Akilli’s Story

Nursing a Goat

Our first Anatolian Shepherd, Akilli, arrived at our farm only 5 weeks old. She was a survivor from her first week of life. Unable to get enough milk from her mother, with her bigger, bossier littermates pushing her aside, she was supplemented with goat’s milk, a tiny thing held up to actually nurse from a goat when she was only a few days old. Little did we know when we brought her home, that she would start us delving into the history of the breed with her fascinating behavior. A beautiful rough coat, she won our hearts with her loving devotion to the goats. Akilli, whose name means "intelligent," was a fabulous working dog. She lived, slept, and ate with the goats. Sometimes she had the privilege of overseeing the birth of kid goats in the pasture, and took care of eating the afterbirth so the coyotes wouldn’t be attracted. When coyotes did come around, she never let them outrun her.

She kept pace with them as they occasionally ran back and forth along the outside of her pasture fencing, particularly at dawn. Never did she allowed one in her pasture. She also protected her goats from large birds, squirrels, raccoons, and even killed a possum, as well as a huge rat. Akilli had gotten sprayed more times than we can count by skunks, as she managed to corner them in her pasture. Smells didn’t seem to bother her, as she was just as much at home with the stinky billy goats, as with the goat mothers and their babies.

Excavator was Akilli’s middle name! She had dug a huge underground fall-out shelter . . . several times. Every time we filled it in, she dug it out again. Her gigantic pits, when the earth roof caves in, became playgrounds for the goats, which loved to jump in and out of the holes. Once when we moved her and her goats to the pasture adjacent to the barn, she surprised us by digging a hole under the barn. Then one day when we were milking the goats, up popped Akilli’s head into the barn to say hello! We had to keep the pasture fence hot-wired along the inside bottom so that Akilli did not decide to "go visiting!"

Farm friends of Akilli included two ASD pups (Kaptan and Tess), an elderly Golden Retriever, and a Black Lab. Sirin, our adult female ASD is another story. At times Akilli and Sirin would happily run together along their fence line. Mostly they would go about their guard business in their own pastures. Every six months, however, Akilli could not believe Sirin had the gall to come into heat on her property. How dare she! That’s when you would occasionally hear Akilli’s heart-stopping displeasure toward Sirin through the gate. Although the two intact female ASDs could never work together in the same pasture, they did work together beautifully in side-by-side pastures. While one slept, the other was always visible and alert. Often during the day they could be found facing different directions while on lookout.

Babies, human or animal, were Akilli’s favorite visitors. She was happy to greet them and give them loving kisses. While she would stay aloof with an adult visitor to her pasture, just give that person a baby to hold and Akilli was then their best friend!