Like most stories worth telling, ours begins with a dream,
a dog and a Facebook post. The dream had
been one of mine since I was a little kid, watching the intelligent, speedy and
athletic border collies, flying through agility courses on TV. I watched those
dogs with an intensity that mirrored their intensity for their sport and I
decided, as young as I was, that this was the breed for me. Twenty years later, when the decision was
made that a dog would be part of our family, there was no question in my mind
that our dog would be a border collie.
The dog
was, first and foremost Target’s mom, who quietly gave birth to him a few towns
over, surrounded by love, at the beginning of December. After that, the dog
would be Target. Unbeknownst to me, my
life changed for the better that day in December and his impact would inspire
me forever.
The
Facebook post advertising Target and his siblings appeared in my news feed
between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Purebred border collies were for sale a few towns over, where my
boyfriend grew up and they would be ready to go in February around Valentine’s
Day. Eight puppies, a multitude of black and whites both male and females, an
interestingly coloured merle male, a merle female, and a completely white male
with blue eyes and a single black bullseye.
Within the hour, I had
contacted the breeder and set up a meeting time the next day. My boyfriend arrived home from work that
night to the news that we were getting a puppy, months earlier than we had
originally planned and since I was working the next day, he was not, he would
be travelling a few towns over to pick out our dog. I loaded my boyfriend up with the questions
he needed to ask this lady and the things he needed to look for to ensure she
was a legitimate breeder. I showed him
the photos from the post of the puppies, we briefly talked about the colours
and potential personality traits we were looking for in our dog.
At the end of the day, I only
had two rules:
1. Pick
the puppy that most relates to you and seems to “choose you”
2. Pick a
puppy. Just pick one and tell the
breeder that when I get there later I will pay a deposit.
As far as I was concerned, we
were getting my dog and that was all that was in my radar. The markings, the colour, the sex, nothing
else mattered. As long as the breeder
was a good person with integrity, the dogs were healthy and there weren’t any
signs of abusive treatment, everything else was just gravy.
With some hesitation,
my boyfriend agreed to go the next day and a journey that neither of us could
have expected began.
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