Today, December 29,2016, is a very sad day. We lost our Italian Maremma guard dog, Ivan.
Ivan came to live with use through an unplanned visit nearly ten years ago. At the time, we were active in the Indiana Alpaca Association and one of the earlier association visits took place at Todd and Pam Hrubey’s Whispering Willows Alpacas. We did not have a guard dog for our small alpaca herd and the Hrubeys had some beautiful guard dogs with theirs. I usually passed their farm going to future meetings and I always kidded them that I would stop and take one of their dogs home with me.
At one particular meeting, the Hrubeys told me that they were fostering a displaced Italian Maremma and if I was interested to stop by their place on the way home to take a look at him. I did and the rest is history. I met Ivan (he already had a name) and immediately called Trina to tell her that I had a chance to bring him home with me to be our guard dog. She was fine with that. Ivan was a big, beautiful dog with long, white fur and big black soulful eyes. It took three of us to lift him up in the little Toyota pickup since he was already full grown. It was a bit tricky at first on the way home since Ivan practically filled the seat beside me. He didn’t settle for several miles and turning onto the interstate ramps was interesting. But soon he put his massive head on my lap and we became friends on the remainder of the 100-mile trip.
The original plan was to put Ivan in the two-car garage the first night after I got home and then introduce him to the alpacas the next day. Unfortunately, Ivan wanted no part of this. He refused to go in the garage. After much pleading, begging and tugging, there was no other alternative but to take this big 135-pound ball of fur to the alpaca barn and put him in the middle part where the feed and hay was stored. Ivan was fine with this plan.
Ivan became inseparable with the alpacas, the two goats, the barn cats, the horses, the other dogs, and us. He usually rested during the day and during the evenings he would make his rounds around the perimeter of the alpaca lots. Whenever a strange animal such as a deer or coyote came into view or too close, you could hear that big warning bark in the night to stay away or else. It could be quite intimidating. We never had to worry about predators. But he loved us and we loved him. He loved to play and jump around when I would go to the barn, always wagging that big white tail.
As the years went by, Ivan began to show his age. He was always on guard, but I could tell his health was deteriorating. He slept more during the day and began to show signs that he could not move around like he used to. Although he always ate his food, his eyes just told me he was so tired.
I did not see him this morning when I went to the barn to feed. I looked around the lots and still did not see him. I should have know that he could not do this, but I thought he had become alarmed at something and gotten up into the hay manger where he could possibly get over the fence to the adjacent field and woods. The nature of this breed of dogs is that they seem to not know boundaries – they keep on going. I got in the truck where I went around the neighborhood and onto all our fields. I still could not find him. I walked around the lot once again to discover that he was lying down in the southwest corner where I did not see him at first. The poor fellow could not get up without help. I went to the barn to get a leash thinking I could coax him to lead. When I went back to him, he could not get up at all. Since he was so big, I could not carry him. I then went back to the house to got the lawn tractor and dump cart to bring him to the barn for medical attention. However, when I returned he had already passed. It broke my heart, but I was glad to have talked to him and patted that big head before he died.
After I finally got his body loaded onto the cart, I took him to the top of the hill under a walnut tree where I dug a deep grave. I placed his body facing the east and covered him with a blanket and alpaca fleece. He is there to remain and watch over his flock.
Ivan, you will leave a void in our hearts that can never be filled. We will miss the big, sweet Maremma, knowing that we could always sleep well during the night while he remained on guard to watch over and protect his alpacas.