He was around for 6months before i was born. My parents wanted to get a puppy and spend time training him before i arrived, it sounded good in theory apparently.
We lived in a caravan while i was growing up. Off the side of the caravan was a 2 room sleepout. The first room had storage and a fire and the second room was my younger brothers and my bedroom. There was also a lounge so we werent entirely stuck in the caravan. But 12 years sleeping in a caravan/sleepout is enough.
Cortez was a big fluffy dog who loved HUGE sticks and tryed to carry them inside. His best mate was my Auntys dog, Tashunka-witco (well just tash for short). Tash lived on the same property as us and was a real bitzer who my aunty found one day.
When i was 7 (or something) dads friend had a friend who wanted a home for their retired show dog. Plans were made and these people showed up with their 3 big long haired collies (lassie dogs). Paige was to be our new dog. She had retired from the show ring as she was too shy, she had been attacked by some young boys as a pup and she never got over it.
As we were talking to them thier big male show dog who had been groomed the day before snuck off, when he returned he had been playing in our creeks and was covered in mud and duck weed!
Paige turned into my dog, and ill never forget her. We moved into our new house a few years later and not long after Cortez was getting old and we had to put him down.
my brother then got to pick the next puppy we had. My parents found a litter of german shepherd x basinji pups, so we organised with the owner to go meet the dogs.
This litter of pups were one of the worst ive seen, he had 14 adult dogs and a litter of puppies living on a small concrete pad, he had 3 kennels out side that the dogs lived on, no grass all just concrete. The dogs were skinny and shy. He had told us we dont need to feed these pups; he fed his every couple of days, just threw them a few bones to share. The puppies had hernias that he offered to remove with his hernia remover he had made.
Despite all this we still ended up getting a puppy. Rex was his name.
At that point we just had Paige and Rex. We were contacted by dads friend that had organised Paige for us asking if we could have one of his stud dogs. He wanted this dog to be living in a home but wanted him left entire incase of any future matings he wanted to do. So Oliver arrived, a gorgeous big red and white border collie. He was a stunning looking dog with a great personality but a tendancy to wander off the property. He started taking Rex with him so we decided it wasnt safe to keep Oliver anymore
We called the owner up and he said no worries ive got a solution! he drove straight over, we said our good byes to oliver, he then took him out to his car and walked inside with Ollie!. Ollie was Olivers grandson and our new puppy!!
Ollie is dads dog, hes a light red border collie. He has hip displacia and arthritis. Old Oliver went to live in another home where he was still escaping from out 6 foot fencing. A few years later Oliver escaped from his new home where he was hit by a car and had to be put down.im about half way there! stay tunned for part two - The Hounds!
