Heart Story

Heart, 8yo’s black and white border collie, had her pups this afternoon! What a bonding experience!

When fil’s dog had pups 3 years ago, my daughter begged to have one. Dh and I weren’t so sure she was responsible enough. We’d graduated her down from having a hampster to a Beta and down even further to a goldfish. Money sifts through her fingers like dog food eats up our budget (we raise border collies)!

Grand-dad intervened wanting to make his oldest grandchild’s (then 6 yrs old) dream come true…he asked her what she thought the pup was worth. (They’re worth $250 fyi) She gave it her best shot and named what she thought was a big number. $102. I think Grand-dad thought she’d say $15 or something, cause he swallowed kind of hard. He wanted so badly to just give it to her.

So over the course of 8 months she bought her first dog. Named her Heart because of the cupid mark on her forehead. And it’s been the best experience–in every way.

Last year Heart won the purple championship ribbon in her 4H dog obedience class…next week she’ll do her best with pups outside biding under a shade tree.

5 pups. The last had just been born too when we checked in on her. Glad no one saw this Mama sprinting to the house for the video camera! One was dead, and my farm girl took it in stride. Out of the 5 only one was red and white like their sire! Best of all, Heart is an awesome mother. She let the 4 of us swarm in and love on her, allowed our manhandling of her pups as we tried to get them to nurse on her for the first time. Big answer to prayer as Heart’s sister killed her first batch of pups. Dh says they do that sometimes if they are overly nervous. So we’re pretty thrilled at how it all worked out.

8 yo doesn’t realize it yet, but Grand-dad stuck each jar of coins that she gave him right back into her savings account. I wish you could have seen her beaming face every month when she made her payments. Priceless.