Now I love animals so much and I thought it would be fun to start a herding dog blog and dedicate it to a very special dog who has practically made my life more happy than what I could have ever imagined. Now my husband also makes me happy and so does my family and friends, but she has helped me through some dark tough times. Hope that made sense. She helped save me and no; she isn't a rescue but she is a dream come true.
My whole life, I have always, aways dreamed of having a Blue Merle Sheltie and since getting diagnosed with a terminal advanced Cancer; I figured, you only live once, why not make this dream come true?
I first fell in love with Shelties while I was 14 years old and working in a kennel for an elderly couple. They only paid me like 25 - 35 cents an hour, perhaps less. I didn't have the heart to charge them more in like 1984 or 85. Just didn't have it in me. I would work 8-9 hours pulling up weeds, cleaning kennels; doing back breaking hard work in 90-100 degree temperatures. Then the old man would come outside and tell me what an excellent job I did and then hands me $2.50 for 8 - 9 hours of work. Sometimes I would get $1.75 for the same amount of work and it would bum me out but I would always think that it was pleasure just to be around those beautiful dogs. I fell in love with one of their Blue Merles and my family raised large collies which these were like miniature versions of my dogs at home. I started asking my mom if I could get me a sheltie. I kept hoping that the Halls would perhaps sell me a puppy or better, give me a puppy. I finally got up the nerve to ask them about getting a puppy and they gave me the price of $800. So it would take me many many years to save up $800 to get a puppy so that was out of the question. That was pretty cheap back then for this type of dog. Life went on for another 22 years before I finally got my wish to come true and I paid far less.
Before we had decided on making my dream come true, we had been visiting the animal shelter here in San Jose quite often and unsuccessfully; most of the dogs had been picked through and the remaining were mostly Pit Bulls of which that breed is not allowed in our Complex so we had to pass on those.
I really had my heart set on a Sheltie and I didn't see any that could have even come close. We looked at the Northern California Sheltie Rescue and as our luck had it, there were no rescues available for adoption. I kept checking the site quite often to see if there were any Blue Merles or just beautiful Shelties available.
We researched 2 long years prior to getting our Blue Belle. I researched the internet like crazy trying to find Reputable Breeders. I also researched to see what to expect with this breed and even more so fell even more in love with the breed.
My husband has fallen in love with the Blue Merle color, so we looked high and low for a Blue Merle puppy. I finally found the cutest Blue Merle puppy ever. She was just what we had dreamed of. I found her late one night at around 2 am while I was researching available puppies. I saved her photo onto the desktop so that my husband could see her and I also emailed the owner and expressed my interest.
She was born on Sheep farm in Pablo Montana.
Unfortunately, the family we got her from has since gone through a bitter, bitter divorce and ended up having to sell everything they owned. We are most fortunate to have our little Blue Belle.
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