Field notes4 min
Cowboy 101: Ode to Warnie
A working cowdog is a coworker. Warnie was the best coworker any of us ever had.
GY
Gil Yearwood
2024-11-01

Photo · Ellett Valley archives
Warnie was a Border Collie, blue-eyed and thirty-eight pounds soaking wet. She ran this farm from 2009 to 2023. Every cow on the place knew her, and every one of them respected her.
"She could gather a hundred head out of standing timber and put them through a gate without a word from me. On her last day she rode shotgun in the truck to check pasture, laid down in the grass, and didn't get up."
You bury a dog like that at the top of the hill so she can still see the herd. She's buried at the top of the hill.
- Gil Yearwood, from the porch, Blacksburg VA

