FAMILY DOG

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DOGS, COWBOYS AND INDIANS!

Barbara "BJ" Andrews, Member SAAB

One of the first American settlements was Florida in 1565. Thanks to dogs it also became known as the "Cow Capital” and the birthplace of world’s first “Cow Dogs.”

St. Augustine Florida is the oldest European settlement in North America and Florida is the birthplace of special breed of dogs. When you think of cowboys and Indians, you imagine the ‘wild west’ but Florida had the first cow dogs.

Along with Texas, Florida became a state in March of 1845. Managing sheep or cattle was easy out on the plains but the vines, tangles and swamps of Florida was a dangerous challenge made possible only by “cow dogs” which were a breed unto themselves.

As a dog lover you know about herding breeds that manage and protect sheep, but Florida “cow dogs” were a whole new kind of canine! Short-coated but thick-skinned, they handled cattle in the razor-sharp vines and swamps as though they were born there, and they were…

For those who think of Florida as white sand beaches and lavish golf courses, as a native-born Florida Cracker, I can assure you it wasn’t always like that! We had cattle, including the fearless hump-shoulder Braham cattle imported by Henry Partin.

We also had special dogs that could handle fearsome cattle and equally tough palmetto bushes!

Saw Palmetto is a knee-high plant with razor-sharp fronds that rip through clothing like knives… and then there’s what’s called “Devil's Walkingstick.” It just sits there, growing thorn-like teeth along its leaf stems.

As for the dogs, I don’t know how “Cow Dogs” developed tougher skin than other canines. Know-it-all A.I. says “High-friction movement against brush and dirt naturally prompts localized thickening and protective calluses on high-impact areas.” I reckon… Florida “cow dogs” can’t read and working cowboys worry more about the rattlesnakes that are everywhere….

Yeah, fact is many old-time Floridians are still “cow-boys” who work cattle and dogs every day. AKC registered? Nah, those ranchers and woodsmen have generations of “dog sense.” They also have dog genes in their line that passed down to those who care about dogs and history that should never be forgotten.

Indians? They are mostly gone or stubbornly hidden in a world that used to be. The Seminole used to sell hand-made items along road-side pull-overs. Now they sell factory items in “tourist attractions.”

Native Floridians and dogs are disappearing as more Yankees discover the best sun in our hemisphere, ranchers and cowboys have now turned into foreign investors. We lived with that life-giving light instead of sunscreen and canopies. “Those were the days” when the break-water waves and shallows provided a treasured bounty of scallops and oysters. Now, despite all efforts to keep it clean, low tides reveal only garbage and waste.

Tourists outnumber Seminole Indians and there are more golf carts than horses but there are still cowboys and cow-dogs because it takes both to manage the “cattle business” of Way-South-Florida.p>

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