Shepherds of Coyote Rocks
(Book)

Cat Urbigkit journeys alone to spend a season on Wyoming's open range, tending to a flock of domestic sheep as they give birth amid the challenges of nature, from severe weather to a wealth of predators. Her only companions are the guardian animals, big dogs and a pair of burros named Bill and Hillary, that repeatedly prove their worth in their devotion to protecting the flock. Urbigkit offers interesting reflections on the role of pastoralists around the globe and on the controversial issue in the western U.S. of private livestock herds being run on public lands. The intimate ways in which abstract public policy plays out on the open range are eye-opening.