Early in 2014, we were contacted by a friend and owner of one of our pups and the owner wanted to
breed her dog named “Annie.” They live not
far from us and we have boarded “Annie” on several occasions. She is a wonderful, sweet dog and we agreed
to the breeding.
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| Annie as a pup... |
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| Clancy |
He is obedient,
strong and carries himself well and his hair is hardly ever mussed and he is a
striking dog to look at. But what you
don't see is he is the most loving and gentle of all our dogs.
Molly
Mae is my "Heart Dog". For
those that don't know what that means, she is my forever dog, my soul mate dog
and usually humans have only one heart dog.
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| Molly |
She is
so gentle and loving and she is our only dog that will speak in whines and
grunts. We were excited to breed “Annie”
who is one of Clancy & Molly’s dogs to Doc. On the first attempt nothing happened. Many months later, when “Annie” came into
season again, her owner wanted to try one more time. We knew going into this, it was the last time
that “Annie” could be bred because of her age.
While chances of a mating seemed remote, the special event eventually took
place. Weeks passed before we knew for sure and “Annie” delivered her little
bundles of joy. However, this time, I
was on the outside looking in. As the
puppies grew, Elaine and I would visit to see how they were doing and they were
always doing great and so was Mother. Two
of the puppies were going to friends of our and we offered to bring the pups to
our house for them to pick up. As the
time approached for them to go to their forever homes we became excited at the
prospect of bringing them to our house. One
underlying reason was so we could see them, hold them and love on them because
they are entirely a part of the Shuck’s Border Collies. Knowing this could very well be the last time
we would hold a Clancy and Molly offspring, the thought was bittersweet. Clancy and Molly appeared happy to see them
and gave them a few licks of approval.
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| Clancy and Molly |
Doc just sniffed, seemed proud of his accomplishment and walked away.
“Annie”
and Doc are the parents.
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| Doc |
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| Annie |
As
we brought the pups home this week, little howls and trills were heard throughout
the car and the smell of puppy breath was in the air. Little did I know the impact this ride would
have on me.
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| Heidi and Jack |
That evening I had promised
to send photos to one of the owners of “Annie’s” pups because she lives out of
town and had not seen any pictures of the Mother yet. As I perused though countless numbers of
photos, I found several photos of “Annie” and her litter mates. It made me feel
very melancholy as I reflected on times and litters past. Victor
Hugo once said “Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad” and it struck me that
it is a pleasure to be sad, but in a good way.
Once again we were holding our little Molly and Clancy as we played with
their Grand-pups and it was pure heaven. Even though we have moved on in different
directions, our mind is filled with memories of little squeaks and trills along
with puppy breath and all the pleasures that go along with it. Our torch has been passed, but know that our
last prodigies were from the best and they were all ours.
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| Jack and Heidi looks like Mom |
In an email I sent to one of the owners after
the puppy went home, I told them “you have my Clancy, Mollie and Doc, all in
one... something only a few people will ever have... Know that she is special”.... In another email I received from the other owner, it had a
video of “our” pup playing ball at 8 weeks old and I said to her “I had to stop
and wipe a tear, for many reasons, it moved me...” and it did… In the emails from
the owners, I saw my little Clancy and Molly again for the last time as they were pups
and as it's said, “Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad” and it truly
is… Run Free my little ones, run free... Ken
Note; Annie had four pups and we are lucky to personally know all of the owners and two of them will live within 25 miles of us...
See you here next week or follow the dogs today on Facebook
