Blog #146  I talked about My Friend and Nordstrom Buddy Daryl Curley. In this blog I want to talk about Our Dog Willie the Collie.

Sheba

We had a dog in Sacramento which was our first official family dog. “Sheba” was a black Lab that we rescued. She was about 3 years old and overall she was a pretty good dog. The only thing she did that we were trying to break her of was jumping on the kids. I built her a dog house since she was primarily an outside dog. Our new home had a huge backyard so it was a great environment for her.

Sad News

One day I was at work and Diane calls me frantic. “Mike the dog hung herself.” I was watching the floor at the time and I’m like “What?”. So I got off the floor and she explained the kids were in the backyard playing. Because there were neighbor kids around, they tied her to the dog house with a long lease. Sheba got nervous with all the noise and jumped to her roof then over the fence which didn’t end well. Raced home and took the dog to the Vet. but she was already gone. It was brutal for the family…

Lucky

I thought I’d get another dog right away to ease the pain. We got a dog from a nearby person who just couldn’t keep up with the dog. It was an Australian Shepard named “Lucky.” This dog was super smart but kept finding a way to get out and run back to the previous owner. After 3 times we gave up. The owner kept the dog. We decided to wait on a dog for a while, then I got transferred to the Bay area.

New House

After we bought our first house we felt it was time. We had a nice backyard and also a sunroom which was enclosed. Decided to start looking. My Grandfather Osterholtz was a Veterinarian and he loved Collies, so I thought we’d start there.

I found a rescue dog named “Willie”, in Santa Rosa. He was 3-4 years old and was an ex-show dog. When we got there the owner gave us all his show awards. Best in show several times and a host of other awards. Two dozen to be exact.

Weird sound

Willie was a beautiful dog. We brought him home and he fit right in. We lost our  backyard though as it was his now. One day I was in the sunroom and I heard this hoarse choking like sound. It was Willie barking at something but it sounded pretty painful.

I called the previous owner and she then told me his vocal chords were “Clipped” for the shows. What? Never heard that before but it was too late Willie was part of our family. It did piss me off that we weren’t told this beforehand.

Sad News again

We enjoyed Willie for the next year then one day I found him laying in the backyard having a hard time breathing. I immediately took him to the Vet. – Our dog Willie the Collie had Kidney failure. We felt so bad for the kids. The Vet.told us he had to be put down. James wanted to be there as the Dr. injected him to hold his paw as he passed. It was the saddest thing I ever saw. I respected James for that  decision. It must have been hard for him to witness.

Max

Once again I felt the best way was to immediately get another dog. This time we were going to get a puppy from a breeder. We found a breeder again in Santa Rosa and met “Burton.” We decided to take him and re-name him “Max.” But that’s another story…