The Denver Gazette

Loss of ‘right-hand man’ hits rancher hard

RACHEL GABEL Rachel Gabel is a longtime agriculture writer and the assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine.

Greg Sykes is a big man. A cowboy. A rancher with big hands marked by working every day of his 50some years. But last week when he knelt down to carry his best dog’s body back to the house, he must have seemed much smaller. The dog in his arms, he said, replaced a full-time employee even though he couldn’t drive the pickup. The country around the Swift Ranches is hard country, marked by steep inclines, rough terrain, and brush.

A man needs a good dog and the one limp in his arms was a good one. Cisco is a border collie, and he moves quickly, with purpose, and stays low to the ground, ready to be called off or recalled at a second’s notice. Baxter Black once wrote of a border collie that they have the “work ethic of a boat person” and said when the “away to me” command is given, they “streak and sail, zipping like pucks on the ice. Black and white hummingbirds, in out, up down.”

He once sent Cisco into the willows, so thick he couldn’t see the three cow calf pairs he suspected were concealed in the cover. Cisco reappeared with the three cows and calves, two moose, and a deer that were in there, too. He was a good dog, he had a full-time job, and he was tremendously good at it.

Greg’s wife, Donna, took Cisco to gather bulls once. The two of them gathered the bulls and Cisco held them in a corner while Donna moved the pickup and trailer to the corral. When she called for Cisco, he appeared with the bulls and moved them through the gate so they could be loaded and moved to another pasture.

The 30-yard walk back to the house with Cisco’s body was a long one. It was enough to make cowboys cry. Greg carefully laid Cisco’s body down and called for CPW officials to confirm what he knew. Wolves killed this dog. When the CPW staffers arrived, hats in hand, they knew what this loss meant to Sykes.

The officers photographed wolf tracks and used GPS data on the collared wolves to confirm they were in the area. According to the GPS, the wolves remained on and around the Swift Ranch for days after Cisco was attacked.

The working dog string, including Cisco, had been let outside at 4 a.m. In the time it took for Greg to make a pot of coffee and call them back a bit before 4:30 a.m., two dogs didn’t return. The other dog, a female named Lady, was laying beside Cisco when Greg found them. She was protecting his body and she didn’t leave his side until Greg removed his body to have him cremated.

The livestock guardian dogs are now patrolling the cowherd and the yard. Cisco wasn’t attacked out in the wild parts of the ranch. He was attacked a stone’s throw from Greg and Donna’s home. When the two dogs didn’t recall, Greg knew there was a problem and went to look for them. Thinking they couldn’t possibly have been attacked so close to their home, he drove the opposite direction.

He returned just as the first light of dawn was pouring over the ranch and spotted Cisco and Lady out his window. And that’s where he knelt to scoop the dog’s body into his arms.

The next morning, Sykes’ guardian dogs were signaling wolf presence with their barks. He called a neighbor at 3:30 a.m. to let him know the predators were close. By 7:30 a.m., the neighbor, Roy Gollobith, was speeding to the veterinarian with his dog, his throat ripped open. He was euthanized because of his injuries and CPW confirmed the same collared wolves had attacked him. Gollobith said there were wolf tracks 10 feet from his home, between his home and garage. His grandchildren were sleeping in his home when the wolves trotted through their yard.

Sykes is no wolf advocate but said he had accepted that wolf presence was inevitable, especially following the passage of the reintroduction. He was prepared to live and work with wolves in the area, just as he does with other large predators. Now, he said having the ability to protect his property and his stock and his working dogs is part of being able to live with wolves. All of this, mind you, before a single wolf is reintroduced into the state.

CPW does provide compensation for livestock guard and herding dogs, based on the actual value of the dog at the time and place of the loss. Sykes said it’s much like replacing a full-time employee, even though dogs of Cisco’s caliber have sold for $20,000.

“To have your hands tied in your own front yard and have people who don’t understand that we need to be able to defend ourselves and protect our property,” he said. “Everybody knows Coloradans love their dogs, but they need to realize it’s going to get worse.”

Sykes is now preparing for calving season, which is right around the corner.

And he’s doing it without his righthand man.

OP/ED

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2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281874417659840

The Gazette, Colorado Springs