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It's been quite a while since I frequented the boards here. Life happens and I had my wonderful border collie, Cash, by my side always. Memorial Day of this year I had to rush him to the vet for a rectal prolapse. Panic gripped me, but his xrays were clean. They couldn't find a cause for it, just fixed it and sent us home. It wasn't until the third visit that they found the cancer on his colon. With a poor prognosis even from the specialist, I had him put down a month after his diagnosis. I think I cried every day. He was having accidents and that upset him terribly. When he no longer followed me around and just laid in the barn doorway I knew.

 

He now rests beside my first border collie on the hill by the old pasture. In the ten years since Molly's death, the bleeding heart bush that I planted on her grave is massive. I have not yet picked a flower to cover Cash. He was just 9 years old. Molly is my avatar. Cash is in my signature.

 

I had started my search for a new border collie before Cash was gone. Call it cold, but my gut knew that Cash was in major trouble... And that soon I would be without my farmhand. To me it had nothing to do with replacing him. Just like he did not replace Molly. But I've got a small herd of goats and a buck that outweighs me. I needed a dog. I really should have started looking when he was a little younger. But you always think you have more time when your dog is healthy. Looking at his face, I never even noticed the gray creeping up his muzzle. But all my dogs have lived 14-16 years. It blindsided me.

 

Without further ado... This is Cricket! She's a wonderful little girl out of working parents. I'm looking forward to many years with her as my new right hand. Being the favorite of the breeder's grandkids, she's a might spoiled, but she's coming around once she realized that I'm not carrying her everywhere lol. She has a lovely little personality and tilts her head at everything I say. I love a dog you can have a conversation with.

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Ah, real life. I'm sorry for your loss of Cash, and celebrating your new-found potential for a different happiness with a different dog. Congrats!

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I'm so very sorry for your loss. No matter when it comes, it's never expected and always, always too soon.

 

Cricket is just adorable! I just love that last picture of her. :wub: She's got some might big paws to fill but she looks like she just might be up to the task.

 

Better keep a close eye on her, though. I'm not too terribly far away from you. :ph34r:

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Thanks all. She certainly does have a big hole to fill. She's doing just fine though. I miss Cash something fierce; it's also hard not having a farmhand. My pit bull/dane mix, Tessa, attempts to help me. It's pathetic and yet I appreciate her effort. She bounds a lot and then looks at me. *facepalm*

 

These were some of the last photos I got of Cash. ❤

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Haha! I don't have carpet any more. My recently deceased old gal ruined it with incontinence.

 

But thanks anyway . . . no Labs for me. I even told the rescue when I asked them to keep any eye out for my next adoptee that I don't even want another border collie mix, just a purebred. My only really difficult dogs have been mixes (even the BC mixes). Loved 'em to death, but not looking to go through it again, especially since one of them's only 3 1/2 now. :rolleyes:

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  • 1 month later...

I was able to locate this thread. Your pup looks like a dwarf in these photos. I suspect she was deemed "normal" during her vet exam because many vets, like most humans, are so used to seeing dwarf dogs (like Corgies) that they would only mark them as abnormal on physical if they felt the defect was affecting quality of life.

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I was able to locate this thread. Your pup looks like a dwarf in these photos. I suspect she was deemed "normal" during her vet exam because many vets, like most humans, are so used to seeing dwarf dogs (like Corgies) that they would only mark them as abnormal on physical if they felt the defect was affecting quality of life.

 

I find this rather shocking. I would expect my vet to recognize that a border collie should not exhibit dwarfism. If I took a corgi puppy in, sure, tell me it's fine, but a dog breed that's not normally dwarfed? I would be rather unhappy with my vet at that point. What I would expect is that the vet would note the defect and then tell me that it shouldn't affect the dog's quality of life, but calling a dog normal when it's clearly not, given the breed, is indefensible in my opinion.

 

J.

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I've got to agree with Julie here.

 

I'm not used to seeing dwarf dogs. Yes, I see corgis and doxies and recognize that they look different from most dogs, but unless someone were to tell me a pup was a mix of one of those or a similarly stunted breed, I'd think there was something wrong with the pup, not that it's "normal." <_<

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