Okie - Kuypers Okie Chevron

My last Aussie companion, Kuypers Okie Chevron (a Las Rocosa red merle male) was with me continuously from the time I got him from the breeder (Susan Schmidle of the Houston TX area) in November of 1990 till the late summer of 2000, when he and his mate 'Nita (a blue merle female) were found shot to death on our property. Nita took a shotgun blast in her chest and Okie who had had a fear of the sound of gunfire since puppyhood, took a blast in the rear hindquarters as he was apparently trying to make a run for the house.

Both dogs roamed our property at will when I was home but when we left and didn’t take them, they were put on "watch" in the fully fenced in area surrounding the house, that separated it from the rest of the ranch. It is my belief that a neighbor about 3 miles away , who raised beef cattle and was known to hate dogs, was the one responsible for shooting my dogs. The only time my dogs had ever been near his livestock was when the dogs went with me on trail rides... otherwise, they had never ventured off the place.

Okie was a one of a kind. He owned my pickup but I was allowed to drive it to take him places! He smiled and talked all the time, if I ignored him... he would paw me or poke me with his nose and start wooo-woooing in a low tone... If I had trouble loading a horse in the trailer or a cow into the vet chute... he was right there waiting for me to give the load command. At times I had horses refuse to back out of a trailer... on command he would race up the opposite side of the trailer and into the feed bunk of the offending horse and bark and threaten to nip the horses nose and make it back out of the trailer....

I have had Aussies for the last 20 years but I had Okie for the longest, did the most with him and he was a faithful, protector, partner and friend. I had often told people that he wasn’t the only friend I had but he was the bestest!

Hopefully, with a new Aussie friend, I won’t miss my old one so bad... but he will not be forgotten

Scott n Sheila Kuyper

~ ~ ~