I really like this movie. I don’t remember every reading any comic book about the characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel did a great job of taking a somewhat obscure comic and making it into the current movie franchise. Duke introduced me to this movie and I’m not alone in enjoying this flick as it did almost $800 million at the box office. I liked the 2nd edition and I will watch the 3rd when it comes out.
This movie had a fun soundtrack that reached #1 on the billboard charts. This was the first soundtrack to hit #1 that was made up entirely of previously released songs. In other words, there were no new, original songs on this record. Just a bunch of groovy hits from the 70s that works well into the film.
Now, one may ask, how does this movie/comic/soundtrack tie into the goat industry? Valid question. And I can answer it.
GARP. Yes, the dog. GARP is the guardian of our goat galaxy. GARP stands for Goat And Ranch Protection. Plus, I like the original Robin Williams movie “The World According to Garp”. He has been employed by Kelln Livestock since December of 2012. He was born near Cheyenne, OK sometime in October of that same year. Much like the Star Lord–Peter Quill, GARP has a unique pedigree.
While at Fairview, we had a female Great Pyrenees. Her name was ShyAnne. We ran goats on a rough 80 acres–covered with canyons & cedar trees that were teaming with cats and coyotes. ShyAnne was a bad bitch. She was not a pet. But she did her job. We got a male from Vince McGolden. This male was a 1/2 Pyr, 1/2 Komondor. He sired one litter with ShyAnne. A female from this litter ended up in Roger Mills County. ShyAnne was killed by lightning in the summer of ’12. Shortly after that, we moved to Fargo and needed a new dog.
Jana Maddux called to try to get me to judge a jackpot show. I couldn’t do it but in the conversation, she mentioned that they had a litter of LGD (livestock guardian dogs) pups and did I know of anybody needing one. Why yes, I do. So, she got them weaned, threw the only male in the litter in a dog box with Nathan Torrance’s parents who live by Gage and were attending a Christmas program at Cheyenne. They brought him to Ellis County and we picked him up. Since then, he has only left this place once. And that was a trip to Seiling to get neutered. I don’t think that he liked that trip. There has only been a handful of times that he has ever been out of the goat pasture or corrals.
GARP is probably tamer than he should be but it works perfectly around here. He quickly learns when a new dog is with a human friend. He is good with humans. And he hates coyotes and strange dogs. He was only a few months old when I saw him take on his first coyote. When the yotes get loud and seem to circle us, he can silence the entire section or two with a bark.
He is a big dog. He is tall, even for a Pyrenees. It is amazing to see how sneaky this big dude is. He can turn dang neart invisible when he goes into stealth mode. Snow seems to be his favorite weather. He loves it. And he loves leftover meat. He is good with baby goats. As good as he is protecting the goat herd, he and I share a commonality. He HATES doe goats. He tolerates them and puts up with their crap since that is his job. BUT if they come near his food….HOLY HELL!!! He comes uncorked and does scatter. Yes… yes I have been known to feed him right in the middle of the doe herd just so I can watch them run in fear when the first moron walks near his food.
All sheep and goat producers need to be thankful for their LGDs. These creatures do the job that they were bred to do like nothing else can. LGDs are important enough that the USDA tracks info on them with their sheep and goat surveys.
Pyrs are probably the most popular since they will deal with humans. Anatolians are absolute killing machines and work great as long as they aren’t near people. Akbash and Maremma are other breeds that are very good. Whether I have 10 does or a 100, I will have a guard dog.
I don’t know GARP’s actual birthdate but we are close to it. Cheers to GARP and all the other guardians of the galaxy that do their job, oh so well.
