhere- having them constantly on your land can be a lot of work. Unfortunately, even with the great idea behind this business and the tools to make it happen, Bucks County did not have the market for such a service, so Wild Geese Solutions never gained momentum.
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| serious Hemp |
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| Hemp and Ty did a lot of work and a lot of play together |
Dad wasn't having much success with the sheep trials, and his practical mindset wanted to find something with more purpose. Being at the trials led him to become interested in the sheep that were used, and soon enough the Witzer family had our own little flock of sheep. Dad chose to get
Katahdins since they are hair sheep and do not require any shearing- much less maintenance, as shearing sheep is a time consuming, back-breaking job. Katahdins grow thick, rough hair in the winter months and shed it when the weather warms up.
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| Dad and his sheep, with Ty looking on in the background |
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| working Ty |
These sheep were used to practice running the dogs on, and to breed and sell. This led both of my parents into a whole new world of learning, even taking a pasture management class together at a local school. Lambing season became my favorite time of year, and I was always happy to be around and assist when the baby sheep were being born.
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| Mama in the process of birthing quadruplets! |
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| Keeping the littlest quad warm |
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| About as brand new as they come |
The flock grew, but living on only two acres made the logistics of livestock farming difficult. Our next door neighbors had a large open field and they were always happy for it to be used for the sheep, which was very kind. Dad cared for the sheep on the field next door, and at his new friend Harry's farm a half hour away. He was constantly moving portable fencing and taking care to keep the fields extra clean since he was using borrowed property. It was a lot of work on top of a lot of work, but it was just what needed to be done.
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| always moving the fence |
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| Hemp wishing to be on the other side of the fence |
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| ram lambs |
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| Addie, Ty, Hemp, and Buddy |
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| Walking the dogs was often a family affair |
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| Dad with his dogs |
Somewhere in all of this Dad got another dog, a Border Collie/English Shepherd mix named Addie, from Harry. Also, as he was spending more time at Harry's farm, he got to know Josh and Jane, Harry's two Percheron horses. Harry used the horses to log, and soon he was teaching Dad how to ground-drive the team. Through that work, Dad became connected to another friend, Hutch, of
Better Way Belgians, and that friendship led to Dad working wagon rides at various events. Dad became involved in different events around Bucks County, small and large- if there was a team of horses working, Dad was either there or he was friends with the people who were. When I got married in 2013, Dad drove us in on a white carriage pulled by Jane before he walked me down the aisle.
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| Jane and Josh |
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| wedding day |
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| with Jane at my wedding |
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| working with Jane |
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| Dad working for Better Way Belgians at the Middletown Grange Fair |
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| Ground driving Josh and Jane |
This peak interest in all the livestock led my parents to start searching for the farm that maybe they always knew they wanted anyway. In 2014 they moved to a stone house with a barn that sat on 11 acres. Fun fact- this farm is within walking distance of High Rocks- the park Dad took Buddy to on his 40th birthday. They call their home Sweetwater Farm.
This space allowed Dad to finally care for his livestock in the efficient way he always dreamed of. He had permanent fencing put in, separated out various enclosures for rotating the animals, all of his equipment was always right where he needed it, and he didn't have to trailer his sheep from place to place anymore (though Harry is now only 5 minutes down the road!) Jane and Josh became Dad's horses, and they moved into the barn at home. Taking care of a farm was a lot of work, but it was nice to finally have everything in one place.
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| Jane and Josh happy in the field at their new home |
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| Ty and Buddy relaxing on the farm |
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| Hemp in the barn |
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| lambing season at Sweetwater farm |
It's been three years since my parents moved to their farm, and naturally a lot has changed since then. Hemp
passed away in 2015, and she and Buddy are resting together under some shade trees at the farm. Jane had some health issues and ultimately couldn't handle consistent work anymore, so she and Josh are now living out their best days retired together, being pampered on a farm in Louisville, Kentucky. A new Percheron team, Rex and Rocky, joined the family a few months ago- young and spry and happy to do whatever is asked of them. The sheep flock was culled down to simplify their upkeep, and lambing season isn't as large of an event as it once was. My parents are now looking to add some goats to the farm, for the purpose of starting an eco-friendly and sustainable brush-clearing business. (A service used in many places,
even in Washington DC!)
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| Dad with Rex and Rocky |
While learning about the sheep and becoming a shepherd in his own right, Dad found a deeper connection with the principle behind Biblical shepherding: that Christ is often referred to in the Bible as our Shepherd- He protects and guides us and we lean on Him for dependence- much like Dad's sheep have learned to know him and trust him as he cares for them. Dad has gone to a few churches with the sheep and dogs to do demonstrations and speak on that; he finds great enjoyment and purpose in it and hopes to continue to have opportunities for it.
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| Dad spending time with the lambs on his birthday |
Dad has a new right-hand dog, a young Border Collie named Sue who is never far from his side; she will be four years old on January 22nd- Buddy's birthday too! Only time will tell the richness she'll add to the family.
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| spunky Sue |
And to think that all of this exists in my parent's world thanks to a birthday gift they got for my sister 14 years ago. In my Dad's words- he'd be a cranky and tired old well pump man right now, but instead, all because of Buddy, he has sheep, and horses, and a farm.
Moving forward, here are Dad's thoughts- "Rex and Rocky are really my main focus at the moment. I will always have ewes and always lamb, but the horses will be the primary focus. I guess you can say my biggest thrill and joy is being in the woods with the horses, logging alone. The quiet solitude and working as a team with a faithful animal. The future might look like working horses primarily with wagon rides, which I do enjoy and I like to engage with the people, and if anything can come out of the brush clearing with a herd of goats that would be a real focus with my girl Sue. Perhaps the only option would be to move forward with one of these less physical occupations as I am getting older!"
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| Sue loves Dad |
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| driving Rex and Rocky |
I love this story because it shows so clearly how much you can grow a dream if you just keep pursuing- and how you maybe don't even know what that dream is while you're in the thick of it. All of these events took place in a span of fourteen years. It makes me wonder where I will be fourteen years from now, and if there's a present catalyst in my life that will take me on a journey I'm not yet aware of- on my way to my own Sweetwater Farm.
Thank you Buddy, for your life and your legacy. Rest In Peace, sweet sweet pup.
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| Making friends with baby Harrison, November 2016 |
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| Mom and Buddy at Peddler's Villiage |
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| Buddy enjoying a bone on June 16, 2017 |
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The pictures in this post are from a variety of sources (some are pictures of pictures, so don't mind the quality), but I can basically guarantee that any of them that look professionally taken were shot by
Emili, who in fact was inspired to start taking photos because of Buddy! Thanks to Dad and Em for all the input in writing this and getting relevant photos together.
