Amy's new additions to the herd are TRITON's LAZER and Golden Oakes' FREEDOM! And next year, after 3 crias are weaned, we will begin thinning our herd. We already have one person interested in Nuera. Come by and get to know them when their crias are born so you can see the "quality" of cria each one produces. Our herd is comprised of alpacas from great sires and dams... many World Class or World Famous. When bred with great males, they produce very nice fleeces and overall quality crias. Mountain Edge alpacas also has (DEC 2014) given us permission to process RAYO's Master of Snow... with his SIRE's NAME! They also will allow other alpaca/cria we have to carry names of their ancestry (MANY of our alpacas have ties to females or SIRES of MOUNTAIN EDGE in them). Now we're not afraid to name SNOWMAN as: RAYO's Master of SNOW, Kensington (his son BIG BOY) & Solomon (thru his daughter PANDORA), or Chimbote lineage w their names. Some of these foundation names are ACTUAL CHAMPION SIRES & Chimbote's two Champion Son's...some for grand-sires & grand-dams, but they all provided the foundation for much of this herd!! We are so grateful for that permission. They'll ALL have COSEY to love and protect them! And Junior Herdsires: LAZER and True Black (& Silver?) "AMADO MELAINE", along with other cria born at our farm...Buttercup's little "AMY," will love having Cosey circling their yards. Lazer & Freedom were used to having two of these wonderful dogs w their herd, and Amado & "AMY," will learn to appreciate Cosey as well. We are very happy with our Great Pyranese "COSEY," as she's already proven to be a great herd guard dog. We had an Eagle over our pond this weekend which let us know how much we need our dogs (Cosey... and Shelty Allie who knows a little about herding & herds our horse). Cosey and her brother were adopted and taught to live with and be guardian for small goats. If a goat got out, Cosey went after it and stayed outside the fence by it. She & Allie had a short acclimation to the males of our herd, by living inside the fields and shelters among them, then Cosey went over top of the 5 ft high fence one day while we were playing with her, and immediately decided when turned loose to consistently roam around the fields and our herd and faithfully watch over them night and day. She loved the responsibility, and the freedom to hide and watch above or below the herd was pure joy to her. Then, we had a stray Great Pyranese male most of last winter, and decided to watch out for her by keeping her near the house until the stray was caught by a neighbor and returned to it's owner! Cosey let us know if it was near at night. But, overall, she handled all the wild animals and unwanted visitors very well! And our neighbors assisted in identifying the stray, and watching for him until he was caught. Of course, Cosey stayed by the herd and did what she's done since a pup... watched over her herd and her new family too. She even takes on a very loud pack of coyotes at night outside the fenced areas. I assist her and we scare them greatly. So, recently we have improved Cosey's ability to roam and guard our alpacas by also assisting her electronically. She should now be able to roam freely and be happy constantly navigating where she is needed to protect our herd, yet still be able to spend some time with us while we are working, or come by us for her meals or a treat. She can continue to circle our fields and sit hidden within different knolls where she can see the entire herd and chase away any annoying wild animals, yet be able to hide and watch when she wants to rest. Not saying exactly how, but we are so happy to assist her and help her to do her job without any fear for her if she decides to chase unwanted visitors or animals from the herd or our homes. We love her so much that we decided to find a way to assist her to be with and guard the herd, yet protect herself a little as well. She has found a place in our hearts and in ours and the alpaca's homes when extremely cold. We decided that our horse is very protective of the females too, as we've found her at the fence many times standing between them and whatever has just passed through (bear)...following it from inside the fence! A "miracle horse" really since she healed from a broken leg after Hurricane (Sandy) got pretty windy! They work together. So horse inside field & we let COSEY protect on the outer perimeter to assist her with all fields at once. She survived the tornadic winds here July 8, 2014 (Cosey came into our house) and ALPACA AND "COSEY" DOG's OWNER, AMY, got Cria &Mother in... stayed inside barn with all the alpacas till two tornados went through. All but cria &dam went into their own buildings just before it came through (somehow they knew). Our horse was in a stall with a couple of adult alpacas who seem to know she is their protector (Nuera, Chloe, etc.). We only had to take dam w cria into her own stall barely in time, assisted by "owner Amy." With many of the forest trees damaged, only a small limb flew into our fields (click on pics to see below). And all animals were in their shelters (I have at least fifty forest tree pics, so this is just a couple). Katherine was caught out in the winds in her vehicle & sustained MINOR (underneath) vehicle damage as she warned AMY & cria of approaching severe weather, then turned her 4x4 into the wind and sat it out (it was impossible to move as could not see out or around her vehicle & 3-small trees fell on both sides of it). Amy got cria and dam inside the barn for 1st twister, then when her mother yelled the 2nd time from another driveway (more clear of falling trees), Amy got into the upper bunker with females before the sun disappeared, replaced by a dark field of blowing debris. Amy had run in-between two sets of twisting winds up hill into her basement to safety (as her mother watched across the field)! All is fine now. When compared to other areas, we got just a bit of forest, garden fence, and fruit trees damaged/downed. We're sure not as bad as in some other areas. Now we have a small idea what other parts of our country have been through! Per the horse, we had two friends, who once were sitting on a knoll nearby, to get to know our guard horse as well. The brother in closest proximity to our home asked us: "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT LOUD SNORTING NOISE WAS?" They couldn't believe how loudly our horse sounded her alarm for an hour (at them)!! So, with our improvements, Cosey dog can return to the outer perimeters and be happy and free with both us and the horse watching over her. She is so calm and yet so resourceful and faithful when she is needed. And she'd love to keep following the wild varmints to teach them a lesson. We may get her a buddy someday since she's chased several large types of wildlife away all by herself. I should've taken a picture of the baby panther a while back. The black mother grabbed it in the dark near me as it passed under a fence in front of my vehicle. Wildlife is abundant here (years ago we saw a pair of peregrine falcons). So I guess you can imagine how great Cosey & horse really are for our herd! Hopefully, if the herd ever yells again, they will be able to appreciate again watching both our horse and Cosey (and us) clear their area of any unwanted guests or wildlife. Don't know how we managed without COSEY though, because she and the horse are just irreplaceable together...as guards (mostly irreplaceable in our hearts)!