The Queen Comes Home

I know I'm a bit tardy updating this blog. I have lots to share and will do so in a few posts. I'll try to do them in a relatively short time frame.

The first weekend of April, 2009 was when I was going to get Stella. I had decided to fly out to Scott and Jenny's, spend some time with Scott and, if he had time, maybe take a lesson with him. After having gone to the lengths of sending her there, why not go and pick her up? That was a good decision for me.

Once again, I was up at 3am to drive to the airport to get on a plane to fly to Calgary then drive three hours to get to my destination. I slept some on the plane but it's nearly impossible for me to get comfortable. Ok, I've seen the ads on TV with these wonderful reclining seats, I wasn't in one of those seats. I digress. I arrived in Calgary and after sorting out a bit of mess with my rental car, I was on my way. I took my GPS along to help me navigate. Jenny sent me an email with some directions as there was no address or coordinates that I could punch into my GPS to get me to their doorstep. I learned a new word that day, "Couley" - I think that's how it's spelled. The easiest way to define it: Scott says "we call the Grand Canyon, the Grand Couley". Anyway, after going through a couley or two and driving along some pretty desolate roads, I arrived at their place. Scott whisked me into the living room to watch Stella's DVD. I don't really recall what went through my mind while I was watching it. It was kind of like watching a dog that looked like mine but couldn't possibly be mine. Scott explained a few things and I listened as best I could. I do remember thinking, "Is that really her?" She was outrunning, and stopping and flanking and driving OH MY!

After watching the DVD, Scott took me out so I could see her work. I had been wondering how she would greet me. She always had a unique way of greeting me and others she knew well. She came out of her kennel and as she was running to Scott she saw me. She bent in half [her way of greeting me] and then carried on. I said "Hi Stella, thanks". We went out to the field where Scott trains and he started showing her to me. I am not sure what my expectations actually were, but I recall thinking "That's just Stella!". I suppose I thought she would somehow look different. Ridiculous, but true. There was one huge difference though. She was working sheep. I had always had this fantasy of one day letting Scott or Alasdair work one of my dogs, just to see what they could do compared to what I was able to accomplish. That day, my fantasy was fulfilled. It was breathtaking. She was doing what Scott asked. He explained some of her quirks and strong points. I nodded and smiled. Inside I was fighting back tears of joy.

That evening, we went out for dinner. Once we were back, Scott and Jenny had to do their chores. I offered to help but was told I could just relax. I did. I stood on the deck and looked at the beautiful landscape. I saw Scott heading down to the barn with a dog. I did a double take, low and behold, he was doing chores with Stella! Apparently, that was the first time he had taken her out to help but, to me, it looked like she had been doing chores with him all along. Again, I beamed. Stella came and sat with me on the deck before she had her supper and went to bed. Afterward, we chatted and played with the puppies a bit before I went to bed.

The next morning Scott announced that he wasn't pleased with Stella's DVD and he wanted to shoot another one. Jenny had some stuff to do so I was elected videographer. I didn't do such a good job with her outruns. Stella was giving Scott a lot of grief. At the time I didn't quite see what, exactly, he meant though. It still looked pretty good to me.

I had a chance later on to take Stella out myself for a few minutes. I had no idea what I intended to do with her so I just did a few small outruns, some fetches and a bit of driving. She was listening to me. In fact, she was listening to me better than she had listened to Scott earlier that same day.

I loaded Stella into my rental car and headed back to the Calgary airport with her. As we left Scott and Jenny's, Stella had her head resting on the back dash of the car and whined as she watched Scott disappear.