FAREWELL MISS HAYLEY

This will be a short post. More posts and more tributes will follow.

Suffice it to say today, at the age 13, our beloved Miss Hayley passed on. This has been a tough year for Hayley. Severe arthritis. Heart disease. But she fought through all of it. One of her vets called Hayley "the miracle dog" Another said "That's the toughest dog I've ever seen"

She was tough, in some ways she could seem timid or even skittish but have no doubt she was tough. She loved her life, she loved her family and she had that working dog spirit "No, I'm fine really, I can do my job, don't you worry about me"

But all fights come to an end and with her heart incredibly enlarged, there was no fight left in her. We had found Cytel M, a solution to her arthritis and the other meds she was on maintained her for a long time so I can honestly say that she has not been in pain.

But this morning her heart finally threw her more than her body could handle. She jumped in and out of the car and walked into the vet and after a quick exam they were amazed she could do even that. But that was it. She had no more to give. She gave us so much in those 13  years, more than I can properly express, I didn't want her to keep trying when that trying was just too fucking difficult.

On an objective level it may seem silly to thank a dog. After all, we give them the food and the shelter and the care. But what did she give us back .....

Everything.

Thank you Miss Hayley

LIMESTONE CITY HOUND DOGS, I MEAN, BORDER COLLIES

This is the first blog of our recent trip to my hometown of Kingston, Ontario. This was Terra's first trip there, so Hayley seemed eager to show her some of her famous doggie haunts. OK, to be honest, Hayley was eager to go visit the resovoir and the dog park at the Memorial Centre but she knew that Terra would tag along

It's not like Hayley has any choice in the matter. A border collie choosing. Not something you really want.

It was spring time in Kingston. Mild temps. Melting snow. Mud clinging to fur with the tenacity of a supermodel attacking a high all you can eat buffet ... and the dogs got pretty muddy as well

Hayley & Terra in Kingston from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, BITE LIKE A BORDER COLLIE

Bo Jackson - football and baseball

Dave Winfield - baseball and basketball

Dieon Sanders - baseball and football

Jim Brown - football and lacrosse (no, really, lacrosse, not even I could make this up)

They are rare, these multi sport athletes, and they gain fame through their ability to excel at more than one athletic endeavour. Well, we need to add a new name to the roster of the immortals ...

On our recent trip up north, Terra demonstrated that she is no one hit wonder. She is not an athlete defined by any single disipline. She is at home in the water ..
.. on land ..

.. or even in the air ..

... Terra has proven that she is up to just about any athletic endeavour. While Terra has already established herself as a martial artist she has expanded her athletic repertoire to include various ball sports.
But this has not been an easy road. Natural talent is not enough to propel an athlete from the standard to the extraordinary. Every great athlete needs an inspiration, a mentor, a coach. And Terra has Miss Hayley ..
Coach Hayley is always there with an encouraging bark, a sympathetic tail wag, or, her most favourite motivational technique, a swift bite to the bum ..
And in this day and age, talent like this always means dollars and cents. For athlete and coach both. Luckily, they have an agent to whom they look for advise and guidance, in this case Collette who has all the financial answers ... and the ball in her hand
Now that a contract is the works, the two girls have some negotiating to do: Terra - "Let's demand free kibble forever!" Hayley - "Dumb jock, we already get kibble what we hold for is pizza! Pizza I tell you!"

But until the scouts and the managers and the owners are ready to get serious and puppy up (instead of pony up) Coach Hayley will keep her protoge in tune with that old mantra, practise practise practise .... or I'll bite your furry butt
And now, sports fans, let's go to the video ...

Multisport Athlete? from Collette Scale on Vimeo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYLEY

Twelve years.

On one hand, that doesn't seem right. It doesn't feel like it was twelve years ago that I put a cat carrier on the lawn and a tiny black and white ball of fuzz crawled out to meet Collette nose to nose.

In that time Collette has gone from child & youth worker to teacher, I've started my own business, we've moved three times. Hayley has become an integral part of our lives. The twelve years have gone quickly and yet she it's hard to think of our lives without her in it.

We loved Gigs. We love Terra and look forward to our years ahead with her. But Hayley is a special dog. Yes, she is border collie smart, to this day she is full of life and energy, but she has a loyalty and empathy that is truly special. When a person is sad, any person, Hayley wants to comfort them; when one of Collette's nephews was distraught to the point of tears Hayley jumped up on his lap to give him kisses

Hayley just loves to be with you, whether it be on a long walk through the woods, driving in the car, or just curled up on the couch with her head on your lap as you watch a movie. We see many of these tendencies in Terra but Hayley has demonstrated these traits time and again, over all these years

This has been a big year for Hayley. We thought long and hard about the affect a new dog, a puppy would make in her life. We did not want her status in our household to be upset and we did not want her in any way to be uncomfortable.

Terra is a strong dog, you could even say dominant and for a while it was touch and go. She constantly pestered Hayley and of course diverted a lot of our attention. But we fought to maintain Hayley's status and as Terra has matured, Miss Hayley has become more comfortable with exerting her authority. Terra is much more respectful of the older dog and it is not unusual to find them sleeping together.

Terra has had a positive effect on Hayley. Since the puppy has come Hayley has lost a little weight and her energy level has definitely increased. She has taken Terra as being her dog. Hayley is a true herder and her favorite game is to chase dogs who are fetching balls, but she never touches the ball. I've seen balls go right under her muzzle but she backs off it, she wants the other dog to take that ball she it can be herded. Terra is an exception. While Hayley loves to chase and herd the puppy, she will often go for the ball, snatching it away from her. I have seen a lot of her playfulness come back to her and there are times you can still see the puppy in my twelve year old.

I'm happy to know that having the puppy not only enriches our life, it has made Hayley's life more pleasurable as well.

Below is a little slide show comprised of images Collette shot over this past year of Hayley's life. with music by our old friend Georgette Fry. This is our old girl. Everybody loves their dog. Everybody should love their dog. But Hayley is a dog that not only loves us back, but really genuinely seems concerned with our well being. Is that me reading too much into her actions? You could think so

But if you did, you don't really know Miss Hayley.

Happy Birthday Terra from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

THE ROLLER COASTER OF LOVE

Wow

It has been a crazy last few days. We have been on an emotional roller coaster, with Miss Hayley at the controls. Sort of.

Monday, she showed signs of not being well. Diarrhea, vomit but her energy level was OK. What alarmed us was her refusal to take treats. Hayley being fussy with her dinner was one thing, but turning down a treat is something else. That's like me turning down a cookie. Then Collette tried to give her the daily thyroid meds. We give her this pill in a little bit of cheese. Hayley refused it. We became concerned. That's like me turning down a beer.

We phoned the vet, let them know what was going, her symptoms didn't seem too severe, except for her refusal to take a treat. I made an appointment for her later in the afternoon. In the meantime I took the girls out for their long walk. At first Hayley was herself, energetic and showing an interest in the ball and in other dogs. But as time went on, I saw her grow more listless and more disinterested. At one point she lay down and didn't want to get back up when I told her it was time to do so.

Yup, she was not feeling well

So off to the vet we went. They took blood etc but really weren't sure what was wrong with her. She had a bit of a fever but otherwise didn't seem too bad. So we took her home to wait for the test results. Unfortunately, from midnight on, she vomited every couple of hours. She was weak and listless and clearly not feeling at all well. She was not even eating the food the vet sent us home with, canned chicken and rice ... that is like steak and mushrooms to me. Not a good sign

We took her in, the next morning, and they kept her. Her blood tests showed a little weakness in the liver, but years ago, she had some mild poisoning that gave her a mild hit to the liver so it usually responds to illness. They took X rays and this is where it gets scary.

The found something on the X Ray. Firstly, there were gas bubbles in the intestine, in of itself not surprising and not worrisome. But they found something else. A section of the intestine seemed to have an odd shape but they did not know what was causing it. If it moved, it would be more gas, if it did not it would be something else; either a foreign object that Hayley ingested, or a mass, like tumours

Miss Hayley is in excellent condition but she is almost 12 years old so those were things I did not want to hear. If it was a an object, I felt she was healthy enough to be able to endure the surgery and recover well. If it was cancer ...

So she was kept overnight and we waited. The vet thought if she continued to vomit, it was a sign that she was in trouble. And we had to think about the possibilities

It was scary of course. Heart wrenching. I say all the time that I love my girls. Most of the time that means playing with them, cuddling with them, taking care of them etc. But at times like this, I really understand what that love entails. It's a big thing. I've heard the cliche a "piece of my heart" At times like this, I know what Janis was singing about. Thinking about Hayley, there in the hospital, not doing well, I really did feel like a piece of my heart was being rended

It's funny. I am not the most demonstrative of people. I don't always find it easy to express the love that I have for people, like Collette and my family. Generally I try to let my actions express that love; I try to take care of people, to do things that make them happy. And that is a big part of having dogs. I devote a lot of time to them, I do what I can to give them healthy happy lives,that is my love

But when Hayley was at the vet's, with me here, I felt this pain. Yes, by taking here there, I was helping her but I still felt this terrible helplessness. I couldn't hold her, talk to her, stroke her fur, all the things I know make her feel better. I could only wait and prepare my mind for that ultimate expression of love; helping her life end in the most humane way possible. Just as we had done for Gigs, many years ago

Luckily, Hayley passed the night well, with no vomiting. They X rayed her in the morning and the images had not really changed. Generally she was doing better but the vet told me that Hayley just seemed "sad and depressed" I told her that may have nothing to do with her illness and that I was coming there

When I got to the vet offices, the girls at the front were laughing and shaking their heads. It appears that the moment I entered the building, Hayley perked right up. When they brought here out to meet me, hooked to an IV machine, the old girl was wiggling,and crying and licking my face. I took here outside for a few minutes, her ears were up, tail wagging and she had a big pee. Then we went back inside and I hand fed her some of the canned food, and she ate it like a starving dog

All good signs

They kept here for a few more hours, feeding her IV fluid and watching her. She ate a bit more and she did not vomit. She remained alert. They wanted to keep her overnight and I asked if she needed to be on the IV, the answer was no. So I brought here home. She was wiggly and excited. She ate ravenously. And she passed last night with no incidents

So she is here at home with us. She is doing very very well. We still don't really know what was wrong but it seems easy to assume it was something she ate, or perhaps even a stomach virus. At this point cancer is unlikely (though it's always a possibility) because she got ill so quickly. The problem with working dogs in general, and Hayley in particular, is that they are very adept at masking symptoms. She can be in pain and you wouldn't know it. Still, this thing came on fast and seems to have passed so I take that as a good sign

We will take her in to the vet next week for an assessment but at the moment it all looks good, we have her on the special diet and some meds to make her belly feel better. She certainly seems better. The moment she nips at Terra to prevent the puppy from running, I know our old girl is back to normal

Love is a kooky thing. It is so powerful and perverse. Love can cause you so much pain, just from a sad pair of eyes and a little whimper. But it can also give you so much joy, with the wag of a tail

I'll take the pain, for all that I get back from a warm furry head on my lap

THANKSGIVING 1: THE GIRLS

Been pretty busy with work lately so I'm behind on my posting. So here is the first of two posts on our Thanksgiving earlier this month. We were delighted when Collette's brother Garry invited us up to the family lodge to celebrate the holiday. The entire family would be there including David, our latest nephew of a niece so we were very eager to attend.

Besides seeing Collette's family and being able to enjoy the beauty of the Georgian Bay in Fall, we had another inspiration to go up to Pointe Au Baril; Terra had never been there before.
Hayley has always loved going up to Springhaven Lodge; the water, the bush, the road and this time of year there aren't many guests staying there, so she usually has run of the place. We knew Terra would love it too, this dog is nuts about water. It has an undeniable affect upon her, it's like border collie crack.

She took to it like a duck to water, or a border collie to sheep or .. well, there's a video attached, check it out.

Of course Terra was a fanatic when it came to fetching the ball out of the water. That was a given. But she also got to indulge in one of her favorite sports: Herding ripples. In the video you'll see her pawing at the water but what she is actually doing is using her paws and mouth to make the ripples go where she wants them to go. No, she's not nuts, she's just a border collie.

Besides the water, the new experience for Terra was the bush. Trees. Lots of trees. Terra loves trees, squirrels live in trees and it's Terra duty to chase them out. But here in the Toronto parks you have little groups of trees, say three or four, scattered about. Up there .. well, there's a tree every foot or so. At one point Terra was pretty much spinning in circles, barking her fool head off.

Then there were the smells. Although we live in the middle of Toronto we do have a lot of wildlife around here; squirrels, raccoons, skunks, possums, foxes, rabbits .. there are even coyotes not far from here. But up north there are deer, fishers, moose, bears ... the latter of which almost said "hello" to my plastic car on the drive up. Their smells drove poor Terra crazy. Hayley of course is a good bear dog. I remember the first time she found bear scat. She came up to it, gave it a sniff and started to circle it, till she ended up behind me, pointing in the opposite direction as if she was saying "Dad, let's get the fuck out of here."

And yes, Hayley was still able to enjoy her beloved Springhaven even with an annoying puppy in tow. The old girl has, actually, come to appreciate the puppy; hey damn, I have my very own sheep to herd ..

So water, trees, critters, long walks, fetching, herding .. a very successful weekend for our girls. And us. Next post: Turkey in the bush.

Terra & Hayley Up North from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

SURFER GIRL

Yup, it was back to the Beach. Terra (and Miss Hayley of course) had enjoyed her first beach experience so much, we decided to go back a day later. Our summer here has been so cool and rainy that we've decided to take advantage of every actual summer-like day we get this summer. So Collette and the two girls and I boarded the subway and went down to Lake Ontario

On this day there was a fairly stiff breeze off the Lake so we were getting pretty good swells on the first beach the we went to, the offleash area at Kew Beach, for our fellow Trawnaites. The fenced in area is pretty rocky, and I actually don't like letting the dogs go to that beach, the slippery rocks can make it dangerous. But just to the west of the big rocks is a little gravel beach that is much easier for them to get to. It's a bit shallow here as well, so the waves were not breaking to their full potential

After playing at Kew for a bit, we moved east along the boardwalk to the big, unfenced, offleash beaches over at Balmy. Not only are these beaches much nicer, with fine gravel and sand, they are in deeper water, so the waves were really breaking here. In fact, the drop off was much closer to the beach than it had been two days earlier, the big lake was really pounding that day.

Miss Hayley is not overly fond of this kind of surf. The few times that she will swim, she will only do it if the water is very calm and still, and not too deep. Part of this, I think, is because she swims with her head completely flat on the water, her chin right on the surface. Any little swell will go right over her head and she is not too happy with that. Terra does not seem to have these issues. Not only does she keep her head high as she swims, she is just plain fearless. Miss Hayley is not very ball focused; Terra is, and no amount of water will keep her from snaring her prey.

It was fun to watch Terra figure out the whole surfing thing. She learned to time the waves so she could duck her head to get the stick or ball or whatever it was I was throwing. Once she snagged her toy, she turned her back to the waves and rode them in, paddling just enough to steer, riding that wild surf like a true California surfer girl.

And although Miss Hayley is never going to be a surfer girl, she is beginning to appreciate having her very own water sheep to herd along the shore.

And although Hayley is quite happy to herd Terra along the beach, there is no way the old girl is going to pursue the crazy puppy as Terra crashes through the waves to go surfing once more.

So, another successful day at the Beach. Check out the video to see more of Terra's surfer girl adventure. Maybe it's time to buy her a board and perhaps a new collar: Four Legged Gidget

Surfer Girl from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

TERRA'S BEACH DAY

Well, it was only a matter of time, of course. Before we took Terra to one of Miss Hayley's favorite destinations, the Toronto Beaches. We know Terra loves the water. No, not loves the water, becomes psychotic in the water. In a previous post, I've referred to water (to this point, just the water in her pool) as Terra's border collie crack. But now, at six months old and, finally, a summer -ike summer weekend in Toronto, it was time to take her to the really big pool .. that being, Lake Ontario.

So we loaded up both our girls and headed off downtown to the Beaches. In the video a the bottom of this post, you'll see a bit of the journey. Terra has been on the subway before, but only one stop; this journey is significantly longer and includes two different trains and a bus ride. Terra has never before been on the bus, but she handled it, and the long subway ride, very well. Aside from needing to bark at another dog on the train .. but hey, it's all a learning experience.

So there was little doubt that Terra would like the water, but would she swim? Miss Hayley loves the water, but she is not a swimmer. If Collette or I are swimming she will come with us and in very calm water, that does not suddently drop off, she may swim out a couple of feet to catch the ball, but that's about it. Even when herding water sheep, Hayley cannot be enticed into allowing her feet to leave the earth. Terra, at this stage, was an unknown quantity.

Well, there really should never have been a question. Although Terra was a little cautious about going into the water (caution being a border collie character trait, I would say) it didn't take much coaching. We started her on a beach that was shallow and didn't have much of a drop off. Still, this is Lake Ontario, and there were waves but it did not take much encouragement .. and a tennis ball, to get her swimming, even if it was just for a few feet.

So, we have a swimmer. Which works for Miss Hayley .. her very own private water sheep. Yay.

The nice thing about the Beach, aside from that whole giant lake thing, is the social aspect. The girls always meet friends. Like Cane, a friend from out local dog park.

And new friends, like this sweet Lab puppy, about three months old, that Terra decided would make an excellent hand to hand, death match opponent. It's that kind of magical thing that happens between puppies, they look at each other and this communication happens in an instant: Wanna play? Sure, do you? Then it's all legs and tails and teeth. Or, in Terra's case: I'll lie on you and dominate you till you show me that you can play too then they're off to the races .. or the mixed martial arts cage.

After the wrestling, it was back to the lake. This time, stick in hand, it was not difficult to entice Terra to a little dog paddling .. what did you expect, the butterfly stroke?

Normally when we go to the Beach, we like to end the day by going to The Lion On The Beach, a resturaunt on Queen St. They have a patio off to the side and they are very dog friendly. Not only do they let you tie your dog up to the patio, they provide water for them and usually lots of pets (the hand to fur kind). We weren't sure if Terra was yet up to the task. She would be laying on the street, right by a very busy thoroughfare, with lots of distractions. Well, after four hours of walking, running, wrestling, swimming, even a six month old border collie is willing to relax for an hour or so. Having hand made goodies from the Three Dog Bakery certainly doesn't hurt.

All in all, a very happy successful day at the beach. I'm sure many more to come.

Here's the video, Collette and I and our two girls, cavorting on the beach. Cavorting ... is there a sin tax on that?

Terra On The Beach from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

IT'S GOOD TO HAVE A SISTER PART 2

Puppy Terra is growing. She is still a puppy, just turned six months old, but a lot of people seem to doubt that. When we are walking her with Miss Hayley, we often now hear the refrain: "Are they twins?" Of course, Hayley doesn't understand that, but I'm sure she would be flattered if she could

Terra is a big girl. She is actually right now a little bit taller than Hayley and weighs about 36 pounds, that's ten pounds lighter than the old girl. And Terra is far from done from growing, I imagine. How big she's going to get, I can't really say. Hayley is a small border collie, even for a female, but Terra seems to be on track to be, physically, some kind of uber collie. Perhaps something primeval, out of the misty jungles of Scotland (OK, I know there are no jungles in Scotland, bear with me here, I'm waxing poetic), a great fierce, giant herding machine ... the Border Collie of the Baskervilles.

No prey is safe from the Border Collie of the Baskervilles

The relationship between Hayley and Terra is improving. Slowly, perhaps, but definitely coming along. Hayley is actually pretty submissive, she will regularly give up water, toys, even food to other dogs. so she is doing that with Terra. In the parks, however, if a dog comes into Hayley's personal space .. like her butt .. she will assert herself. A few years a go she pinned a 90 pound male Doberman who was getting a little too free and easy with his nose. I would like to see her use that kind of dominance with Terra. She is giving up her bed (that being our bed) to the puppy. In the park, if Terra charges her, trying to initiate play, Hayley will put up a pretty weak defense, she waits for me to put the pup in her place. Here at the house, Terra can fall asleep with her head on Hayley's butt, but if Terra looks at her from several feet away, Hayley gives her the snarl. I think it's all about approach. Eye to eye contact. It's a border collie thing.

They are walking very well together, we get many compliments about them and as always, especially in this city which is not always dog friendly, if your dogs are well behaved, sociallized and calm, people will take time to notice them in a positive way.

I know Hayley has been affording a luxury of behaviour that she grants to all puppies. Now that Terra is getting older, I would expect Hayley will become more adamant with her dominance. But it's certainly obvious that Terra loves her "big sister" All of her behaviour is an attempt to illicit play, or snuggle in, dog pack style. Hayley is not wrestling with Terra, she really hasn't done that in the last few years, but she will do her herding/heeling behaviour when Terra fetches. And yes, she has gotten much better at sharing the couch.

Even though, there are times, Hayley is cuddling under protest. I'm sure, in the pic below, she is asking me "C'mon, one little nip, she's right here, it would only take me a second .."

So, this weekend will be a new adventure. Terra's first sojourn to the beach. Blogs, pics and video to follow.

TERRA - DOG PARK VIRGIN

Although Terra has been going to our local park since the day we got her, and has been socializing nicely with our neighbourhood dogs, Cerdarvale Park is the local official off leash area. It is about a 25 minute walk, or a quick subway ride, from the house. And this weekend, Terra was finally introduced to it.

We took the two dogs together of course. We walked them down, with the intention of bringing them back on the subway. The plan was to dissipate a lot of Terra's energy so that she would not be overwhelmed by the subway station and the train itself. That plan worked. The walk, and then a two hour play took most of the edge off her and she did very well on her first subway ride.

She also did very well on her first visit to the dog park. She has a fan club who had yet to see her; I've been telling some of the regulars there about her and they have been anxiously waiting to meet her. On our way to the actual off leash area, we met our friend John and his two dogs, greyhound Jazz and border collie Hayley .. yes, Hayley. Seems to be a popular name for the breed. John was so anxious to see the puppy that he and his two dogs jumped a fence to see us. In the video you'll see the three border collies playing, what can be better than that?

In the off leash itself, we ran into another friend, Joan and her dog Karma; this dog is, for Hayley, sheep number one. So we knew that she would be well occupied while Terra looked for friends. It didn't her long. In the mean time she did some fetch work with me, which is coming along nicely.

Eventually she met a lovely male Rottweiler pup right around her age. At first the male would just sit on Terra, pinning her, which is a sign of dominance. But Terra is pretty self assured even at this age. She kept her composure and kept at the pup and eventually his dominant behaviour turned into genuine wrestling (and we know, from the previous post, that Terra is a pretty good wrestler) The Rottie's owner was great "You dog has taught my do to play"

So Terra's first dog park experience was successful. More, I'm sure, to come


Terra at Cedervale from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

THE DOUBLE DOGGIE BLUES

There is some kind of weird, alternate universe math going on in my house. We now have two dogs. Two dogs, by my math, should mean twice the poop, shouldn't it? Well something is happening here because I swear that two dogs = triple the poop. Of course, this all stems from the fact that I have adopted myself a little black and white poop machine. I'd be concerned with her output if it wasn't for the fact she is growing so much. She has now doubled her weight since we got her. As one of our dog park buddies put it: "What are you feeding that dog?" I swear, I can see her growing as she sleeps.

Here we have Terra eating a bone but I don't think that that is responsible for her growth spurts. No, I think her diet of shoes, tissue boxes, base boards (yes base boards), book cases, plastic pop bottles and anything else she can get her teeth on, all seem to benefit her physical maturity.

Speaking of plastic, Terra has found a new toy. We have this huge plastic jar, that used to hold dog biscuits; the thing is huge, it holds over 6 pounds of Milk Bones. It now has two or three bones in it so when you knock it over and push it up and down the hall, it makes a lovely, loud rattling sound. A couple of weeks ago, Terra could move the thing by nudging it with her nose. Now she can pick it up by the lid and whip around the house with it. You will see this in the video at the bottom of the post.

Another food source that Terra has discovered is ice. And although the video shows her romping in her first snow fall (in April, don't get me started), the ice came from the outside water bowl we have for the dogs. The previous night had been cold enough that a thick skim of ice had formed. Terra came bounding up to to take a drink, dropped her head down .. and met the icy resistance. She promptly smashed the ice, tore out some big chunks and set about devouring it. Also in the video.

As for my two dogs, that relationship is getting better. Terra loves Miss Hayley, there are moments she sees her as the mamma dog, emulating her behaviour and totally doting on her. These are good moments.

But she also wants to treat Hayley as an equal, wrestling with her, and positioning herself for dominance. These are not so great moments, especially for Hayley. Although Hayley enjoys chasing Terra as the puppy chases the ball, and she shows sign of almost wrestling with her, there are other moments where Terra latches on to the big dog's neck fur and Hayley wears her like a necklace.

What Hayley needs to do is give her a couple of firm put downs; other dogs have done this in the park and Terra does learn respect from this. The problem has been, Hayley has always given lee way to very young puppies. But Terra is three months old now and her time of grace may well be fading.

But it is special to have two border collies. Let's face it they just look damn good together, especially outside, in the park. I am walking them together, on leash, in the morning. Terra is doing very well on leash, actually better than Miss Hayley was at this age. Sometimes the walk is slow but this is not the fault of either dog. Terra is like a cuteness magnet, people just can't resist her and it sometimes adds a good ten minutes to our walk as we deal with her fan club. She may need security soon .. and a manager .. and an entourage.

Going to keep this a short post, take a gander at the video, and next post: Terra gets a contract with Dana White ... stay tuned.

Terra the Ice Queen from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

ARE YOU WHAT SOMEONE ELSE CALLS YOU?

Not a Terra post this time, but a Terra-inspired post, and a kind of follow up to an earlier post I had written concerning names This post, is more about nick names, or to start off, pet names, in the very literal sense of that term.

Yes, my pets have pet names, nick names. No, I don't dress my pets up in cute costumes or throw them birthday parties or write this blog in my dogs "voices" but I do have nick names for them. Our first dog was Gigilo, so that became shortened to Gigs; that seems pretty obvious and I don't know it if really counts as a nickname. Hayley often gets "Hales" especially when we need her attention quickly. I am often called Vic, a contraction of Victor and a very select few people call me V.J. my first two initials; it is also how I sign my name ... does that count as a nick name? Probably not.

But Hayley also has a nick name, we often call her "Beans" or "Miss Beans". This comes from when she was very young and very small, a tiny black and white fluff ball overflowing with border collie energy and prone to jumping crazily about. To Collette, it reminded her of a jumping bean ... We also call her Schmaley, which comes from Hayley Schmaley, in a sing song sort of way . My friend John the dog trainer thinks any variation of your dog's name is not really a nick name; John disdains the notion of giving your dogs nick names. So Schmaley may not be a nick name, but Beans certainly is. Terra already has a nickname. Collette started using Terra-Misu, again in a sort of sing song sort of way, particularly when trying to coax or gain her attention. So, according to John, this would not be a nickname. Recently I've taken to calling her monkey, for something so cute that can be so much trouble. Vic or V.J. would not be nicknames for me. Variations of the name seem a logical sort of thing. But something like Beans or Beanie would be a pure nick name, stemming from behaviour or incident.

Gypsy had a nick name. We called him G Man or even G Spot ... hey, easy now, this is a family blog .. well, no it isn't but we will keep this particular post g-rated (take a deep breath, just let that horrible pun wash over you like a warm bath and it will soon pass). Again, you consider those names variations of his name. So .. nick name or not nick name?

We've all had nick names I'm sure. Many of them start when we are young, some we leave behind and some stick with us till the end. Certainly a lot of them come as variations of our name. In school I was often called Victor Vicious, this was mildly derisive, it stemmed from a cartoon (or maybe TV commercial) character from that time (Yes, there was TV back then, shut up). Later, as I got a little older, and started to grow my hair out around Grade Six (hey, it was the sixties what can I tell you) I got, of course, Vicky. We won't count those as nick names.


When I was quite small, and I just had the two older brothers, my grandfather gave us all nick names, all starting with the letter B. I was Buckshot, I think Edward was Buster and I can't for the life of me remember what Vincent was called. At any rate, mine was the only that stuck in any way. To the day she died, my mother would still call me Buckshot ... oh, and her other favorite nickname for me was Burn out ... so your lifestyle can also influence your nickname, as well as your name.

In school I knew a kid called Chopper, because he would take any perfectly respectable a CCM bike and transform it into a pedal powered "chopper" style behemoth. I knew a girl who liked to be called Barbie because she was tall, thin and blonde ... we often speculated it it was also because she had an alarming lack of genitals but as I said, this isn't that kind of post.

Physical attributes are another popular inspiration for nicknames. I knew this biker type dude, big as a double wide trailer, with a ginger red beard ... yeh, shockingly he was called Big Red. I knew another rather large gentleman, first name Victor, and myself, well only my mouth has ever been called large .. yup, meet the Big Victor and Little Victor show .. sigh.

Just by casual observation, it seems that more men than women have nicknames, at least ones that persist into adulthood. I could be wrong about this, but I know more guys with nicks than women; again, I won't count derivations like Vicki from Victoria. Though I once knew a girl named Catherine O'Toole and I always thought it such a lovely name; however, the young lady preferred to be called Toolie ... this was a long time ago, I have lost touch with her and I'm hoping she's seen the error of her ways.

Nicknames, though, do seem to be more prevalent in the masculine realm. I've written about Rio Bravo, one of my favorite movies. All the main characters are known by their nicks: Dean Martin is Dude, Walter Brennan is Stumpy, Ricky Nelson is Colorado, Angie Dickinson is Legs and John Wayne is Chance; although Chance is the character's last name, it is used more like nick.

So it seems that most nicks are given to us but then we had Toolie who created her own. How common is that? I suppose there are people who are dissatisfied with their names and want something different. Anyone know an example like that? I have a sister named Venus (ok, it was the sixties or something) but learned to bear with the childhood abuse to become comfortable with it, so no self imposed nick name for her. I knew a girl in high school drama class who wanted to be called Scarlett, as in Scarlett O'Hara; let's just say that many of our dreams often go unrealized.

I'd love to hear some nicknames, where they came from, do you use them, how to people respond .. I'm sure Terra will bet more, but we have recognize a limit. Even border collies can absorb so much.

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A BIG SISTER

There's nothing like a big sister, or maybe it's a substitute mom, at least in Terra's eyes. Miss Hayley, in the house, is still holding strong on establishing her position with the puppy, she generally ignores Terra and is quick to use a sharp bark or a feigned nip to tell her to back off.

Outside is a little different. In the park, Terra is showing a strong affinity for chasing the ball, which makes Hayley very happy. Hayley's idea of paradise is Dad kicks ball, dog/sheep chases ball, Hayley chases dog/sheep. So Hayley sort of forgets the dominance issues and actually engages the puppy.

No matter how much Hayley ignores Terra however, the puppy absolutely loves her. And definitely emulates the older dog. Terra is still having issues with sound sensitivty. To the point that she is beginning to regress her housebreaking progress. She was doing a nice job of indicating a need to pee/poo by going into the hall and staring at the front door. We would let her out and she would "do her business" The problem is, the street and the sounds coming from it. Terra is scared of sound, pretty much any sound. She is ok with cars driving by but doors, voices, horns, bangs, anything .. will scare her. I've seen her begin to poo, hear a sound, stop the action and run back up the door. We don't let her back in, in those occasions, we've kept her outside until she does something.

But the last couple of days, Terra has stopped indicating and we are finding more poo in the house, something we haven't been seeing for a couple of days. The only thing that convinces Terra to stay outside when it's noisy is by bringing Hayley out with her. And of course, if the big girl is there, the little girl wants to be there. But then Terra gets so distracted by Hayley, she doesn't do her business either.

So it is great to have a big sis, but it is bad to be anywhere there is noise. We are going to work at getting her into the backyard but those stairs are extremely steep and it is difficult for the puppy to get down there. Still, if the big dog goes ...

THE TERRA TERRORS AND THE BLISS OF NAP TIME

The good news is, Terra is a perfectly healthy border collie pup .. the bad news is, Terra is a perfectly healthy border collie pup.

Terra is making great progress; her house training is pretty solid, we have had no poops in the house since the second day, really, and only a couple of piddle accidents. She has learned to go into the hallway and look at the door, and when we let her out, she goes right down the stairs and "does her business" She doesn't bark as a warning, but neither does Hayley. Miss Hayley just comes up to you gives you a mild version of the border collie eye then you ask "Do you want to go ..." and she flies to the back door before you can finish the sentence.

On her own, Terra has been immediately peeing when she gets down the stairs. Hayley went out with her once and did a sniff around first, and Terra totally emulated that behaviour. Terra simply loves Hayley but so far the old girl is remaining aloof; she will occasionally give a little snarled lip display but has not made any contact. We feel this is a kind of karma; when we got Hayley as a rambunctious pup, she terrorized our cat Gypsy. Now the karma is on the other paw.

Mostly, Miss Hayley is being extremely aloof to the puppy, as you will see in the little video at the bottom of this post.

As I stated, Terra is a perfectly healthy border collie puppy .... which means there are times her little brains leave her head, and she gets possessed by the Puppy Demon from Hell; her body is clearly being controlled by a Red Bull infused 12 year old gamer in the sky. We call these times Terra Terrors and it is just best to keep your feet off the floor and keep anything other than designated toys, away from those little jaws. By anything, I mean tissues, books, shoes, slippers, bags of dog food (with dog food still in it), shopping bags, picture frames, water bowls, socks, underwear ... Hmm, if border collies are so smart and since Terra seems fascinated with the dirty laundry, maybe we should show her where the washing machine is ...

In light of this, we have found a new kind of Paradise, a blissful, enlightened state of Existence that transports us to Nirvana. We call this state of being ... Nap time.

Like most puppies, Terra will just suddenly crash, right out of a Terra Terror, as if a switch has been flipped, and the power suddenly goes off. Oh where oh where is this switch and can I operate it by remote control?

Collette and I have become like parents of human babies; we are beginning to schedule activities around Terra's nap times. Besides here little power naps, she tends to take a long nap, two or three hours, around noon. When she goes for this nap, or goes for her night time sleep, she trundles herself off the bedroom, all by herself. She has a bed in there but generally she ends up passing out on whatever laundry I have laying about on the floor. She has done this almost since the beginning; everyone always remarks, from Gigs to Miss Hayley to Terra, that we have some strange voodoo that encourages our dogs to "go to bed" I can't really explain it, but we certainly always seem to get animals who just love to go to bed.

Terra's sleeping habits brings to mind the many things she has in common with Miss Hayley, things that we had assumed were unique to the old girl. They both love to sleep with their heads jammed into things, like between a couch cushion and the back of the couch, or with their heads hanging off the edge. They are both sound sensitive; Hayley to this day is not happy with thunder or fireworks but has it mostly under control. Terra is very sound sensitive, when outside, people speaking down the street will send her scurrying up the stairs to the front door. We are not letting her in at these times, and if the noise has stopped her from "doing her business" we insist that she remain out there till the job is done.

Terra is doing very well in the dog park. If dogs come running up and barking at her, she will seek shelter between the legs of a human. Once the dog calms down she will come out and greet him, so we are happy with that. Yesterday at the park a large Husky was very interested in little Terra. At one point he tried to grab her by the scruff as if to pick her up and I was very surprised to see my eight week old puppy turn and give him a little nip to back him off. So I would say her socialization is coming along.

American gov't issues terrorist alerts, by some colour code I still can't understand. But be on the look out for the the T-alert ... for the Terra Terrors.

That Kind of Girl from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.