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As Gladys Caudle, her sister, recalls, "We used to have sheep until the labor shortage hit ranchers in 1944. Late in November the preceding year our men were bringing the flocks down from summer range up around scenic Redfish Lake in the heart of the Sawtooth Mountains. They were crossing the Minidoka Desert when a very large, white-haired dog of noble proportions came to their campfire one night."

The herders fed the dog and tried to make friends, but he held himself aloof. By morning he had disappeared. Four nights running he repeated the nocturnal visits. At last, one of the men managed to get a halter on him and brought him to the Caudle ranch five miles south of Twin Falls. The men thought the dog might have strayed away from some Basque herder's camp.

That is when the falling in love phase really began. Helen Caudle studied the dog from all points. Repeatedly she remarked how tall he stood; how long his tail; how unusual his bearing and behavior. She asked everyone she knew who had any knowledge of dogs to identify the breed; she pored over dog histories. Among the references she consulted was a book put out by the American Kennel Club in which she found a picture of a Great Pyrenees dog with a description of his characteristics. The resemblance that her stray bore to the pictured canine led her to search for further confirmation of his breed.

In a copy of Dog World, Miss Caudle ran across an advertisement for the Basquaerie Kennels, often referred to as the "Cradle of the Pyrenees," owned by Mrs. Frances V. Crane of Holliston, Massachusetts, nationally famous as a breeder of Great Pyrenees. Using the address given, Helen Caudle wrote to Mrs. Crane, inquiring about the possible existence of a breed of dog brought to this country by the Basques and adding a description of her adopted pet. Back came a prompt answer, "What makes you think you might not have a pure-bred Great Pyrenees?"

That sealed Helen's intentions and Bobby, as he was called, became the first of her Great Pyrenees family. In spite of her growing attachment to the great white stranger, Helen conscientiously continued to search for his owner. On other trips to the sheep range Bobby went along, retracing the same route by which he had come to the Caudles. Helen told the story to sheepherders along the way, but no one recognized or claimed Bobby. The only solution to the riddle appeared to be that the dog had, for some unknown reason, become separated from a band of sheep traveling from Nevada grazing areas through Idaho and on into Montana or Wyoming.

WHEN BOBBY met death on the highway, Miss Caudle wrote at once to Mrs. Crane about purchasing another pure-bred Pyrenees. After much dickering, a pair started on their way to Idaho. Basquaerie Sarcleur and Belle de Nuit, affectionately known as Solly and Belle, cost $150, plus $83 express charges.

On a first trip to the Caudle ranch visitors are wise to go by day. Encountering those massive white bodies and hearing the full-throated rumbling bark of the grown dogs might prove too much at night. The adult male dogs average around 160 pounds and measure thirty-two inches in height at the shoulder. Somewhat smaller, the female tips the scales at 135 pounds and stands twenty-seven to twenty-nine inches at the shoulder.

Actually, however, the adult dogs are remote as floating icebergs to strangers. Just try to get near Solly for a picture! But the pups are as affectionate and playful as kittens. A child is just another playfellow to them and, in a matter of moments, romping youngsters and pups are hopelessly mixed in a tumbling ball. They almost love a child too well, if such could be the case.

Though comparatively rare, the Great Pyrenees are popular as show breeds. Since the advent of television an enterprising master of ceremonies in California has featured the Great Pyrenees several times on his program for placing lost or strayed dogs in new homes. Publicity such as this, plus the enduring interest of people who have once known the Great Pyrenees, serves to win them recognition.

ADDED TO the Caudles' store of legend and fact surrounding their beloved Great Pyrenees dogs are innumerable anecdotes told by visitors to the ranch. "Someone is always turning up with a new story about the dogs," Helen Caudle relates. Among the most quoted is the one attesting that never in all their long history has a Great Pyrenees been known to harm a child. Loving children, he will guard them with his life. In Spain, families who own a Great Pyrenees pet need never bother with nursemaids or baby-sitters.

Heroic in proportions, the Great Pyrenees have been equally so in performance. As early as 1407 French writings record the use of the "Great Dogs of the Mountains" as guardians of the Chateau of Lourdes where they were regarded as regular assistants to the men on their rounds and where provisions were made for them in the sentry boxes. Armed by nature with a long heavy coat which rendered him invulnerable against attack except for the point of the chin and the base of the brain, and armed by man with a broad iron collar from which protruded iron spikes an inch and a half long, the Pyrenees dog was an almost unbeatable foe who won fame as a killer of wolves and bears.

Louis XIV made him the Royal Dog of France, a fad the noblemen were quick to follow. A French marquis started the first registry, a fact which accounts for all the dogs bearing French names.

During World War I the Pyrenees were used for pack service, and for many years the dogs carried contraband goods over the Franco-Spanish border, taking dangerous byways to avoid customs officials. However, most of the Great Pyrenees of Europe spend their lives on steep mountain slopes guarding valuable flocks of sheep.

General Lafayette introduced the first ones to America by bringing over a pair to his friend, J. S. Skinner, in 1824.

TRULY AN aristocrat of the canine world, the Great Pyrenees, a member of the mastiff family, dates back into antiquity to the centuries before Christ. Fossil remains are found in deposits of the Age of Bronze 1800-1000 B.C., and in the kitchen middens of the Baltic and North Sea Coasts in the oldest strata containing evidence of the domestic dog.

The 1950 registry of the American Kennel Club noted an increase of 194 Great Pyrenees puppies; that of 1949, 212. This figure does not take into account the adult dogs previously named in earlier registries. As the demand for dogs is constant and growing, their numbers can be expected to increase greatly. Because of the minimum of care and expense involved in raising them and their heritage of almost unlimited stamina and strength, the Great Pyrenees are highly prized.

Sometimes the Caudles find their charges almost too intelligent. Recently a woman visitor to the ranch was invited to see the new Arabian colt. Solly was so eager to be included in the expedition that he rushed past the woman, upsetting her. She sat down to adjust herself a bit and a penitent Solly, breaking through his natural reluctance to go near any stranger, came and laid his paw on her foot, knelt, and looked up pleadingly. "A human being couldn't have asked forgiveness more aptly," Gladys Caudle recalls. Twice he repeated the move until his dog sense assured him the wrong had been righted.

LIKE ALL long-haired animals, the Great Pyrenees dogs need help in shedding. When the air begins to fall, it mats badly. As in the care of Angora cats, a comb is used to separate the masses of loose fur.

In some of her reading, Gladys Caudle encountered the story of a woman who had knit a sweater of this hair. Deciding that "what she did I can do," Gladys spun a one-ply thread on her own spinning wheel and crocheted a cap for Helen right from the spindle. Whether she may start a new trend in millinery is a moot question around Magic Valley.

Despite their size the Pyrenees eat very little and the food element does not present a great expense. Each year the girls place approximately 450 pounds of venison in their locker. By arrangement with the owner of a frozen food locker concern, who processes game, they receive the meaty portions surrounding gunshot wounds that otherwise might be discarded as unfit for human consumption. Butchers have a tendency to make a lavish incision that wastes much fine meat. For the labor involved in packaging and freezing this scrap, the Caudles pay 4 cents a pound. Purina Kibbled Meal is purchased in 100 pound lots and quantities of cracklings at 5 cents a pound.

For those who are not fortunate enough to live near big game areas, the Caudles suggest the use of horse meat as the cheapest substitute. Since the Pyrenees are definitely not huge meat-eaters, the few cents additional that might be charged for this alternate would not materially increase the cost. In the Twin Falls area, horse meat is not sold commercially, but it is available in many parts of the country.

TO PREPARE the food, Helen Caudle cooks the meat in a pressure cooker until it is almost pulverized. Then it is mixed with meal so that it will not be too moist and stored in aluminum pans in the Caudles' own deep freeze.

Each evening the dogs are given a portion of the meal and venison and their pans are picked up in the morning. An average feeding would amount to less than two pounds for a twenty-four-hour period and this covers not only the meat and meal but as much cracklings as the dogs want. Like growing children, the pups eat as much as the adult dogs.

Often the food appears to have been almost untouched. When this occurs, Helen gathers the scraps in meat packages, places it in the deep freeze or cooler, and on the next feeding mixes the left-overs with the new serving.

Along with the mixture of meal and meat, the dogs are given pure protein in the form of cracklings, carefully torn into pieces. These are especially beneficial to the Pyrenees, for the enamel of their teeth is softer than the bone and would be damaged by gnawing bones. Likewise the torn pieces can be chewed and swallowed completely before a quarrel ensues over who gets the next bite. For variety Helen may substitute Thorofed dog food occasionally. This she purchases by the case.

Living on a ranch, the Caudles enjoy good beef of their own butchering. When Gladys prepares to cook rich cuts, she removes part of the fat and some lean meat to be fried or broiled for the dogs. The dogs eat very little that is taken from the table; now and then they may have some carrots, green beans, or gravy.

Explaining the Pyrenees frugality of appetite, Helen cites the many centuries of their existence with the Basque peasants on the rocky mountain slopes of northern Spain where crops are difficult to grow. The peasants had sparse meals and the dogs shared in their paucity of food. Perhaps their stomachs shrunk as their appetites were conditioned to the meager resources.

It is a characteristic of the Great Pyrenees never to over eat. Like a well-fed person, he eats only what he wants and needs. If excited or distracted by playing a game, he may ignore food altogether.

When the puppies are three to four weeks old, Helen begins to supplement the milk of the mother dog. First she adds milk, then the mixture of meal and meat. Cracklings are given them at all times. Litters are weaned at will by the mother dog; a first litter at five weeks, a second at ten weeks or even later.

Each one of the dogs has his own, stainless Steer pan for feeding, and after use they are washed as carefully as the best china.

The kennels and runs used by the Pyrenees were originally built for cocker spaniels, so the addition of the new breed did not necessitate any added expense. However, Helen did have platforms built on which the Pyrenees love to lie and bask in the sun. Wherever you see the Great Pyrenees dogs, you'll find platforms.

THE PYRENEES tend to have rather large litters. A female will usually produce two litters a year with seven to nine pups the average. Last year Belle raised nine out of her first litter of ten puppies; seven out of nine in a second litter. Female Great Pyrenees cannot be bred as young as some dogs, for example cocker spaniels, Belle was approximately twelve months old before she was first bred.

The puppies are given a series of three distemper shots. Although the precaution is not one hundred per cent effective, it does insure against a violent attack. Before shipping pups to other states, Helen Caudle makes inquiries of a local veterinary as to regulations of that particular state and then provides the necessary immunization. For example, Illinois and Utah both require rabies shots.

Helen keeps the pens and runs scrubbed as clean as her kitchen floor. According to her, meticulous attention to such details means healthier and happier dogs.

The pups are sold for prices ranging from $50 to $100, depending on the markings and points of the individual dog rather than the sex. In explaining her method of judging the value of the dogs, Helen says, "If a Pyrenees is to be used for breeding, he must have some dark marks, either around the eyes, the jowls or the mouth," The dogs run to white, but a definite pigmentation is important to guard against albinism. The bite of the teeth must be even and the jaws well-formed with no disfigurement such as harelip. True whites make good pets and find ready sale, but breeders must have dark markings. An unusual characteristic distinguishing the Pyrenees is the presence of two dewclaws on the hind feet. An added factor is the curved tail which comes back to make a wheel with an extra kink in the end that won't come out.

Sometimes sales have been made to buyers in distant cities who fell under the Pyrenees spell during a chance encounter. Duchess, one of last winter's litter, was purchased by an executive at Sun Valley. Among the guests at the lodge who watched the superb poise of the dog, particularly under ill-treatment by Boris, a St. Bernard, was a navy officer from the East. Almost as soon as he returned to his home, a letter was dispatched to the Caudles ordering a pup.

For shipping, the Caudles have crates built to order. Made of heavy plywood, they allow the dog sufficient room to stand upright, provide for ventilation, and are equipped with feeding pans. Buyers are requested to return the crates to the Caudles by express and collect.

IN SELLING her dogs, Helen Caudle has advertised through various agencies: the local newspaper, the Times-News of Twin Falls; the Salt Lake City Tribune; the Idaho Journal of Pocatello; Dog World; and the Arabian Horse magazine. Almost every advertisement has netted her at least one sale.

Virtually all the dogs in the lineage of both Solly and Belle are champions or grand champions, so Helen's kennels draw buyers from a wide area.

When Mrs. Crane compiled a book on the Great Pyrenees Club of America, Helen Caudle was invited to enter a picture and descriptive material. This added valuable prestige to her standing.

Helen has made her project pay by the process of study, research, and carefully worked out routines and records, She keeps exact and complete books on her dog-raising. By computing expenses and profits, she has found that feeding all the Great Pyrenees (she now has on hand seven pups and four grown dogs), plus two Pekingese, two cocker spaniels, and an Australian shepherd costs her 40 cents a day.