Peacocks in Arizona? YUP! Dave used to take me to this huge park that was once one of the largest citrus groves in the Phoenix area. Now it is a historical monument with three houses, a canal (one of the first canals bringing water into Phoenix), lots of citrus trees and several baseball, soccer, and volleyball fields. It also has a beautiful rose garden, fountains, slides & swings, and as I mentioned before, Peacocks. I don’t know why they have peacocks at the park (Dave says that he heard a park ranger talking about how the original owners used to breed them for their feathers. I guess women back in the 1890s liked their feathers for hats, clothes, and dusters). All I know is that they are everywhere and being an Australian Cattle Dog, I like order and it seemed to me that they should all be in one place. Now Dave didn’t let me off of my leash often, but there came a point in my training (I was training to be a desert search and rescue dog at the time) that it was necessary for me to be let off my leash for extended periods of time. You will not probably believe me but I waited a whole 10 minutes (I have some self control) before I headed out at break-neck speed to round up all of those birds. Barking and nipping, I chased all of those birds around the houses, out of the citrus groves and into a corner of one of the main fields. It wasn’t long before I had finished my job that a park ranger came running out to greet me and Dave to congratulate us on a job well done (after all, I had created order from chaos).

Much to my surprise, the ranger started screaming at Dave while waving his arms in the air and occasionally pointing at me. I was starting to get a little bit concerned that the ranger was going to hurt Dave so I started barking and baring my teeth (just a little bit though. Just wanted to show him that I wasn’t going to let him hurt Dave). He calmed down real quick and Dave put me back on the leash. The ranger scribbled on a piece of paper, handed the piece of paper to Dave and then called a couple of other rangers on his two-way-radio. Dave was not happy about whatever the ranger wrote (turned out it was a $100.00 fine) but the rangers were happy after they had counted all of the peacocks and announced that all 47 peacocks were accounted for. It turns out that they have to count all of the peacocks at the end of the month and that I had made it much easier for them to do so. They were so grateful (it turns out that this was the first time in four months that they had gotten an accurate count) that they gave me a park ranger patch (Dave refers to it as my $100 patch).

Since then, Dave never let me off the leash at that park and we found another field for my training. I still like to heard things (although the opportunities to do so are few and far between) but I also like to just lay around the in the sun since my “accident” (this is a neat story but it is more of a “good dog” (maybe even a “great dog”) story. Again, don’t forget to consider ordering the video. Dave got one for Christmas and loved it (he can’t wait for the next one)! Take care all -Sheena