Sherpa Has Come To Live with Us

Things have not been going well for Sherpa’s family, a large, good-looking and independent couple I have known for about eight years. They have fallen on hard times that have left them virtually homeless except for their Ford pickup truck. Lia recently lost her job as cab driver in San Diego 70 miles away, after she became seriously ill. They couldn’t pay their rent and lost their trailer spot on a ranch. Since they were evicted last week, they have been camping in my yard while they sort out, and reduce their belongings to the bare essentials they will need until they can find a better situation. They spent last Saturday selling what they could at a swap meet, and much of two other days picking up cans and bottles for redemption. They told me they can make $50 to $75 a day in the "recycling business". But they also spend a lot on gas in the process.

Their declining life style does not bode well for their pets. They are kind people, who always rescue a dog or cat in need, but they have ideas about preserving the freedom of their animals that leaves the animals open to danger and sudden death. In the last six months two of their dogs and some cats have been attacked and killed by a neighbor’s dog or by coyotes. They still have two half-grown female (unspayed) cats, a beagle they recently adopted at the animal shelter when there was no charge in August, and Sherpa, an old female coyote dog. I will take care of Sherpa, and my daughter will keep the cats until they are wanted back.

Sherpa is too crippled with arthritis to endure a gypsy life, and the new beagle is too attached to his new owners to let them be more than a dozen feet from him before going into a howling frenzy of fear that he will be abandoned again. So Henry the beagle will go with them, and I have agreed to give a home to Sherpa for the rest of her life. I bring her inside at night to sleep on a soft doggie bed next to the heater, and I have started her on dry food with a dose of glucosimine chondroitan daily.

Her former owners used the materials I already had, and erected a fence around my yard, so Sherpa, who has cataracts, will not follow Smoky Joe into coyote territory where they might kill her because she is old and sick. They tolerate Smoky because he is much younger amd outweighs a coyote about three to one. They know that when he chases them, it is just a game. I give him more freedom than is safe, because I am here all the time, and I do check whenever the dogs start barking. I am learning dog language, and I can tell the difference from when they are barking at a person or a horse, or a coyote, or when my daughter is coming out to feed her dogs. Now that I have a fenced yard, I make Smoky do more of his watching from inside the yard. But I still have to tie him up there, because, when he is loose inside the yard, it takes him only a minute to dig under the fence and scramble out when he really wants to go. 

 Smoky Joe and I have known these people and their dogs as neighbors for about eight years, and he has accepted Sherpa into the family without too much jealousy. My twelve cats aren’t sure, and they study Sherpa carefully before moving within biting distance. She did snap at Billy this morning, but I have seen Billy reach out and whack Smoky or another cat just to see what happens. That may have happened this morning. I think I will continue to be able to maintain my ‘peaceable kingdom’.

I am awfully happy to have Sherpa, and she knows it. She has told me so by putting her head in my lap and giving me friendly laps and soulful looks with her brown eyes. She totters out to check the last place she saw her former owners, but she doesn’t seem to miss them as much as I feared.

Sherpa's former family, Kim and Lia, could use the some prayers, if some of you good people feel so inclined.