We've had many visitors since we moved to the country some 13 years ago: Various dogs and cats, none of whom hung around long when confronted by the unhospitable Cur. A hen, escapee from a commercial chicken house nearby who lived across the road in the woods, flying across the highway to get water and what she could glean from spilled cow feed and back again to roost. A yearling steer, escaped from a feed lot when a truck unloaded a herd that was crazed, who finally found his way back from across the creek and jumped in with our cows until cowboys came with horses on a trailer, unloaded, roped the calf and loaded up again. A fawn, dropped one night by a doe. He couldn't jump the fence to return with her to the woods, so she came under cover of night to feed him and he was on his own in daytime, ignored by cows and watched from a distance by us. When he was finally strong enough to jump the fence, he ran in front of a car.
Yesterday we had visitors, announced by the ding of the motion sensor at the end of the porch. I looked out to see two large white dogs with long hair and furry tails. They stood politely, looking as if they wanted to be welcomed while Cur barked hysterically inside the porch door. They never came closer, turning to explore the upper lawn. The bigger one found a dirty puddle and drank, then the other one drank. She squatted at the far side of the yard to relieve her bladder, then they circled back across the driveways and disappeared down the highway.
They were not matted and dirty like strays, but they had no collars. They had bright, inquisitive eyes, not a cowed look of mistreatment. I looked up large white dogs online and while they looked like Great Pyrenees, they were either not, or they were not full grown. They could be white retrievers. I hope they have a home nearby and somebody just left the gate open and they found their way safely back home after they explored.
