Border Collies. . . and a new ACEO featuring one

This ACEO, "Hey Ewe", features a special dog - our Magpie's mom! The hard-working border collie in the painting is Katie. She looks a bit different than the "traditional" border, but she's a pure bred. Our Magpie looks very much like her mom (although Magpie's more petite and her ears are huge). They're the smooth coat variety - don't have that lovely long, full coat that most borders do. We actually wanted a smooth coat when it was time to get our 2nd border. Our first dog, Jet (aka "Best Dog Ever" and "Jet the Wonder Dog") had a really thick, plush coat which was very handsome, but that coat takes a bit of work and it's also a burr magnet. When we got Jet we were living in a house in town, later when we moved out to the country, we realized that the long coat was not so great after he'd taken a little jaunt around the place - "Burr Boy" became a new nickname!

So, 6 years ago, after Jet passed, we knew we wanted another border - that breed (with all its quirks, intensity and intelligence) had burrowed into our hearts forever. We were able to track down Jet's breeder - he'd moved a good 2 hour's drive away - and he happened to have a litter ready to go. We also decided we wanted to get a female this time and lucky for us, there were still 3 females available in the litter and they were all smooth coats. We picked the little girl that would become our Magpie and left her there for a couple of months - we didn't want to deal with an 8 week old puppy, preferring to bring a 4 month old puppy home. Of course, we went back to visit Magpie a few times before finally bringing her home. Mapgie was quite the challenge during her first year with us - she "customized" a couple of rugs, the couch, a comforter, etc., but we figured out her "bored" signals and all is well now. We didn't have these issues with Jet (as I said: "Best Dog Ever", not that he didn't have his quirks, but they weren't destructive). Magpie's smart, energetic (but she does have on "off" switch, thankfully), and adorable and we're sure glad she's a part of our lives.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our other wonderful dog, Patch, who also happens to be black & white! Yes, he's part border collie, but it's his other part (which we suspect is lab or hound of some sort) that dominates his personality. He adopted us, showing up as a stray on our street in our previous neighborhood. We tried to find his owners, but were unable to. We're quite glad we were able to keep him and I suspect he is too, as he's got a pretty good life with us. Patch is quite mellow, but does tend to follow his nose, and he likes to chase squirrels and watch for lizards in the woodpile and the flower beds. Unlike Magpie, who's all about work (i.e. fetching a tennis ball), Patch is all about food and belly rubs. And that's ok - it's nice to have both a Type A and a Type B personality dog. Two Type A's would be a lot of work!













I could go on and on about border collies and our very special "Team Black & White", but I'll save that for another day. . .

By the way, "Hey Ewe" is listed on eBay, until Feb 1st at about 9pm. If it hasn't sold, I'll move it to ArtCardsWanted.