The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-08-13
A PensIoned Dog.

In the territory Of New Mexico the
Legislature, by joint action, recently
pensioned dog for noble services. In
that country there are many sheep farms,
and shepherd dogs are SO well trained in
caring for the focks of their masters
that it is their daily practice to take out
the focks in the morning to pasture,
guard them all day, and at night return
them to the fold or corral. This work of
the Mexican dogs is so common, and so
faithfully performed that it is looked up
on as a matter of course, and nothing
more than should be expected from well
trained dog.
This being the case, it would appear
that the dog worthy of pension in that
territory must have performed some
thing out of the common line of canine
achievement, and he died. He did not
save his mistress life from the murder
GUS fury of the savage, nor her child
from being choked by huge black
snake, for his master was not married,
and had no wife or babe, but led soli-
tary life in his solitary ranch in very
solitary part of New Mexico.
It CHANGED that the dog in question,
on returning of an evening with his
sheep to the fold, discovered that his
master was not stirring about, but re-
manned inside the shanty and kept very
quiet. The next evening it was the
same. The dog, when he penned up the
sheep, repaired to the shanty, smelled
through crack in the door his masters
presence, but the man was still quiet,
and did not breathe. The dog scratched,
barked, and even howled, but no re-
sponse came from within. The door re-
manned closed; no smoke rose from the
chimney to greet the early morn. But
the dog, true to his appointed duty, went
out with the sheep on the third day, and
cared for them while they cropped the
herbags on the hillside. But he was get
ting hungry, and that night, when he
drove the flock into their pen, the last
one to attempt to get in became the VIC
tim of his appetite. This method of pro-
viding for his own wants became por-
tion of the faithful dogs daily duty.
Every evening the last to try to enter the
fold was seized by him and served for
supper and breakfast, and for dinner the
following day. As stated before, the
ranch to which the dog belonged was in
a solitary part of the territory, and out
of the track of travel and social inter-
course of visitation.
For two years from the time of the
masters death-as ascertained by data
left by the latter-the faithful dog
tended the flock committed to his charge,
and had fresh mutton for his supper
every night. The flock was not deci
mated by this steady drain upon its re-
sources. On the contrary it increased in
numbers, and when, at the end of two
years from the time of the death of the
proprietor the ranch was visited and the
remains of the poor fellow found, the
dog was still at his post of duty. jealous
ly guarding his flock and driving them
to the best pasture every day and to the
fold at night, before which he slept, to
keep the wild sheep eaters of the plains at
a civil distance. Such fidelity excited
admiration wherever the story was fold,
and the Arcadian Legislators of the terri
tory, in fit of generosity and enthusi-
asm, at their session two years ago they
have biennial sessions in that happy
country, granted a pension for life to
that dog, to be paid from the State
Treaury, as a reward for his fidelity, and
no doubt as an encouragement to all
other shepherd dogs in that territory to
be good dogs and faithful.