Dogs have always been a part of my life. I guess it started with me wanting Lassie as a little girl. I remember begging my parents for a Lassie after seeing the movie and falling in love with this beautiful intelligent dog. When I got my very own "Lassie" I knew that this was my animal. In my twenties I aquired my first show dog. A beautiful little miniature American Eskimo girl, named Tushi. She began a 20 year love affair with the breed. During this time I bred a few carefully researched litters. I find myself fasinated by pedigrees and how they can be used as the building blocks to producing a truly awesome dog. I became a UKC licensed American Eskimo judge. I found I really enjoyed that side of the ring too. During this time I owned 2 other breeds of dogs. I had Borzoi for about 5 years, they are a great breed of dogs but after losing 2 of my girls to torsion, which is so previlant in that breed I decided that the heart break was more than I wanted to cope with. I aslo owned my 1st Aussie a truly delightful girl named Suzie from the Blue Lad kennels. Suzie was just the dog to make me fall in love with Aussies. A love affair that I remembered so many years later. I actively showed and loved the American Eskimos until the mid 90's when life fated that I needed a break from the dog show world.
In 2003 I decided that I wanted to make room in my life for a dog again. I really wasn't wanting to get back involved with the dog show world so I purposly went to the local shelter to look for a dog. I just wanted a small female dog. I wanted a house dog and my husband said small but not one of those nervous little toy breeds. That is when I found my Teaka. It was love at first sight. I have since decided she was a plant by the fates. Who would have believed that there could be such a big spirit in such a little body. At 12.5 inches she is one of the most intense herding dogs I have ever seen. I only had a her about a month when I realized that she was not a sit on the couch and cuddle dog she was a dog that wanted you to do things with her. So we started down the road to obedience, agility and finally herding. When we tired herding we found her true passion. About the same time I decided that I wanted a purebred dog so that I could compete in some of the different preformance venues that were closed to mixed breed dogs.
I decided that I wanted a herding breed. I remembered the Aussies with great fondness but knew that they were definately bigger than my husband would let in the house. The Shelties and Corgis were more the size I was looking for but for various reason they were not the dogs for me. I was begining to think I would have to look at some other types of dogs when I came across the Mini Aussies. They definately sounded like the breed for me. I began my search for the perfect little mini girl for me. After looking at several kennels and not seeing what I was looking for, I found a breeder about an hour away from me. I told her I was just coming over to see her dogs and to see if they were what I was looking for. I was not planning on getting one at that time. Maybe in the spring. Well sitting on Donna's livingroom floor playing with puppies this adorable little black thing walks up to me looks me in the eye and crawled into my lap and took a 2 hour nap. By the time she woke up she had totally stolen my heart. Mini Aussies are sneaky that way.
