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Return visit with friends of 2022

Rosie spends her days with a small flock of ewes, chewing grass and fitting in — just like any other sheep. Except Rosie’s got another group of BFFs who act quite differently, including golden retriever Demi and Labrador Roy — pictured here with Ethan Hodgkin. Hand-raised by the Hodgkin family in Invergordon, Rosie’s pretty sure she’s a dog.

Every year we meet some amazing Man’s Best Friends. Here are a few we caught up with during 2022.

On Linda McKenzie’s goat stud and meat farm in Mangalore lives a ‘goat dog’ called Tiggy. Picked up as a stray in Melbourne, Tiggy has proven herself to have an innate understanding of goat psychology. Here she checks where some twin kids’ mum has got to.
Maisy and Boz had everything worked out. After spending their youth herding sheep with owner Adam Caspani, the kelpies traded hard work for a small broadacre and flower farm. Their biggest problem was deciding which sunbeam to sleep in. Life was good — then Jack Russell-cross-foxy Boris arrived.
On Bev and Nev Montgomery’s farm near Tallygaroopna, on the back of the quad bike, you’ll occasionally see a small brown mop of fur poking its head up. This is Sizzle the cat, the only one of the Montgomery’s five cats who has what it takes — or wants — to get out into the paddocks.
Cody the English springer spaniel runs the show from his backyard. Raised in suburbia, he’s not the best working dog — but he tries to help out on Karen Brown’s Tongala property where she breeds Australian Spotted Ponies.
It’s a case of beauty and brawn at Danielle Roberts’ home in Bonnie Doon. Border collie Macca brings the good looks and charming personality, while pug-cross-shih tzu, Vader, runs a tough, no-nonsense security operation.
Colin Flanagan has had people beg to buy his dog Rosie. The 10-year-old kelpie entered his life in South Australia when he was running the Granite Ridge Angus stud on the Limestone Coast. Now they run Prime Angus outside Benalla.
It’s a case of polar opposites on the Stedmans’ sheep and cropping enterprise in Caniambo. Their senior herding dog Gem (pictured) is gentle, intelligent and a good listener, while her up-and-coming replacement Rusty has been labelled a boofhead and “a bit different” by the workers and farmer Locky Stedman. Photo by Daneka Hill