Guarding the yard

We have 2 dogs, 9 month old brothers, who are Rhodesian ridge back and yellow lab mix breed. They are not really puppies in size but can be in how they act. The fight and run and jump but mostly just with each other. They are pretty mellow with us.

The white one is Wingu which means cloud in Kiswahili, and the brown one is Kivuli or shadow. We feed them corn meal or rice mixed with meat that we cook every day. They love to go on walks around the center and outside on the roads twice a day.

Their main job is to watch and protect the house and yard. We live out in the country so there are lots of animals roaming about. The boys have cornered lizards, cows, dung beetles, toads which can be poisonous, cats, other stray dogs, chickens, and 4 hedgehogs so far. Those are the most fun since they seem to find them only in the middle of the night and Ron has to go outside and throw the hedgehog over the fence to calm the dogs down. I think it is because they are here that we have not seen any snakes or scorpions so far.

We also have them here to alert us to strangers who might not be friendly. It makes me feel safer with them here, since they do bark at anyone coming through the gate who they don't know or are not sure of. When the dogs see we are ok with the visitor they wait beside us till we say it is ok.

Having them with us, taking care of them, going for walks in the neighborhood with them, all have been a good distraction for us. When the days are filled with work and problem solving and trying to figure something else out with only the few resources at hand, it is nice to have the boys here always happy to see us.

They are a little spoiled; yes they are in the house in the evenings, yes they get up on the couch when we aren't sitting there, yes they get big bones to chew on when they have been good. But I am not the least bit afraid when the electricity goes out at night and Ron is gone to the bush for a few days, cause they are by my side.