Best Friends

Somewhere in the Grand Scheme of Life, there was a LAW that decreed that Cats and dogs were mortal enemies.


That would be fine and dandy, that is if the Cats and Dogs could read. And someone didn't tell this rule to Rigby and Cosmo, our barn cats. or our Border Collies and LGDs for that matter.


Rigby is the KING of the Farm....yes, all soaking, wet, FIVE POUNDS of him. And he loves puppies...I mean he really LOVES puppies.....they follow him in awe and he uses them as tiny chew toys and fuzzballs. The more puppies, the better in his eyes...the more to chase and play with....some might call it torment. The puppies moms just lay and watch as if "Cool, got me a babysitter and now I can take a nap in peace!!"

We kept Rainey, Kael and Anson from the last litter. As you all know by now, Rainey is the "Princess in training"...right behind her mom, the Queen Tess. Jeff helps by spoiling her quite a bit and they adore each other and are die-hard LSU fans.


But this last weekend in the few days we had of sunshine, the pups and Rigby were all out for a stroll. Every time the pups go for a walk, Rigby magically appears and we all take a walk.

First is Rainey and Rigby, well, just being "BEST FRIENDS"




Now, Rigby decides to have a little fun with Anson. Notice Anson is taking it all in....why, you ask...because....

...Rigly is sweet to Anson and is showing him to play "Simon Says".....mimic my movements exactly, put your front feet on this pipe, your back feet like this and look at me

So the pups are following Rigby about but then they soon mob him...

....and with Rainey hot on his heels, he runs up the fence post to soak up the last ray of sunshine....

"Shiro"

The Senior Member at DeltaBluez Stockdogs

Aren't I the cutest 6 week old puppy!!?

Jeff (Getty) and Shiro on a hike

Getty and Shiro doing Canine Frisbee.

She was ranked on of the top WA dogs and competed with Getty everywhere.

Herding....many yrs ago.....

Shiro will be 15 yrs old in April. It seems like the other day we got her. she was 5.5 weeks old and too young to be sold but it was a rancher who is basically a BYB and I didn't know any better. Jeff, then boyfriend (now spouse)...took one look at her (he was a dog hater then ) said...."she's your dog and I don't want anything to do with her"....and we both now how that ended up.....in a matter of weeks, she was Jeff's dog and the rest is history.

She was one of those terrible Border Collie you hear about...ripped our bathroom to shreds, was hell on shoes, tore everything up she could get her teeth on and just was a pain in the a$$ but we loved her in spite of that.....so she was Jeff's (aka Getty) Frisbee dog and our beloved camping buddy.....and she also did AKC trials (this was a long time ago)

She has a heart of Gold and I guess we can blame her for showing us the path for herding.....we love her dearly and is our *beloved first child* and hope she will be around for a few more years

Snow Day

We had over 6 inches of snow this week. The pups had a ball. Tess, the pups and Rigby played and played and the best part they didn't come in the house covered in mud but they had cleaned themselves in the fresh snow. Even Nan got into playing in the snow. Soon, Tess and Nan were running around and playing with each other. They even licked each other faces and where taking turns chasing each other. It was a riot.

Can you find the puppy in this picture?

This is looking outside from our front window.

Kael

"My ball"

"WHAT?? I am supposed to share MY BALL with my puppies???"

Anson

Rainey the Snow-nose puppy!!

And of course, when puppies are around, Rigby has to play with them....here he is egging them on to chase him and they did and life was complete.

"Nana"

Western Regionals 2007, Oregon

It's been a while since I wrote about one of the Border Collies here so this week, Nan is the featured dog.

Nan is a daughter of Imp Spot (owned by Michelle Howard). Spot was a successful Nursery dog run by Bobby Henderson and imported by Joni Swanke.
Her dam is Nell (owned by Laura Hick). Laura raises tremendous dogs that work hard in the Dakotas on a cattle operation. She has the best of both worlds and you can tell!!

I got Nan about 1.5 yrs ago. She is very FAST and biddable...although we had to work on the biddable bit for a while but now she has partnered up with me. We have been running in Open. She really wants to please but she is quite pushy on the stock. She is very fast and her quickness sometimes spooks the sheep. I am really pleased with Nan. We are starting to figure each other out and she is a great shedder. We have been running in Open and while we are not setting the world on fire with our scores, we only have been together for a bit. In due time, it will fall in place. My timing is slow other still but it is getting better.

Nan just turned five so we have lots of years together. Now I just have to step up to the plate to her level. I am truly blessed to have Nan.

Her full sister is owned by Tommy Wilson and is named Sly and has done very well.