My Love Of Shelties
I’ve shared my life and home with Shelties for over 25 years. I didn’t know I would have Shetland Sheepdogs for the rest of my life. I got a Sheltie after growing up with Collies and wanting a smaller dog for a housedog.
I started with Lady, a pup from a backyard breeder that died at 4 months. The pups were never socialized and I found out too late that they were not healthy at all. At least Lady had a few good weeks with me before she died.
Next it was Happy – a 100% puppy mill Sheltie that I got from a pet store before I knew about puppy mills. She was a good dog and I made sure she was healthy and stayed that way.
The so called breeder of Lady my first sheltie that died surprised me with a replacement puppy. The puppy had papers but they were fakes because the Mom was listed as the same one my Lady had. I kept the puppy and named her Casey. Happy and Casey got along great and made me know I would always have Shelties in my family. Next came my BIG oversized Sheltie, Max. He was a beautiful Shaded Sable with the full white collar and a nice white blaze. He was white factored and the accidental litter of pups he sired were color headed whites.
I loved the color headed whites. Cowboy was my favorite. He had a tri colored head with only one black spot on his side. He was beautiful. I placed all the pups in good homes and had Max nuetered so there were no more accidents.
When Max was 2-years-old I got Tara, a tiny Tri-colored Sheltie, 6 months later Cher joined our family. Now I have 6 Shelties and wonder how that happened!
I wasn’t breeding them except for an accidential litter from a 6 month old sire. I had no idea a 6 month old pup could sire a litter of pups. It was all good and I learned so much from the few litters of pups I helped raise.
I’m down to 2 Shelties now.
Happy and Casey died of kidney problems when they were 11 years old.
Max died after a stroke on his 15th birthday.
Cher died of cancer a few weeks before her 13th birthday and 5 months afer Max died.
Tara, my best dog friend ever, died 15 days after her 18th birthday. She was with me for 18 wonderful years and will always be a one of a kind sheltie. I’ll never forget her and after a year I still miss her as much as I did the day she died.
I have two rescue Shelties now. Scotty came from the shelter I worked at, Riley came from a local family who didn’t have time for him. They both came to live with us when they were 9 months old.
I will get another sheltie. I miss having a girl around and I want to find a Sheltie puppy from Tara’s bloodline. She was strong Banchory.
I believe in adopting and I have adopted two Shelties. I need to have another Sheltie pup with a similar temperment as Tara or little Cher. I would never buy from a pet shop again and I know what a good breeder is. I will make a very educated decision when I get my next puppy.
So that’s how I started with Shelties and how I plan to share my home and life with them forever.
