Hannah

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my fifteen plus old Bearded Collie; Hannah went to 'forever' asleep.

She was amazing, everyone who ever met her - and there were a lot of people of the fifteen years, never once guessed her age.  But I am most proud about the fact, that new vets, that had never met her before also questioned the notes they had on their computers, in front of them!

I had have owned and loved several dogs but Hannah has been with me the longest.  We as a family met her at just three weeks.  I had wanted a Beardie since I was little – I just loved everything about them: how they looked and also they were wilful, oh so wilful!  I knew I would need hours and hours (and more hours) to train a Beardie properly.

Having moved to Swindon and working part time, I knew this was the time.  Because not only was I working part time but I was going to be able to take my future puppy to work with me.  I started the search process – I wanted a good bred dog, less likely to have genitive issues in the future.  I did my home, checking all the winners in Crufts over the years.  Narrowing, down Bearded Collie breeders around the country.  Getting in touch with Bearded Collie clubs; when this was done by telephone!  I eventually spoke to a lady called Belinda Steer, who put me in touch with the lady who I eventually bought my Beardie from.  Her name was Carol Palumbo and she lived in Brentwood in Essex – a 3 hour drive away.  I was serious about who and what my new puppy was going to be.

I was given a telephone interview about my prospects of becoming a Beardie owner.  I passed!  We were then invited to meet the 3 week old puppies.  However, the whole household had to visit.  If we had a lodger (we didn’t), everyone had to visit.  For my family it was Noel our then; 10 year old daughter, Poppy and myself travelled to Wentbridge. Little did we know it was another test: we were all invited into Carol’s conservatory and we were all looking at the puppies, contained in a huge playpen, when Carol released her other Beardies into the room.  She wanted to see how we reacted to a pack of very excited dogs.  Noel and I ignored them, until they settled down – no eye contact but it was Poppy who really passed the test for us – she was brilliant.  An 18 month old Beardie jumped up at her.  On dog on her back legs was as tall as Poppy.  However, Poppy was not concerned by this at all.  She caught the dogs front legs in her hands and with one clear decisive move; took the paws and let the dog down with a clear command of ‘off’, such a natural.

We had passed – yay.  And that was it for the first visit – not touching of puppies.

We travelled again to Wentbridge when the puppies were 5 weeks old and Carol had a better idea of the personalities of each of the puppies.  We are and were a reasonably quiet family but a fit and energetic family.  However, would you believe the best puppy for us, actually picked Noel.  This little puppy walked over to Noel crawled into his lap and fell fast asleep – it was a done deal.

She was now ours but we still had to wait another 2 weeks.  As it was back then; puppies left their mums at 7 weeks old.

Like you do preparing for a puppy is a bit like preparing for a baby, new crate, bed, toys, food bowls etc.

This puppy was my wedding present, birthday present and Christmas present all rolled into one; she was expensive at £500.00 (a fraction of the price of puppies now but in 2003 this was a lot of money).

We collected newspapers and I visited all the charity shops to buy as many towels as possible. Something that wasn’t done back then, you could pick up a bin liner full for just £5.00 but not anymore!  Already for our next journey back to Brentwood.

Our puppy was born on 4^th October 2003 and we were allowed to pick her up the weekend of my birthday at the end of November, we were all so very very excited.

We were going to call this puppy; Hannah an adaptation of my last name!

She did wonderfully well on the way home, she was sick a couple of times but we were able to clear the mess up quickly, with the newspapers, kitchen roll and bin liners.

Oh my goodness what a puppy she was – she was beautiful and a real pickle but so bright and took to clicker training so very well.

Oh I am feeling a bit emotional, not all bad but tears anyway – so I hope you don’t mind I am going to break this down into probably three parts.

Till the next time xx