When I was young, my dad bred and raised dogs. As a result, we got to see many litters of puppies. Mostly, we had Australian Shepherd dogs. But we also had a Boxer, a Great Dane, and a Pit Bull.
Australian Shepherds
The first dogs that I remember us having were named Heidi and Happy. They were both merle colored. I remember we had a litter of puppies about three times per year. Heidi would have the puppies in hidden locations like under the old house's porch, under the granary, and under the tack room step.
Heidi was very protective of her puppies. Dad would have to hold or chain her up before we could crawl under the building or steps to get the puppies. She once bit the snap of the front of Al Hale's shirt when he came by to look at her pups.
Dad advertised around the valley and in the Western Horseman magazine. Dad sold Happy when I was still quite young (around age 5 or 6). He built a wooden crate from plywood that he used to ship Happy away.
We also had Bobbie. She was black with a few white markings and a white ring around her neck. Bobbie may have been one of Heidi's pups that we raised. I do not remember. I do remember Dad bought Sunny while he was away at a Horse Pulling contest. Sunny was the first red merle-colored Aussie we owned.
Skye (a blue merle) was the stud dog that Dad purchased in Montana (I think) to replace Happy. Dad built a wire run from the back porch of the house to the tree behind the garage. We kept Skye chained to this run by the back door of the house. Skye was a fierce protector of the house. Very few men dared walk past Skye to knock on the back door when he was chained.
Skye disappeared one fall day and never came back. Dad found him months later laying dead from a gunshot wound. Dad decided a hunter or disgruntled neighbor must have shot him.
We raised Red (one of Sunny's red merle pups) to be another stud dog. He was not too smart as he was killed when a tractor ran over him while he was smelling something on the ground. We also raised Bell (I think she was one of Bobbie's pups).
Bobbie and Bell are the two Aussies that I remember owning the longest. Bell lost one of her front legs when she was about three or four years old. Dad had the rest of the leg removed by the vet. She lived for several years after that.
Governor was another merle-colored dog we owned. We had him after Skye.
When we had litters of pups, Cade, Cory, and I liked to play with the puppies when they were still small. We would put them inside our shirts and crawl around on hands and knees and pretend we were the mother dog about to have puppies.
Other Dogs
The first dog we owned that was not an Aussie, was Penny. She was a fawn-colored Boxer with a white diamond-shaped star on her chest. Dad bought Penny for Mom when he was working as a police officer. Penny was the first dog trained to be a "house" dog. Mom would have Penny sleep at the foot of the bed when Dad was working nights as the Thayne cop.
Penny loved porcupines! Almost every summer, Penny would get in a fight with a porcupine. She would have porcupine quills in her mouth, all over her face, and down her front legs. One time she had so many porcupine quills that Dad had to take her to the vet. The vet gave her some sleeping medicine so that she would lay still while they finished moving the quills. I think they removed around 500 quills from her while she slept.
One time Penny, Sunny, and Bobbie all had litters of pups about the same time. Between the three we had about 20 puppies. Sunny and Bobbie weaned their puppies before Penny weaned her puppies. Penny also did not mind which puppies she nursed. So, she would walk into the back yard and all 20 puppies would clabber around her to take turns nursing.
My cousin Bret Graham and his wife Terri bought a Great Dane named Silky as a puppy for their kids. By the time Silky was about 6 months old, she was too big for their house in the city. So, Dad traded one of our Aussie pups for Silky. That is how we got to own a Great Dane. Unfortunately, several months later, Silky chewed up a newborn calf really badly. Dad decided we could not own a Great Dane that chewed on new calves.
After Penny died, Dad bought a brindle-colored Pit Bull named Sadie. Sadie was the first dog we owned that was spayed. Even though she was a Pit Bull, Sadie thought she was a cow dog. Sadie loved to chase the cars that drove by our house. She was night blind (did not see too well at night). We discovered this one evening after dusk when a car came by the house. Sadie was in the backyard and came running full tilt to chase the car. She did not see the front fence and ran head-first into it.
Kelly and Iris owned a fawn-colored dog named Patty that was a cross between a Labrador and a Boxer. Kelly and Iris got her as a puppy. Later they did not have enough space for her and she ended up at the ranch. Patty loved to chase and retrieve sticks when we would throw them into the water. She would dive in, swim out, catch the stick, and bring it back to you.
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