March 16, 2014 by Jewt

Embracing Change…

My interest in Stirling had started several years before with a trip to the midwest to pick up my first sweet Kerry, Aoife.  I had decided upon Aoife before realizing there were plans in the make to breed Stirling’s grandfather Brogan.  Now Brogan was a handsome silver stud that melted my heart from the first moment I laid eyes on him.  But of course being the silly woman that I am, I felt completely bonded with Aoife even before she took her first breath.  So I stuck with my original plan, and picked up my dear little girl in the summer of 2009.  Within a month or two Brogan’s litter was whelped, and from that came Picasso.  And like his sire, Picasso grew to be a fabulous silver stud.  …And in due course of time Picasso sired Stirling O’Hanluan.

Our life has changed so much since the arrival of Stirling.  For one thing I was in Maine, away from our pack, spending precious time with my mother during her last days when news of Stirling’s whelp-day was announced.  And though the news of his arrival paled in importance to everything else that was going on for my family at the time; it will always be a treasured part of Stirling’s past that I could share it with my mother as I did.

 

 

 

Anyway, …As to life’s changes; Yes, there are many.

 

 

…Once upon a time there was a pack of terriers that roamed harmoniously through the woods of Alaska with their monkeys.  There was a gnarly male Airedale who was the uncontested pack leader.  There was the youngest dark-Airedale runt who thought she was queen-of-all-she-sees.  And the middle pack-child was a small Airedale who seemed to be the cross between a sweet tiger-lily and a hand-me-down-rose.  …Anyway all three terriers knew their place in the pack, and the pack was happy.  And the pack knew it was a pack-of-dales.

…Then one day the pack-mother-monkey went away for a while, and later returned with a very small terrier.  Oddly enough this forceful little fellow resembled the queen-of-all-she-sees, and was three times more in-your-face.  At first there didn’t seem to be much anyone could do about it; given the little pecker-head was so tiny.  But over time the boy grew, and this one was not settled with his role in the pack.  …So things had to change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone in our pack is always on leash, which has made necessary a whole new mode of pack exercise.  We call it Jog-Joring, and it puts pink cheeks on the monkey!