Today my awesome though EXTREMELY HUGE baby is a whole one year old! He is the size of like 11 regular one year old border collies combined, but that means there’s just more of him to love. He is now about 23″ at the shoulder and weighs a very lean 50 lbs. His breeder said “He certainly is a tall fellow” which sums him up pretty well.
And what a great year (the Oy parts anyway) it’s been. I can’t believe how lucky I got, picking a puppy sight unseen, getting on a plane and meeting a stranger at the airport in another province and ending up with the sweetest, kindest, funniest border collie ever. I was sooooo nervous about the whole “buying a puppy” scenario. I looked at an awful lot of puppies/litters for like two years. In the end all I had was two pedigrees and a lot of hope. But it turns out I did what I always do – I picked with my heart. I knew he was meant to be mine as soon as I saw his baby photo, and it turned out I was right!
I TOLD YOU ALL HE WAS RED. All you colour blind people who kept saying it was a photo of a black and white puppy. Hmph.
But I mean I didn’t think he’d be so huge. That part I did not foresee.
big (not) mistake. huge.
He is also a huge suck. He is definitely a lover, not a fighter – a couple of weeks ago at class he was attacked by another dog and all he did was cower and cry until the teacher dragged the dog off him. Because he just wants to be everydog’s friend, or at least neutral companion. I am forever rescuing him from Evil Baby who makes him cry by biting him in the face, and he never retaliates. I am glad, because he is too big to be a naughty fighty boi, but I am also glad because he is the gentle soul I love so much, all the way through his pretty red body to his kind, kind heart.
Although I did not teach him “leave it” very thoroughly, so it was verrrrry hard for him not to eat his cake during this photo taking event (I would not call it a session because it lasted about 15 seconds as we were in extreme danger of losing the cake prop to his gaping maw).
He really is so delightful. I wish has the words to tell you all how much. He is so curious, and enthusiastic, and ready to rock, but also snuggly and sweet and completely delighted by little things he discovers, like slugs. He is grossly obsessed with my armpits and thinks they require grooming in bed every night, that part is weird…but I often wake up with his head draped across my neck or torso and he has to be touching me to fall asleep at night. He will try any new sport with me because he wants to be the best boy. He puts up with grouchy old lady Addy and her snarkypants, he is gentle with Neato and makes sure he doesn’t step on him under the covers when he gets into bed. (He could be a little nicer to Winter, but Winter doesn’t really bring out the best in his brothers…and now that Dexter is gone, Winter needs someone to antagonize.)
He really is the best.
I cannot wait for all the the birthdays ahead of him that we get to share! We are going to have so much fun playing disc and agility and lure coursing and hopefully in the Spring he will get to try his paw at sheeps.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OY BOY!
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