This is the story...
of a little Border Collie with a huge heart....
Meet Spryte (I may have mentioned her before)
She is three years old and is commonly referred to as MIDGET (only in a fond way
- mostly) because she is smaller than most girl Border Collies.
I did not plan on having her but what can you do when you go over to your friend's (coincidentally she
is a breeder of Border Collies) place and you are faced with this?
I am not a sap (mostly) and even I could not resist this devilish adorable cuteness with a side of feisty I AM WOMAN,
HEAR ME ROAR. And really when you come from a litter of seven brothers being the only girl you simply must not
let them win in *anything*.
So she grows up (well as much as a midget Border Collie can) and turns out to be a very nifty agility
dog and does some neat tricks like win a few things...
Then her breeder says - it's time, she's passed all her health tests we need to find her a man (she has nice child rearing hips you see)
Here is where I would post the images of her hip xrays but I haven't figured out how to format them off the email yet.
So we go looking and we find him on the other side of the country in Canberra at a National
event and his name is Liam.
This is Liam - he lives in South Australia
So off Spryte goes for a dirty weekend in South Australia - she apparently approved of our choice and had a good time.
Flist - this is one ship that is canon!
Nine weeks later and she's wondering why on earth she A. Can't seem to leap tall buildings (or into people's
arms) in a single bound B. Her food intake has doubled and suddenly she's getting all the treats she
wants and C. She's not only lost her svelte figure but feels like she has a bellyful miniature aliens doing
calisthenics inside her. See image below two days before she popped.
So of course the time arrives and in that miraculous way nature has - all her maternal nurturing instincts
kick in and voila! We have a litter of seven wriggly little black and white large mice sized puppies.
First boy out.
Second boy out.
First girl out.
Second girl out. I think it's her crazy ears but already I kinda like her.
Third girl out.
Fourth girl out.
Last girl out.
So she ended up with five girls and two boys.
All delivered in a very timely and convenient fashion between 9pm and midnight all on September 29th.
For a first time Mum she did very well and so far both Mum and bubs are doing well. Her breeder says
you hold your breath for the first couple weeks till they can regulate their own temps etc but so far so good.
And no, I don't know if I will be keeping one yet. That remains to be seen - but I will be watching them closely
as they grow and seeing what kind of puppies they turn into. It's important to make a connection beyond the
cuteness appeal factor so we shall see.