Happy Birthday TESS!!

Today is Tess's birthday. She is 11 years old. We love her dearly and she is the reason I am into trialing. She is the love of our life!!

A tradition for many years, Getty got Tess a McDonald's cheeseburger and he fed her. It's a private time they share together. She got two new toys, a gator and a lizard from tufftoys. She was very happy with her new toys and pranced about with them.

So, here are some random pictures of her. It's hard to believe that almost 11 years ago, we bought her as a pity buy for $100 to prevent her from being shot. I hadn't really wanted her since she had no papers, was spooky/shy and nothing about her working background and from a back yard breeder. Getty wanted to keep her and she was just going to be a pet. She turned our world upside down!!

But people believed in her (Scott Glen and Getty and me and numerous others!!) and she got her papers on merit, the third dog ever in ABCA history to do so, placed 6th in the 2001 USBCHA Nursery Finals (run by Scott Glen), placed 39th overall in the Bluegrass (run by Scott Glen - see a pattern of how he believed in her!!), ran in the USBCHA Finals (run by me), qualified numerous times, including this year for the USBCHA Finals and got a sheep farm for her second birthday. I got a weedwhacker that year.

She has produced winning Open dogs in sheep and cattle who have ran at the USBCHA Finals (Open and Nursery) and her grandpups have qualified for the USBCHA Nursery and Open Finals. She has been the main dog at the farm, working up to 120 ewes/lambs and cattle.

She has been my right hand for years and saved me more than I can count on the trial field. She is my pillow thief and bed warmer at trials. She critiques the blog each night and is always ready to have fun.

She taught me to take off my rose colored glasses because the diamond you seek is the rough stone you have in your hand. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives.

Happy Birthday DeltaBluez Tess. We love you.