Not long ago we brought home a bouncing, baby Border Collie. The cute little bounding bundle of fur is now eight months old and weighs over 40 pounds. Although not without prior experience with Border collies, we have relearned lessons about their energy, enthusiasm, intelligence, and mind boggling shenanigans.
Several years ago for Christmas I requested morning slippers. Being told by my family that I am difficult to buy for, not surprisingly I received not one pair but two pair of slippers. No problem thought I. A little redundancy is not a bad thing. Apparently our puppy Border collie thought differently.
And how innocent he looks
Beau sees no need for duplicate morning slippers. Likewise he sees no need for multiple pairs of shoes and boots, extra rolls of toilet paper, and multiple doggie toys. Slippers began to disappear or appear in mangled form. No problem I thought as I have extra slippers. But apparently our cute little bundle of fur has right-left problems, as I’ve been left with two left slippers.
Last week when Trudy and I escaped the Texas heat for Colorado for a vacation, I received word from our dog sitter/house sitter, Megan, that in her briefest loss of attention, Beau had shredded a roll of toilet paper. She said he had been especially thorough in his determined efforts and estimated that he had left 1.575,854,743,005 pieces of toilet paper-confetti around where she sat. Ah, such industriousness, that’s our Beau.
Trudy and I brought a new Border collie into our lives despite the incredulity expressed by our grown children.
“At your age?” and “Surely you must know what you’re getting into?” were a few of the kinder backhand comments we heard regarding our surprising decision. “But what happens if the dog outlives you?”
The latter question was met with our steely stares and firm resolve, “As the inheritance goes, so goes Beau!”
Baby Beau below in his toy box after having laboriously emptied it of all its contents.
Indeed, after having previously raised four Borders, we recognized how busy and challenging these sweet and intelligent animals can be but stand in utter amazement at their herding abilities, smarts, and sensitivity.
We rationalized that we needed of a younger dog to assume Bella’s role as chief canine cattle herder. Unfortunately, our sweet Bella had grown old, developed poor eyesight, put on weight, and has limited her herding. In truth, our new puppy will largely be a house pet along with ranch companion and working dog.
Bella below in her younger days.
Bella, “I don’t like another dog on the ranch. I want all the attention”
Melanie Wahrmund, a rancher and breeder of Border collies, lives about 10 miles west of our ranch. She has a slew of working dogs on her family’s large cattle ranch and is a well respected breeder of these working dogs.
Beau has changed our lives in all the ways that new puppies can. He sleeps in his crate and even in the early days, whined very little, but our sleep continues to be interrupted by periodic night time visits to the backyard.
He came with razor sharp teeth that took their toll on us, our shoes, and his toys. I’ll save you the images of Trudy’s and my mangled arms and ankles, but they weren’t pretty. He loves squeaky toys and to eviscerate them, leaving the white stuffing scattered about the house.
Fortunately after three to four months the razor sharp teeth of a new puppy are replaced by larger, less sharp permanent teeth. Also the urge to chew lessons, saving our hands, ankles, and shoes. Why is it that puppies love to remove the insoles of shoes and chew through the straps of sandals? And he looks so innocent!
Below picture taken at the Breeder’s ranch while inspecting a pup. What is there about the scent of a new puppy that is so endearing? The new puppy smell is said to resemble sweetened cream combined with an innocent, celestially clean quality. The unique fragrance is easily recognizable, universally loved, and bonds puppy to mother along with puppy to its human companions.
Below is baby Beau viewing his the garden in his new home not long after coming to our ranch.
Beau, “This place has promise.”
Beau developed a voracious appetite. He was like the dog in the time lapsed dog food commercial and seemingly grew before our eyes.
“Is it mealtime yet?” “Give me food and I’ll let you keep your shoes!”
Beau has always enjoyed falling asleep in his toy box after emptying it and scattering his many toys around the house. If only we could teach him to put the toys back into the toy box. Puppies enjoy sleeping in semi-enclosed areas that lends itself to crate training and likely harkens back to their ancestors who lived in caves and crevices.
Beau, “You just try sneaking up on me now.”
Beau in his constant discovery mode came across the thrill of tennis balls. He absolutely loves them. He greets us on the back porch with tennis ball in mouth and urges, pleads, and implores with his fawning eyes and unflagging persistence for us to throw the ball. We relent but he is so fast that before we can make our way back to a chair, Beau has dashed into the backyard, captured the ball and placed it at our feet even before we can recline in our chairs.
Needless to say, drinking coffee on the porch and watching the orange glow of the sun rise over the blue hills of Fredericksburg proves less relaxing now than it once was, but the mornings are now far more active and entertaining.
Beau, “You want to play ball?”
When Beau was about 10-weeks old, Melanie Wahrmund called with an unexpected offer. She had been contacted by a film crew in nearby Austin about making a Purina One commercial and taking stills for additional advertising purposes. The film crew had asked Melanie if she could deliver cute, young Border collies for the shoot. We were intrigued by the opportunity. Of course we spoke to Beau about the opportunity and he expressed interest. Have you noticed that Border collies are the breed of dog most seen in TV commercials?
A bleary eyed me and a wide awake Beau were soon to meet Melanie at the end of our county road at 5:15 a.m., as she was gathering a few of Beau’s litter mates. Off to Austin Melanie, her daughter, and three puppies went for the all day shoot. It was late that evening when the traveling canines and tired human companions returned to Fredericksburg. Beau was full of zest as always.
Beau apparently had shown out and had become the “star of the shoot”. We were told that he showed the greatest personality of any of the dogs and had become a favorite of the film crew. We still await viewing the finished product that hopefully will be forthcoming soon.
Below are Beau and Trudy in front of a sign celebrating Beau’s new “stardom”. The poster was made by our good friends, Colonel Tom and Danese. Her dog, Pippa, has been duly designated as head of Beau’s recently founded fan club. We’ve had a lot of fun resulting from the photo shoot. By the way Beau’s red collar as seen in the picture was courtesy of Purina.
To our surprise, several weeks later we received a check in the mail as payment for Beau’s participation in the photo shoot. Trudy joked that since we were retired, Beau was the only member of the family (or is it a pack now?) who actually brings in income! The truth was painful for the previous chief breadwinner, but I was proud nevertheless of our cute little rascal.
Views From Medicine Spirit Ranch 