In 2009, it was agreed that our son, Christopher could have a Border Collie, so the search began.
It soon became apparent that there would be a wait, so put our name down with two breeders. Unexpectedly, the wait was not so long, one of the breeders had a puppy, in a new litter, that was not traditionally marked, and therefore not quite as desirable to others. We went for a visit and it was decided that we would return in six weeks time to bring our little Duchess home to join our family.
At the same time we had started a search for a ragdoll cat, surprisingly our new family members arrived at our home within a week or so of each other. The blue ragdoll was named Banjo, after the famous Australian poet, Banjo Patterson.
But this story is about our Duchess. While she was not the prettiest when she was born, it was soon evident that she was growing into a beautiful dog, not only in appearance, but also in nature. Her kennel was placed outside Christopher’s bedroom window, and as soon as she was able, Duchess would spend her time on top of the kennel rather than in it, that way she was able to be nearer to her Christopher! A very strong bond was forming.
Then the day after we closed down for the break, I climbed up the ladder to pull down the decorations, unpacked them, carefully selected the ones that had sentimental value, that had been given to us by family and friends, some that I had made in years gone by, and others that we had collected on our travels. Everything else was packed back up, I went back up the ladder and put them all away.
