Dog #5 - Miss Stella

I waited so long for her. From the moment I met Clare, her mother, I knew I wanted a daughter from her. Data, Clare's brother, had placated me for a few years while I waited for Louise to breed Clare. I wanted a smooth coated, tri coloured bitch. Finally, in February of 2006, my shining Star, Stella, was born. The name Stella literally means Star.

As you know by now, each of my dogs hold so much promise when I get them and I imagine that we will be stars. This time I named my dog Star. There was no choice, no turning back. We are going to be stars.

The moment she was born Louise knew her and greeted her with "hello Stella". Stella has always known she and I were meant to be together. When she was 5 weeks old, I was giving her a cuddle and saying goodbye to her. As I went to put her on the floor so I could leave, she chomped on my ear lobe as if to say "NO! I'm going with you." I assured her she would come with me but she had to wait one more week. Begrudgingly, she complied.

The next week she came home. On the ride home she cried and whimpered for about half an hour and then fell asleep for the remainder of the drive. We got home and I put her crate beside the bed, kept some paper in the front of the crate for her to pee on if she had to go during the night. She took to her new raw diet rather greedily. To this day she is anything but genteel when she eats. She was the sweetest little thing. I took her everywhere with me. At the time I was doing a lot of work on site with a client so she stayed in a crate in the car. I introduced her to everyone, let them hold her, play with her, walk her.

As she grew those legs of hers, she also learned how to use them to run. FAST. I remember going for walks with Louise and all the dogs, one of them was Stella's littermate L'il. We put long lines on Stella an L'il, and often we would just hear the whir of the lines in the grass. The two of them ran so fast we often didn't see them, just heard the whizzing lines. Stella got wrapped around a tree occasionally, and when she was stuck she would bark until she saw me. That doesn't mean that I could see her though. Often I would search for her wishing she would bark just one more time, telling her to 'use her voice' to no avail. She could see me so it would just be stupid to keep on barking. I eventually found her, untangled her, give her a pat and she was off again. Stella seemed to have two speeds, red-line and asleep. She ran everywhere, sailing over gates and fences like a gazelle. Louse dubbed her 'Gazella' and ultimately we started calling her 'whirling dervish'.

I taught her to 'spit' that out and then when it came time to teach her to 'sit' she would open her mouth trying to 'spit'. I realized that I would have to come up with a new sit command, which became 'park it'. If anyone were to ask me HOW I taught her to spit it would be difficult for me to explain but she knows how to spit. It's quite humorous to see. Louise knows she has a spit word and asked Stella to spit from across the room. Stella happily spit whatever she had out making Louise laugh right out loud. Stella is really good at 'park it' too.

At 8 weeks old she noticed the sheep for the first time. The way only a Border Collie notices sheep. I remember it clearly because it was comical. She was outside going to the bathroom. The sheep walked by and while she pooped she pricked up her ears (the only time both of her ears ever pricked) and tipped her head. I dubbed the moment "Border Collie Shangri-la".

After experiencing Data's issues with water, I was determined that Stella was going to like the water. At the Kingston Sheep Dog trials, Louise and I went for a drive and took the pups with us. We found an isolated(ish) boat launch and took the puppies out on the dog. Stella, not realizing that the dock ended, just kept on walking right into the water. I had her on a line and helped her back onto dry land. She walked back onto the dock and literally dove into the water. My concern was completely unwarranted.

As Stella matured I started to put her on sheep. Although Stella always knew she and I were meant to be together she never quite understood that we were supposed to be partners. She lived up to her whirling dervish name....