Just a Mutt Named Roscoe

Do you remember the 1995 Australian-American comedy-drama film BABE? Babe is the story of a pig raised as livestock who wants to do the work of a sheepdog. It's a delightful movie about an orphan pig who gets adopted by Farmer Hoggett at the county fair and brought home to the farm where he becomes friends with the other animals in the barnyard. My favorite character is a duck named Ferdinand, who crows as roosters are said to every morning to wake people so he will be considered useful and be spared from being eaten for Christmas dinner. And in the end, Babe wins a sheep herding contest at the country fair. It's just a funny little movie about animals living outside the box and their intended purpose.

Well, on our ranch, we have an animal like that. His name is Roscoe. Roscoe came to the ranch as a puppy whose owners could no longer keep him. We immediately fell in love with this playful pup and he acclimated quickly to ranch life. Although it took him two or three times to finally figure out not to play with the little back furry animals with the white stripe down their back. Living on a working cattle ranch, Roscoe decided from the beginning that he was more than just a mutt.....he was a cow dog. Every time we get the cows up to work them, Roscoe is right there trying to prove his cow herding skills. The first time he tried it, he got kicked in the head by a cow and we thought he wouldn't make it, but he bounced back and the next time we got the cows up, he was back at it herding the cows.

Oddly enough, this tall lanky legged mutt is actually beginning to know what he is doing in the cow pens. Oh he gets a lot of "No Roscoe!" and "get back Roscoe", but he's learning and we just don't have the heart to not let him help. At night he sleeps under our open bedroom window and faithfully guards his 5 acre yard and won't let any other critters inside his territory. When we leave the house, he follows us down the driveway to the barn at the end of the driveway where he patiently waits until he sees our vehicle pull back into the driveway. And then the race is on to see who can get to the house first. Roscoe loves to swim in the river with the grandchildren and run along beside them as they ride 4-wheelers, and he has become a loving part of our family. So much so that he has taken over my adirondak chair on the front porch and I willingly give it to him.

My husband has cooked biscuits and gravy breakfast every Sunday morning before church for our family for almost 50 years now. And every Sunday morning Roscoe stands peaking through the kitchen window for his portion of biscuits and gravy. He's just a mutt who thinks he's a cow dog and no one in our family is EVER going to tell him any different.