Our relation to the collies of the past...

I did four posts yesterday about the history of the American collie.  I find it fascinating, though I don’t suppose anyone without a collie would be as interested.  All of my posts were based on information I was able to obtain on the internet, from very trustworthy sources.

Today I decided to experiment, and see just how far back I could trace my collie, Abby's pedigree.  And as Holly is Abby's niece, and Ryder and Kori are her children, my findings could also be applied to them, as they all have the same dogs in their pedigrees.

It took some research, but what I found amazed me.  Looking at only a small group of collies in her pedigree, I was able to trace Abby's pedigree all the way back to many of the collies I wrote about yesterday!  In Abby’s pedigree is Ch Future of Arken, Ch Honeybrook Big Parade, Ch Halbury Jean, Ch Southport Sample, El Capitaine of Arken, Ch Eden Emerald, Ch Laund Limit, Ch Magnet, Ch Parbold Piccolo, Ch Anfield Model, Ch Squire of Tytton and Ch Christopher.

I had previously researched Abby's pedigree, to trace her family back to the Sunnybank collies.  When I did that project I found that Abby had many Sunnybank collies in her pedigree:
Ch Sunnybank Thane
Ch Sunnybank Goldsmith - Bruce
Sunnybank Gray Dawn
Ch Sunnybank Sigurd - Treve
Sunnybank Sandstorm
Anyone who is a fan of Albert Payson Terhune's books about the Sunnybank collies, will be familiar with Bruce, Gray Dawn and Treve.  They each had a fictional book written about them.  Gray Dawn and Lad were my two of my favorite Sunnybank books.  I was excited to discover that my collies were related to Gray Dawn.  I've visited Sunnybank many times, including the graves of all the Sunnybank collies.  There is just something magical about walking among the trees, over the rolling lawns of Sunnybank, while surrounded by collies.  It's like stepping into the pages of a favorite book.

I am going to continue my research into my collies ancestry, and I will share my findings.  For now, I am going to go home and put my hands on Abby's belly, and feel the next generation of collies as they gently move and grow.  For me, this is what it's all about, being connected to a rich and wonderful history, the history of the collie.