The Farm Dogs

On Shielings Farm
Jed the Peg
It was cold work, and they were always shivering when they had brought back the tractor to the byre. Here they were always greeted by Jed the Peg, barking happily, jumping up at them. He was a three-legged collie who had turned up at the farm not long after Owen had left and was now kept with the other dogs. He didn’t work, but he was friendly and well liked, to the extent that even Naomi tolerated his presence and drain on the food supply. He lived in the disused tractor shed under a broken-down old hay-baler.
Jed the Peg had just turned up one day. The nearest farm was four miles away and Ruth knew all their dogs, so the origin of Jed was a bit of a mystery. He had three legs, but the missing one had been removed some time ago by a vet. Helen admired the dog for his boundless energy and friendly nature. He was playful and was happy to tease and play tricks on Helen and the other slaves, following them out on their jobs, disappearing and then sneaking up on them to then yelp or bark behind their backs, hoping to startle them. If he did, he would always say sorry by wagging his tail and coming to lick their hands. Helen thought that anyone that wasn’t keen on dogs would perhaps find Jed’s behaviour annoying, but Melissa and Tina both loved him, more than any other being on the farm, for his cleverness and spirit. (Chapter 11)
Chapter 11
Over the years had been home to dozens of Border Collie sheep dogs, but its current occupants consisted of Fly, a six-year-old bitch, Dirty Dave, who was only a year old and barely trained and Sweep, a friendly and hard-working dog, but a bit long in the tooth. There was Jed the Peg, who was not caged up in the barn, having the run of the entire farm and slept underneath an old hay baler. He would have been shot, deemed to be useless, had Owen been on the farm.
Fly was Helen’s favourite, she was a friendly and intelligent dog, the best sheep dog out of all of the dogs and the most eager to please. Dave had been bought as a pup by Owen, who had planned to train the dog himself. It had not gone well and as a result the dog was a wild neurotic mess, who – Helen had been told – tend to charge straight at the sheep whatever the command given, sending the flock into disarray. Fly was the only proper sheep dog on the farm now, since a dog called Jimmie had died a year before the reditus. 
Category:Paradise
Category:Paradise Characters