How I found my little Pearl

First I thought I would never have a dog again. I was far too sad to even think of a dog other than my Gaja. I was missing her terribly. Every time I came home, first thing I would do is look at her kennel to see where she was. I just couldn’t get use to the idea that she was gone. But after a few months I started missing a dog being around. It was so sad that nobody greeted me when I came home. I had nobody to talk to, to play with, to cuddle…So I started thinking about having another dog after all. But I didn’t want a collie again, I though it would remind me of her too much. I was going through all the dog books in search of a perfect breed for me. But I just couldn’t find a dog that would be as great as a collie. Their character and beauty is just incredible for me. After few weeks of thinking I decided – I want a collie again. And I decided for a blue merle, so that it wouldn’t remind me too much of Gaja and also because they are so interesting, different from one another and truly beautiful.

I found a data base of all Slovenian Rough Collies and I wrote an email to everybody who has a collie in Slovenia. I was amazed how many people responded. They all recommended kennels ‘Androma’ and ‘Collies Of the Holy Mountain’. They only had sable puppies in Androma but a kind owner of Holy Collies told me some great news – they had just mated her blue merle beauty Born to Be Femme Fatale (Layla) and handsome tricolour Virus Noir des Marecages du Prince (Pâris).

Collies Of the Holy Mountain

Pâris and Layla

I reserved a potential blue girl and was then asking her all kinds of questions about dogs with pedigree, collie breed – especially a blue merle kind, health, shows…She was so patient in answering all of my many, many questions. When she texted me that Layla was expecting at least 3 puppies, I was on cloud nine! I couldn’t wait for them to be born…I started reading literature about dogs (fortunately my mom is a librarian ;) ), rearranging my house…I was so excited!

On October 29, at 4pm, I received the text from Neda: “Two beautiful blue merle females are born”. I went crazy, I was jumping and screaming for joy, I cried and laughed with happiness. I was a little worried there wouldn’t be a blue girl for me, but now there were two and I would be able to choose between them! I was elated. Later 2 blue boys followed, 1 tricolour boy and 2 tricolour girls. The very same night Neda had already sent me photos of the little pups. They were all so tiny and extremely cute…their colour was amazing!

Litter 'A' Of the Holy Mountain

I wanted to come and see them right away, but she thought it would be better if I waited until they were one month old. It was difficult to wait that long, but Neda was amazing – as always. She was sending me photos of them every few days and it was almost as if I was there, watching them grow.

All blue merles

Neda even left me a choice in choosing my little baby’s name. I couldn’t decide between A Blue Sky and A Blue Pearl so at the end I chose her formal name to be A Blue Pearl but her pet name (Blue) Sky.

A Blue Pearl

When they were 3 weeks old… tragedy struck. The little black beauty that Neda wanted to keep for herself, Apocalypse, died because Layla sat on her. I was so sad when Neda wrote me about that. I was looking at their pictures all the time and I really got attached to them all even without really seeing them. I was sad because I would never get the chance to meet her and I was sad for Neda. I knew she was so happy about the little puppy. But I am sure little Calypso is watching us from the other side of the rainbow while playing with my Gaja and all the other dogs that had left us too soon.

Little Calypso, R.I.P

Time was passing by and the puppies were growing so fast! When they were 1 month old, the day of my visit had finally come. I went there with my two sisters who were also super excited about the new puppy. When we entered, I noticed my little Pearl immediately; she was by far the most beautiful of them all. And she was brave – she came to see who we were and was not shy at all:) Also her brothers and sisters were amazing! They were all really beautiful and so sweet and brave and curious and they all wanted to play with us. We spent an amazing 2 hours with them!

Sky and me

Super cute blacks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDv_KOB6e8

3 days later I visited them again, on my way from the city were I use to study. This time I was alone with them, for more than 3 hours. It was great; we played a lot and cuddled even more. And I took plenty of photos and videos!:)

Tired after playing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRaF6CYNfME

The last month was a tough one…I was missing my little girl so much that I drove every weekend almost 200 kilometres each way to see her! Those days were the highlight of my week, I spent such an amazing time with them…my sister Jasna always went with me and took hundreds of photos of them.

Litter 'A' 6 weeks

A Blue Pearl

A Frosty Love

Aim at Fame

Autumn Dream

Aim at Glory

All in Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mykABXHX5hM

Sky 7 weeks - 1st time on the leash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jaT4hAkxoE

Litter 8 weeks

Sky

Frosty

Fame

Gloria

All

Dreamy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM8J9Od4eCE

I grew to love every single one of them and I was happy to know they all were going to get wonderful owners. At least we thought so. All was suppose to go to one family who changed their minds 3 days before picking him up. Glory was the first to actually go, on Christmas Eve, but they returned her a few days later because their grown up collie attacked her. I couldn’t believe it. I was so furious about the stupidity of some people! Fortunately Dreamy, Fame and Frosty all got incredible owners.

Dreamy went with an American lady who lives in Italy. She is crazy about him and calls him her little dream come true. She wants to use him for breeding and for shows.

Fame went to an owner of a pet shop in Venice who already has a cocker spaniel and they get along great. He wants to use her for shows and as a mascot in his shop. They named her Toffee.

Frosty - with a new name Osty, went to a lady who had had a Rough Collie for 13 years and died, like my Gaja, last summer. He now lives in Ljubljana.

Gloria and All, with a new name - Zorro, stayed with Neda and other Collies for a little while.

Gloria

Zorro

Lend me a pup

A very beautiful song I saw and would like to share with you....

Lend Me a Pup

I will lend to you for awhile a puppy, God said,
For you to love him while he lives
and to mourn for him when he is gone.
Maybe for twelve or fourteen years,
or maybe for two or three.
But will you, till I call him back
take care of him for me?

He'll bring his charms to gladden you
and should his stay be brief
you'll always have his memories
as solace for your grief .
I cannot promise that he will stay,
since all from Earth return,
But there are lessons taught below
I want this pup to learn.

I've looked the whole world over
in search of teachers true
And from the folk that crowd life's land
I have chosen you.
Now will you give him all your love
Nor think the labor vain
Nor hate me when I come to take my pup back again.
I fancied that I heard them say,
"Dear Lord Thy Will Be Done,"
For all the joys this pup will bring,
the risk of grief you'll run.
Will you shelter him with tenderness
Will you love him while you may
And for the happiness you'll know forever grateful stay.

But should I call him back

much sooner than you've planned
Please brave the bitter grief that comes
and try to understand.
If, by your lo

ve, you've managed
my wishes to achieve,
In memory of him that you've loved,
cherish every moment with your faithful bundle,
and know he loved you too.

(Author Unknown)

My very own 'Lassie'

When I was 10, we decided to move into a big house on the countryside. It was simply destiny, that there was a litter of golden rough collies in our town. I went there every single day after school and my little puppy chose me. She didn’t wait to be chosen.J We named her Gaja – after the Greek Goddess of Earth, Gaia. The day she came to our home was the happiest day of my life. She helped me so much in adjusting to a new town, new school, helped me find new friends…it was a difficult time for me, but I had her and I was happy.

My sisters Ana and Jasna with 4 month old Gaja

Gaja's first snow

Gaja 10 months

I soon took her to a dog school; we did the obedience exam there and then started training in Agility. She was great - fast, clever and so beautiful. But unfortunately we don’t have many photos from that time because my father had to hide otherwise she would just run to him and greet him during the competition.

Agility

What is Agility?
“Dog agility is a dog sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy. Dogs generally run off-leash with no food or toys as incentives. The handler can touch neither dog nor obstacles, except accidentally. Consequently, the handler's controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal. In its simplest form, an agility course consists of a set of standard obstacles, laid out by an agility judge in a design of his own choosing on a roughly 30 by 30 m area, with numbers indicating the order in which the dog must complete the obstacles. Courses are complicated enough that a dog could not complete them correctly without human direction. In competition, the handler must assess the course, decide on handling strategies, and direct the dog through the course, with precision and speed equally important. Many strategies exist to compensate for the inherent difference in human and dog speeds and the strengths and weaknesses of the various dogs and handlers.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_agility)

We won same nice titles and the best one was the year’s Champion of our ‘Primorska’ region.

One day another dog joined us…a little brown cutie that we named ‘Pafi’. Somebody must have left it in front of our house and we couldn’t resist adopting it.

Gaja and Pafi

Gaja and Pafi got along great, but Pafi remained kind of a wild dog– we couldn’t pet her too much and we, naive as we were, were sure it was a boy. Until one day she gave birth to 3 wonderful little puppies. What a surprise that was! And we thought ‘he’ was just getting fat!


With Gaja and the puppies - black and white Piko (Spoty), brown Buco (Fatty) and black Šeri.


The little babies got their new owners and that summer we went on holidays for a week. When we came back… Pafi was gone. We never learnt what happened to her but we hoped she decided to continue her journey after spending some great times with us.

Gaja was growing up and so was I....





When I started going to high school, I didn’t have time for professional agility anymore but we still practiced it at home, just for fun. We had all the obstacles needed and for us Agility was better than any other game.

Gaja and me, 8 and 18 years old

When I was 21, I went to USA for 4 months and later to Spain for 6 and I left Gaja with my parents and sisters. It was a great time, but I really missed Gaja so much. When I came back she was really offended that I left her for so long and she needed some time to forgive me. After that experience I didn't have the heart to leave her alone for such a long time again.

When I was away...

...my sisters looked after her.

But she still missed me a lot :(

Gaja was getting older and older, but the only sign was that her hairs were getting whiter.

Gaja 14 years

She was still proudly watching the house...

She stayed in great condition until she was 15 and a half years old. But she became sleepier and would sleep all day long;)

Gaja 15 years

We thought she would stay with us for much longer. She still had so much energy and an amazing will to live. But then the saddest day in my entire life came. A night before my B.A dissertations exam, she started to feel sick. We thought she was just feeling a little bit dizzy. I didn’t want to leave her like this but then she started feeling better and I was sure it was nothing serious. So I went to a town where I studied, 3 hours away from my hometown. I was still a little bit worried, so the next day I asked my dad to take her to the vet. They performed an x-ray and said everything was ok, so I was calmed. I passed the exam and was very relieved. But on the way home, my sister called. She said Gaja was feeling really bad again. When I got home, she was laying there, not being able to move and was hardly breathing. We took her to the night vet and they gave her oxygen, a transfusion and took an x-ray of her whole body. We were all so worried and scared…I had never felt so nervous in my whole life. When they took all the tests, the vet came. He told us that there was no hope for her anymore. I heard him but couldn’t believe my ears. I knew the situation was serious, but I didn’t expect it to be so bad. We had to put her to sleep, to save her from suffering. I stayed with her, by her side, till the very end. I just can’t describe how I felt in the last moments of her life…tears were falling down my face and I could hardly breathe…even the veterinarian was left speechless. It was a terrible night for all of us. The next day he discovered that she had a huge tumor in her lungs, which had collapsed, and her entire body was filled with liquid.

I really miss my little princess. She was my best friend, she was always there when I was sad and I needed somebody who would listen to me. She was great…she would listen to me patiently, she would kiss me with her wet tongue and we would cuddle until all the problems were gone. She helped me growing up and she stayed with me all the time until I became an adult. She will always be in my heart, Gaja, my biggest dream come true!

Gaja, my little angel R.I.P