The Monkey

Some people may look at me with one of those shock-horror-gasp expressions for admitting this, but I started looking for another puppy the week after I lost Fletch. It wasn't like I was going to go out and get another dog that very day, but my previous experience with breeders had cemented in my belief that I needed to get in early and be more flexible.

So that's what I wanted to try and do.

I emailed the two breeders I had lined up for puppies that fell through in 2010: Scotsdream in Sydney, that didn't have anything upcoming; and Hillswick in Orange, who had one of her dogs planned to cover another one of the bitches she bred and sold onto another home with a friend of hers. The bitch needed to come into season still, but it was estimated to be about five or six months until the puppies from that breeding would be ready to go to new homes. It made me slightly antsy, because I was still hung up on my time frame, but I decided to put my name down for that litter and go with it.

All sorted, I sat back to wait.

Then, exactly four weeks after I lost Fletcher, I got a call from Carole at Hillswick. She told me briefly about how she'd ended up with an eighteen month old tri sheltie bitch that was too big to show and from one of her boys' litters; she needed to find someone to take her on towards the end of 2011 and she thought I might like her. I got sent a photo and a little bit more information about her and decided I'd like to give it a shot; the time frame with a puppy was haunting me, and at least with an older dog, I thought, it wouldn't matter so much if I got her just as I graduated and starting looking for more work.

But about a month and a half or so later, with more information given to me about exactly the amount of work that Scarlet was going to require, I started to feel out of my depth. Orange was too far away, especially, for me to just give her a shot and, I realised, I didn't want another sheltie.

It was like a weight was lifted off me. I didn't want a sheltie.

So what did I want?

I've only ever had two breeds on the consideration list: "my" two breeds. Kelpies and shelties, and that's about it. There are a couple of other breeds I like the idea of, but none that get me as enthused or excited as those two.

So logically, if I didn’t want a sheltie, I wanted a kelpie. After my little epiphany, I actually started to feel really, really excited about getting another dog. That cemented it for me: I was getting a kelpie.

Caution to do with puppies and time frames and the end of school flung out the window, I fired off an email to a working kelpie breeder in Orange I've adored since I found out about them over a year previously and got a reply back to give them a ring. I eagerly did so the following afternoon and, after a little chat, I was assured that the puppy I was looking for could be provided by them- and by the end of 2011, all things going to plan. I sent the deposit off, waited for it to clear and that was it. I was on the list and waiting for my puppy to eventuate.

At the beginning of July 2011, I got a call from Mary at Noonbarra. She told me that they had a litter of five week old puppies available, and although they still needed a final bit of assessing, she was quite confident one of them was exactly what I was looking for. She had plans to get them outside during the week and finish this assessing off, and she'd get back to me at the end of the week with the final decision about whether or not I'd be bringing my new pup home at the end of July.

The end of the week rolled round. I heard nothing. Sunday, and with the litter now taken off the website because they weren't available any longer for enquiries, I sent off a little reminder email. Monday morning I got another call from Mary, apologising that she'd left me hanging but due to absolutely awful weather the pups hadn't been able to be taken outdoors and therefore still needed to be assessed. She told me to keep my fingers crossed for some favourable weather and she'd let me know as soon as the puppy placement had been finalised, but she was still very confident that one of the puppies would work out for me.

The weather stayed awful. For two weeks.

I heard another "We're sorry, we haven't been able to make final decisions because of the weather" update, so I crossed my fingers even tighter and, finally, the day the puppies turned seven weeks old, I got an email.

One of the puppies, a little black and tan boy, was being offered to me and, if I was happy with him, he could come home at any time from the end of the week. Obviously I didn't have to think twice before sending back "I'd absolutely love to take him".

Zeke arrived in Queensland on the 25th of July 2011, at eight weeks old. He was flown up from Orange- after a small mishap involving him missing the connecting flight from Sydney to Coolangatta and having to catch a later one- and made himself quite at home within minutes of walking through the door.

He's insane. Lots of play drive, lots of food drive; he just throws himself into anything and everything with no fear, no hesitations. He's curious and cheeky and naughty and an absolute handful, but he's very cute- especially when he's sleeping.

We're currently taking a puppy preschool course and afterwards will be doing a trick class until Zeke's a bit older, and then he'll begin his obedience training. He started participating in our club's demonstration team at just ten weeks old as part of the "puppy training" section. A bit later Zeke will begin agility training, but for the moment we'll just be having a lot of fun learning how to think and work together and laying the foundations for all of the wonderful things we've got planned for the future.