Okay! I will admit it. Sometimes, I do not like them. As big & as fluffy-looking & puppy-like as they are, the problem is, that is what they are: too big, too fluffy, and immature pups. It’s not that they are in the way so much as we all live in a house too small for all of us. Especially THEM! The Polar Wolves, as Tera has so poetically named them.

The worst one of them all, though, is the one we call Big-Big. And that’s truly what he is: BIG. One really, really BIG dog/puppy. The largest of the four wolves.

Willie is his real name, named after Willie Nelson, I believe, and it’s not his size that is so bothersome. It’s his damned, sad temperament & looks. All an intruder needs to do is look into those big, sad eyes & realize there is not one vicious bone in his big, furry-white body.

The Pyrenean Mountain Dog is a breed of livestock guardian dog from France, where it is known as the Chien de Montagne des Pyrénées or more commonly the Patou. It is called the Great Pyrenees in the United States. The breed comes from the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains that separate France and Spain.

And they are big!

And we have four of them. Two males; two females. Each one is named after a famous Country Western singer. Like the one female, June, as in June Carter. Hank: Hank Williams. And then there is Messy Jessy. For the life of me, I don’t remember which singing Jessie our big Messy is revering, but I hope the singer was/is not as defiant & down-right dirty as our North Carolina girl is.

Messy Jessy has to be the middle child. She has the temperament of one. And I know what I’m talking about. I’m the middle child. Something about the middle child defying authority, causing problems & generally doing in such a way everyone knows it is not out of malice – it’s just how we are.

And, yes, I’m aware I am comparing my own proclivities to that of an eight-month-old puppy the size of Alaska.

Maybe that is the reason I like her the least out of the four.

Now, I don’t want this to read like a hate column against dogs, specifically the Pyrenees, because I do like them. Most of the time.

What has spawned my interest in devoting an entire piece of writing to them has to do with what is going on right now, in the middle of the night, as I am typing this very column up. The Great Pyrenees is a nocturnal canine. Natural protectors. And these dogs had the training to be livestock guardians, I think.

How do they begin to protect if they think there might be trouble? They BARK & BARK & BARK. What makes Big-Big the worst Pyrenees out of our four? He is so brave & big & ferocious, he feels he does not need to leave the front porch, sometimes, to bark at whatever imaginary danger is out there in the dark. 200-and-some acres of farmland & forest to be free upon all night. Big-Big chooses to stay close to the front porch, where there is a security light! A blanket. And, possibly, if there were REAL danger, I imagine he wants to be the first one let in, so he can hide under the bed. And that is no stretch of my sometimes excessive imagination. I have personally witnessed that dog – that great big, ferocious guardian dog afraid of something, and move as fast as his clumsy, puppy-dog-male-child body could go beneath the Master Bed.

That is our Great Protector, I thought. Our Great Gaurdian!

His baby sister is more of threat than he is. All he has going for him is his size. And one hell of a loud, non-stop bark.

Maybe that is why he won’t stop? Maybe he’s worried if he does, the Great Beasties will come & get him. And if that is the case, I wouldn’t stop barking either

Plus: all four of them are just Polar Wolf puppies. They’ll grow into those tall, fluffy bodies soon. Jessie might learn that when her collar “reminds” her to get her hindquarters back on the property, she should really listen to it. Tara’s cowardly wolf might find his courage. The other two… well, they have not left the kind of impressions their big brother & messy sister have.

They are good pups. Hopefully, I won’t ever have to protect them.