I wasn’t ready…

 We lost our Kori yesterday.  Even though we knew it was coming, my daughter and I still weren’t prepared.  The sight of her empty bowl, when I was preparing the collie’s dinner last night, just wrecked me.  Kori and Ryder always ate their dinner side by side, and now he stands alone, none of the other collies are willing to eat in “ her spot.”  I’m feeling her loss so deeply, and already miss my Sunshine girl so much.  The collies are all sticking close by me, to try and help, but I know they miss her too.  She was the 6th dog I’ve lost during my adult life, and it never gets any easier. 

Love you my beautiful Kori Beanie, 8/30/11 - 5/15/24

Meet Kori!

Still reminiscing, so Sharing this post From June 2013, back when my Kori was young…

Let me tell you about my sunshine girl, Kori.  She is Abby's daughter, and the first smooth collie that I ever bred.  When interacting with all the collies, she gets along with everyone, but her best friend is her younger sister, Scarlett.  The two of them put their heads together, and create a lot of mischief!  Kori is the first to make new dog friends at dog shows or the dog park.  

She is 21 months old, and will turn 2 years old on August 30th.  Kori spends most of her day playing with Scarlett and the other collies.  Throughout the day, she will check in with me, for some quick loves and attention, and then she is off playing once again.  And while she is pretty independent during the day, at night Kori curls up against me to sleep, wanting to be as close as possible to me while we slumber.

                    

Kori is very gentle, like the rest of our collies, but she is a bit of an imp.  I have watched her sit back and look around the room, searching for something to grab, or some mischief to accomplish.  Now that she is almost 2 years old, she seems to be less inclined to grab things she shouldn't, but she still slips sometimes.  And her younger sister is usually the cause, as Scarlett engages Kori in games of keep-away with things they have stolen from us.  One time, when we had company, Kori and Scarlett decided it was the perfect time to play keep-away, with one of my daughter's bras, right in front of everyone.

 

Kori is growing up to be a very pretty young collie.  We began training her to compete at dog shows when she was little, and then we waited for her to mature.  We have recently started entering her at dog shows, and she seems to enjoy them.  She isn't as excited by dog shows as Holly is, but she has fun.  Sometimes she has too much fun.  For some reason Kori thinks running around the ring is actually a race!  She is supposed to move at a nice pace, and she does move at the correct speed when we take her to handling class.  But at the dog shows, she starts running faster and faster, until she is trying to pull my daughter around the ring.  We are working hard on fixing this, by trying to convince her to move a bit slower in the show ring.

I think the root of the problem is that Kori is built for speed!  When we take her to the dog park she races around the park, and none of the other dogs can keep up with her.  She loves to run, and she is fast.  I have not seen one dog able to catch her yet, and I think she enjoys leading the chase.  So at the dog shows, when she is following the other dogs around the ring, she is speeding up because she wants to be in the lead and she wants to show the other collies what she can do.

Each of my collies is special in his or her own way.  I love them for their individual personalities, and I love them for their wonderful collie temperaments.  But out of all our collies, Kori reminds me the most of our first collie, Lad.  She resembles him, as if she were a feminine version of Lad. Since I miss him a lot, she is special to me for that reason and for the joy she brings into our lives.  I feel so lucky to have this girl by my side.

Edit to add:

We ended up giving up on showing Kori, which I regret, because she definitely could have earned her championship.  She was so beautiful, and still is, but she just didn’t end up enjoying dog show competitions.  As she matured, she ended up becoming best friends  with Holly and the two of them were often inseparable.  Kori is the center of my collie family, she is the mother or grandmother of all the younger collies we have now.  I can see her beautiful features in all of their sweet faces.

This picture of Kori was taken last night on our walk.

 

I was debating writing this…

 I had a scare last week, my sweet, beautiful Scarlett woke up on her birthday and the side of her face was swollen.  Collies are pretty stoic, by I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was in a lot of pain.  So I canceled all the fun things I had planned for her birthday and made an appointment with the vet.

Fortunately, it was just a broken, infected tooth.  They ran bloodwork, to see if she could handle anesthesia, because she’s now 12 years old, and it came back good.  But I was still a nervous wreck, because she’s 12, and that’s pretty old for a collie, and because she’s always had a bad reaction to anesthesia.  I was terrified that a broken tooth was going to be the reason I lost her.  On Friday she had the tooth pulled, along with two others, and they cleaned the rest while she was there.  It went fine, but it’s now Sunday and she’s still showing some of the effects of the anesthesia.  Yesterday she was still a bit lethargic, and while holding her, I could feel her trembling.  Today she is much better, not 100% yet, but definitely improving.

Kori is now 12 years and 9 months old.  And two months ago, she was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.  I haven’t wanted to talk about it, as it was devastating news.  I knew at 12+ years old we wouldn’t have a lot of time left, but this made our time finite.  She’s still with me, but I see her getting weaker everyday, and I know we don’t have much time left.  And knowing this, my heart is heavy with grief, because I’m not ready to say goodbye.  She’s my Kori Beanie, one of the puppies from my very first litter, my Sunshine girl.

Ryder is doing okay, but he is really showing his age, and one day soon I know he will be leaving me too.  And I can’t think about that, I just can’t.

Loving a dog brings so much joy into your life.  And every day with them is a gift, I honestly believe my life would be diminished without them.  But if you are blessed to raise a puppy, to watch them grow up, and eventually grow old, you know the heartache you will eventually face.  And it always comes too soon, long before we are ready to let them go.

If you have a senior dog, or even a younger dog, please treasure every moment.  Hug them every day, because it all passes so quickly.

Happy birthday to our first litter!

Six years ago today, three special collies entered our lives.  We waited years before breeding our first litter of collie puppies.  And we waited, excited and hopeful, throughout Abby’s pregnancy.  We felt the puppies moving, and tried to imagine what they would look like, if they were boys or girls, rough or smooth.

Then a few days before Abby’s due date a hurricane named Irene hit the East Coast.  It hit our town particularly hard, and many houses on the beach were destroyed.  There was flooding, and we were left without power for days.  To stop looting of the destroyed homes, the National Guard was called in to patrol the area.

These homes were just a 1/2 mile from us

I read that the hurricane caused many pregnant women to go into labor early.  Our Abby decided to join them.  So there we were in the middle of the night, trying to deliver our first litter of puppies by candlelight!  Abby pushed for a while, and finally a little face appeared.  But the puppy was stuck!  And then the worst happened, Abby broke the sack. 

All that was visible was a little nose, and a little mouth with a tongue sticking out.  My sister thought the puppy was dead.  But we had to act quickly, to save the other puppies.  So my daughter and sister began packing everything we would need, as we prepared to take Abby to the animal hospital.  I remained with Abby, to keep her calm, and as I was sitting by the whelping box, the little puppy cried!  The puppy was still alive!

So we raced to the animal hospital, my daughter sitting in the back of the car with Abby.  Abby tried pushing a few more times, and was able to get the puppy’s head and one arm out.  My daughter was able to get the rest of him out.  He was a bit blue by this time, so my daughter rubbed him with towels, as I continued to drive down the highway.  He was a little sable and white, rough male.  Since this puppy was born in the car, on the way to the animal hospital, he was immediately given the name Ryder.

Ryder

We arrived at the animal hospital, and they too were without power.  They had some lanterns, so the veterinarian helped deliver the rest of the litter there on the floor, on a pile of blankets.  The next puppy born was a smooth, sable and white girl.  She was born without her sack, completely blue and stillborn.  The vet tried to revive her, but it was too late.

Next came another smooth, sable girl.  She was born alive, though smaller than Ryder.  Ryder was the largest puppy, he weighed 12 ounces.  The little girl was given a few different names, but we finally decided on Kori.  After a little more time, a final puppy was born.  The fourth puppy was another boy, another sable, rough boy.  He was small like Kori, and weighed 8 ounces.  Which is still a healthy weight for a newborn puppy.  We named him Luke.

Luke

Kori, Ryder and Luke

While losing the one little girl was very sad, we couldn’t help being happy that we had three healthy puppies and a healthy mom.  We bundled them up, and took them home.  We watched them grow, and waited for the day when they would first open their eyes.  We laughed in delight when they began playing and when they discovered how to bark and growl.  We completely fell in love with our puppies. 

Kori (left) and Ryder (right)

Kori

Ryder

Ryder, Luke and Kori

Luke, Kori and Ryder

Little Luke

It's hard to believe they are 6 years old already. Time has just flown by, and they have brought so much happiness into our lives.  Luke went to live with a wonderful family, who had lost their 12 year old collie. He is the best friend of two little boys named Matthew and David.  And Ryder and Kori stayed right here with us.

Ryder and Kori

Happy birthday - hope the next 6 years are full of many more fun adventures!

Wordless Wednesday - From Kori, with love

She has my heart...