Collies, Collies, Collies

I'd like to thank Dorothy Bodoin for sharing her love of collies with the angels. I know that Amber Angel has an unsurpassed love of all dogs.

I would also like to offer my apology to Dorothy. I don't know what happened last weekend. I even looked twice for the rest of the story but couldn't find it on the attachment. But it was there!

COLLIES, COLLIES, COLLIES

Crazy over collies. That describes my life-long love of the collie breed.

When I was very young, about two or three years old, I was knocked down by a large collie. I have no recollection of this incident, no memory of whether I was afraid or if I cried or what happened afterward. My mother told me the story.

Now you’d think that would have traumatized me, but it had the opposite effect. I grew up with a love of dogs that is just as strong today as it was in the beginning.

Like everyone who loves collies, I soon discovered books by Albert Payson Terhune about his heroic collies and, around the same time, the Lassie movies. I desperately wanted a collie of my own. It was an early dream of mine to own an outstanding show dog, a champion. I even knew the color I wanted: tricolor which is black with tan and white markings.

I had to wait a long time.

Collies were too big. They shed. They barked too much. My mother had dozens of excuses, but when I was in high school, she finally capitulated.

My first collie was a sable, like Lassie. I named her Heather after a dog in one of Terhune’s short stories. Heather came into our family as a tiny puppy and was a cherished family member for the next decade.

Then came years of life without a collie. They weren’t unhappy years, just vaguely incomplete. I worked abroad and traveled, went to college, taught English in a local high school, and wrote stories of my own with collie characters. One day I decided that I wasn’t going to wait any longer for my collie. My tricolor collie. I bought LaStancia Dark Heather and entered the fascinating world of breeders and exhibitors, albeit marginally.

Since then, there have always been collies in my life: Springbrook Black Rainbow, Wolf Manor Black Holly, and Wolf Manor Kinder Brightstar, all of them Michigan bred.

Since Five Star published my first book, Darkness at Foxglove Corners, in 2001, there have been collies in my mysteries with one exception. In Treasure at Trail’s End, set in the old West, my heroine befriends a mixed breed dog. I didn’t think collies were plentiful in Colorado Territory.

I’ve written about champions, pets, strays, abused collies, and collies in peril. All of them are modeled after dogs I’ve known and loved. Their personalities sparkle in the pages. Their antics provide comic relief in tense situations. They are all intelligent and loyal and courageous, and they are all beautiful. Even as a child I knew that, for me, the majestic collie was the most beautiful of dogs.

The antics of my real life collie, Kinder, are too amusing to keep to myself. Like the time Kinder, as a baby, got lost behind a basket in the closet. She was quiet for a long time but her soft whine finally alerted me to her dilemma. Or her habit of chewing twenty dollar bills whenever I leave my purse open. Or her clever way of distracting me with one naughty activity so that I’ll turn my attention to that while she does what she wanted to do in the first place.

Kinder’s breeder told me, “She’s smart. “Don’t let her put one over on you.”

Good advice, but it’s happened more often than I care to admit.

At present, Candy, a collie character in my Foxglove Corners mystery series, is patterned after Kinder, just as Jennet Greenway’s collie, Halley, was patterned after my Black Holly.

There’s a story about me and Holly. It’s a sad story, but it’s part of my history.

I lost Holly when she was thirteen and a half years old. At the time I was in the hospital, and my brother had taken her to his house in the country until I came home. Holly was my motivation for wanting to get well. Tragically, she died on her first night away from home. I wasn’t with her; I couldn’t even say goodbye to her. She took a large piece of my heart with her.

Before my accident, I’d planned to write The Collie Connection in which my heroine lost her beloved collie only weeks before her wedding. A few months after I came home, I was finally ready to begin a new book. But how could I write about losing Halley (Holly)? I didn’t think I could. One day, however, I changed my mind. I decided to write The Collie Connection and let Holly live in its pages.

Some months later, I was surprised and happy to learn that Holly’s book had won my publisher’s Golden Wings Award for overall excellence in its genre.

In a sense, having a dog in a book is a little like being responsible for one in life. Having introduced a canine character, you can’t simply forget about her—or use her only whenever the plot needs a dog. If your protagonist comes home in a downpour and goes out again on some mystery-related errand without tending to the needs of her dog, I guarantee you’ll hear from outraged readers.

My fictitious dogs may be in danger, but I never let them die. I cried over too many dog stories to do.

The room in which I write today is filled with pictures of collies. There are photographs of all my collies; old time prints and cards; and prints by my favorite animal artist, Cindy Alvarado.
I’d like to say that Kinder lies at my feet while I write, Albert Payson Terhune style, but she has her own diversions. Sometimes, when I’ve been at the computer too long, Kinder brings one of her toys or a Frisbee or a ball and drops it near my chair. It’s a not-so-subtle hint, and it always works. I stop what I’m doing and play with her.

So I write my books and enjoy my collie’s company, and the seasons go by, a little too fast these days.

This isn’t quite the life I envisioned for myself when I was a teenager reading stories about dogs and dreaming about owning a show collie, but it’s a very satisfactory life and the only one I want.