One of my best friends here on the farm goes by the name of Cosmo, and I couldn’t ask for a better dog.

Cosmo joined the family as a puppy and actually was the first Black Lab among all the other farm dogs that Dan had had over the years. He’s rounding ten years old this year and I’m not sure Dan would choose any other kind of dog.

In fact, we have 3 labs here on our farm now. Cosmo fathered a litter of lab pups and Kayla got pick of the litter. That brought a pretty little yellow lab puppy named Brooklyn to the farm. And Brooklyn has mothered two litters of lab puppies also, with our girls each keeping one for themselves. That brought Maddie Jo, another black lab into our family, with sisters Rosie and Lily close by at Nichole and Chelsey’s houses.

And actually Cozie claims Cosmo as her own, but when she moved out during college, she didn’t have the heart to take him away from the farm that he loves. So here he stays, now joined by his daughter Brooklyn and grand daughter Maddie Jo.

When I came to the farm when Dan and I were dating, Cosmo was a rambunctious one year old. He had more energy than he knew what to do with. He would follow the tractor and grinder down the road, racing Dan to the other farm.

He would chase tennis balls for as long as you would throw them. And when Dan and I married and I moved here, Cosmo wanted to be right by my side.

Every time I would leave the barn to chase cows over to the other lot I’d say “Cosmo! Let’s go get em’!” And he would jump and bark and look at me as though he didn’t know what I was saying, but he was surely going with me!

He got so that when I opened the gate to the cow yard, he would come a running, barking at the cows to get back. He had learned fast how effective his barking was for scaring the cows back away from the gates.

If I came out of the cow yard with the tractor, he would keep the cows in while I parked it in the shed and walked down to the gate. And when I got half way there he would make sure I would see him charge the cows and bark, even if the cows had no intentions of coming out of that gate.

And the cows learned what “Go get em’ Cosmo!” meant too! Even if he wasn’t around, I would give my war call, and they would turn around and run the other way. They wanted no part of that!

But as you know, there’s always a nosy Jersey or two in the bunch. And if one came curiously nosing around out of that gate, Cosmo was in full stealth mode: head low, ears perked, taking one, slow, step at a time towards them. We’d give a yell and off he’d run, racing to prove his worth!

Now mind you, chasing a cow by barking in their face will turn a cow round and round until she gets enough room to run, which wasn’t always in the direction where they came from! 🙂 But he surely tried his best, and he wouldn’t want to have all of the fun. He had to keep us on the payroll too, ha ha.

Today a friend was telling me they had to put their dog down, and I instantly felt sad for them, thinking about how hard it would be without Cosmo by my side on the farm.

And it brought me back to last July, when Cosmo went missing. We couldn’t find him anywhere… We would call “Go get em’ Cosmo!”, waiting for his familiar bark, but nothing. We drove around the mile and the next mile, and over to the other farm to see if maybe he had gotten shut in a building accidentally. We asked neighbors if they had seen him with no luck.

The more we looked the sadder I got. What would I do without my trusty sidekick?

Dan and I took another walk around the farm, looking in the sheds and calling to him. I couldn’t help but get choked up thinking about what might have happened to him.

And then all of a sudden… around the corner of the hog house he came with a bark!!! I burst into tears as I hugged him tight! He was alive! He was well! And he was home! Hurray!!!!

Dan soon followed and I swallowed back my tears and asked “Where was he???” And he answered, “He must’ve gotten in the trailer the other night when we brought that cow and calf home from the other farm. It was dark and we didn’t see him and must’ve gotten locked in there when we parked it.”

Thank the Lord Dan had checked in the trailer! It had been hot and I was surprised that he hadn’t barked when we called him. Nevertheless, I was sooooooo HAPPY he was found!

And today I’m just as happy to have him by my side. Here’s to you Cosmo!