Los Tres Amigos

  These 3 friends are Noah – in the middle – Kilt to his left, and Willow to his right. Kilt and Willow are border collies who belong to our friend Cassie.

Cassie has worked in the horse industry for more than 20 years – as a groom, barn manager, the person who prepares the horses for competitions, travels with them overseas for competitions, sits in quarantine with them. In her business, the people/family who hire you usually pay – in addition to a salary – for your rent, car, phone,  travel expenses and so on. You must be mobile for this kind of work, nomadic, because competitive horse people spend the worst part of the winter in South Florida and the rest of the year elsewhere.

For the last 6 years, Cassie has worked for novelist Tami Hoag, who hired her to work with her horses on international competitions. But Tami decided she didn’t want to compete internationally and had to let Cassie go. So now Cassie works for the family who owns the Biltmore estate – the Vanderbilts – and had to move into a new apartment by January 1. But during the season in our area,  apartments are impossible to find, everything is leased, wrapped up, taken. So she and her two border collies moved in with us on January 1.

The first day was totally wild. Kilt and Willow were disoriented by the move. Kilt has more energy than several dozen humans and couldn’t quite believe that she had a pool and a yard that was visited by squirrels. She’s two. Her bro, Willow, is ten, more mellow, a kind of Downton Abbey dog, always reserved, as Cassie says, always in a tux. Willow is also interested in squirrels, but is quite pleased to stalk our two cats relentlessly. We had to set up boundaries, shut off certain rooms so that the dog and cat quarters are separate, at least until the critters all became accustomed to the living situation.

And now, into the second week, I’m happy to report that Noah is beside him with joy. He has other dogs to play with, to chase around the pool, through the jungle of our yard. He showed Kilt and Willow how to step into the pool on the shallow side, with the easy steps, and Kilt mastered the task in minutes, bounding in and out of the water with wild abandon. Willow is more cautious by nature and since his hips are ailing, he doesn’t leap in the way Kilt does. He does everything more slowly, but with the same degree of joy.

Kilt and Nika, who is part border collie, are the same age and share many of the same attributes. Both are affectionate, are happiest when they have a task, a mission, a goal, and they don’t bother the cats. Willow is just as sharp, but is really tempted by the presence of cats. Are you gonna run, huh? If you do, I’ll chase you…  That sort of interest.

Powder, our snow white cat, is probably the most tolerant cat I’ve ever met. She’s fine with more dogs in the house as long as they understand the rules – that if they get too close, they’ll be swatted, and she still has her claws. Simba, our male orange tabby, doesn’t want anything to do with any of them. He goes outside or hides out in our bedroom, but if he’s cornered, he’ll hiss and howl the way only a male cat can and fight. But when the dogs go into Cassie’s room at night, he struts out, wary yet fearless. Where are they, huh? Huh?

Somehow, these 5 animals have arrived at a living arrangement that works for all of them. And meanwhile, the tres amigos – two border collies and a golden retriever – gang up on us humans at dinner, in the yard, when we least expect it. Hey, humans, see how we do this?

Always, they are our teachers.

Synchros? I can’t find any right this second. It’s just about  life and big changes for humans and their animal buddies.