Zoe made her last round on Saturday checking to make sure everything was okay after she spent the night in the house. Friday evening I discovered that her cancer had advanced and she was declining. We brought her in the house for the night and started her on pain meds to keep her comfortable. We knew this was going to be her last weekend at the farm. She felt much better on Saturday morning and we let her go back out with the herd. She went right to work to check on things and to see what had happened in her absence overnight. She then made a bed in the hay with Mudflap and Chloe laying with her. They knew that she was not well. She spent Saturday night in the house and once again she felt like going out with the herd on Sunday. Later that afternoon, I found her surrounded by the goats in her bed of hay. That was her last time with the herd. 
Zoe was a very sweet dog with loving eyes. I remember Dr. Anderson from the NC State Vet School commenting that he had never seen such friendly livestock guardian dogs. She fell in love with Dr. Bowman here in VA at Commonwealth Vet Clinic. She did not act like an LGD. She put her paw on him and just looked at him with her sweet eyes. It was almost embarrassing she was supposed to be a mean and tough LGD! We formed an unconventional relationship with our LGDs. We could not have mean dogs with children and older folks visiting our farm. Even though she was a sweet dog and never seemed to do much in the way of guarding the goats there was more to her than met the eye. We have never lost a goat to a predator. We had a large coyote population at our farm in NC and birthed almost 100 kids there and never lost a kid to a coyote or any other predator. Thank you Zoe. You will be sadly missed by your family, Mudflap, Chloe and your herd.
These are some of my favorite pictures that were taken at our farm in NC. Zoe was just under a year of age and already knew how to take care of young kids.
Zoe
February 2005 - January 2010
