Our 2007 Australian Cattle Dog Hero of The Year is registered as Millennium’s Big Joke for Gravan CD RN HSAs OA OAJ, known as “Joker”, owned by breeder Mari Bailey. (Some of you may have seen him as Reserve Winners Dog at the specialty in Greeley in 2000.)
What started as a quiet evening in June became an evening Mari will not soon forget. While typing at her computer, Mari was interrupted by a very “different” and persistent barking coming from Joker out in the yard. When she went out to check on him, he ran to the door to meet her. There was no apparent reason for the persistent barking so rather than waste the trip outside, Mari decided to let two of her other dogs out of their runs to play with Joker.
In Mari’s words, “I walked over to the back kennel runs and bypassed Treasure, who was out all morning with Niko. Now you have to picture the 3 back runs. Treasure, as you face the gates, is on the right; Sandy is in the middle and Saucy is on the left. To get TO the runs, I must duck under a big oak branch. Joker did not run as he usually does when I go outside – instead he stayed somewhat in front of me. I ducked under the branch, temporarily losing sight of him and the ground, and immediately veered to the left to let Sandy out.
To my surprise, Joker did everything in his power to keep Sandy from coming out, biting at her face and barking. I thought it was just his usual exuberance at the thought of running with her chasing after him with his Jollyball. (I didn’t even notice that for this ONE time Joker had NO Jollyball in his mouth and was making NO effort to find one!) Finally, Sandy came out of her run past his biting and barking and so I moved to Saucy’s run, with Sandy and Joker right beside me.
But Joker got MORE frantic and REALLY bit at Saucy to keep her back inside her run. Saucy BELIEVED him and would NOT come out of her run! I finally had to ‘run interference’ so Saucy could get out. Joker immediately put her BACK into her run via biting and barking. I was about to lose my cool with him but turned again to let Saucy out.”
Mari ran interference so Saucy could exit her kennel. As Mari turned to return to the house, Joker rushed past her in the direction of Treasure’s run. Stopping short of Treasure’s gate, Joker turned to be sure Mari was watching and then bumped his nose on the side of a fat, five foot rattlesnake that was neatly coiled right between the gates of Treasure’s and Sandy’s runs. Had Mari let Treasure out first and then gone for Sandy, she would have walked right across the snake, possibly being struck. As Mari envisioned Joker being struck right before her eyes, he sprang back with a quick look at Mari as if to say “NOW do you see the danger?”
Mari will never know why the snake didn’t strike or even rattle. Maybe it was tired from Joker’s earlier baying at it (the noise that had brought her outside) or maybe it was like the OTHER rattlesnake Mari and her husband had seen up close and personal, just exceptionally tame, but whatever the reason, it wasn’t getting a chance to change its mind. Mari and the three dogs headed to the house with Mari screaming for her husband to bring a gun, QUICK! After avoiding a handgun assault, the rattlesnake headed for the century plants where it coiled for it’s last stand, this time against a shotgun.
Joker was nominated for hero dog by Lori Graham who wrote “For alerting Mari to the danger, after literally trying to block his owner plus two of her other dogs from the potential strike of a rattlesnake, and at great peril to himself, I think “Joker” deserves to be nominated for Australian Cattle Dog Hero of the Year.”
Mari had written in her e-mail to friends telling of the evening’s events “Now that we have FINALLY settled down from WAY TOO MUCH excitement, we find that Joker doesn’t know what all the fuss over him is about. But now I have a really solid answer for people who ask me why I spend the effort and money to maintain my much-loved IBD PRA-affected dog….. Why Joker is our very own hero dog."
Note: Sadly, Joker went to the Bridge suddenly in late August due to complications from IBD.
