by debbi payne
Aspen was an OOPS! A three year old tri coloured registered australian shepherd and ten year old border collie came together to create six puppies. One died at birth, and two were given the breath of life. The mother, border collie had to have an emergency c-section, or she would have died. This was too much on a ten year old border collie!
All the puppies except one had no tails at birth, which took on the characteristics of the father, aussie. They all looked like little panda bears when I first saw them. Black and white puff balls that looked like they came out of the dryer on air fluff!
Two pups have one half of their face white and the other half of the face black with a little brown eyebrow above the one eye on the black side. Whe n I saw her I knew I had to have her. She had a beautiful full white collar and that went down to her front feet. She had white bootso n her back feet. The rest of her was a silky long rough straight black coat that reflected so many hues! Aspen had wisps of tan that separated her colours of black and white on her two back legs.Her coat was so thick I had to part it to comb her out.
Well, I have never had a border collie or aussie before. Talk about mass of energy and brains! We had Aspen as a puppy and raised her. She trained us! She also taught us so much! As a pup she would watch everything we did and tried to do the same. She tried to open the back door with her paws, cupping them around the handle. Never had I seen this happen before! She would go over to where her brush was and pick it up after play and drop it at our feet to brush her.
Her natural instinct was amazing! My sister and I would go for a walk , she would bring her two kids and I would bring Aspen. We would walk along engaged in conversation and look back for the kids in a start and realize .... that where ever the kids were Aspen would be herding them towards us. she nver left their side and kept weaving back and forth behind the kids to keep them in line and not to stray.
She made our house a home.! Nothing seemed to stop her when she was young, only occasionally did she stop and have frequent panting spells which is an indication of her heart.
Aspen went through obedience and won many first prize plaques. She jsut seems to sail through them and no dog could stand up to her standards. We made a great team! Aspen seems to know everything we said.She would pick up things in the conversation and go over and bring the item to us without asking her to. What a friend!
Aspen melted everyone's heart! We had her compete once in top dogs.
She just wanted to be with us where ever we went.
As time past, Aspen got older and she started to have more panting spells and had to stop and flop down on the pathway where we walked.
This again was her heart acting up. Aspen was given the best in food and treament.
Another program came forward that offered an opportunity for Aspen to show how special she was.......She worked as a therapy dog for children dealing with anger problems from divorced homes. She would go to the home over a weekend and she seemed to know who needed her undivided attention and love.
I miss her very much.
One fine May day we went for our ususal 45 minute walk, just as the sun came up and everything started their day, the birds, the squirrels,etc. We had a very special walk that she seemed to be trying to tell me how much she loved me, stopping me every few minutes and going between my legs and looking up at me with so much love!
We went to work as ususal and came home to see that she looked sore all over her body..... oh..... I HOPED it was only her arthritis being that she hrut her should one year very bad when playing frisbee. This time she looked different and she lookedat me and wwas telling me , through her eyes,things were not good and she didn't know who to fix them. I gave her an asprin and watched her carefully over the next 1o minutes reassuring her and keeping her warm. Aspen knew she was in good hands and seemd to settle somewhat. My son was home and when I chekc Apsen again after 10 minutes I looked into her eyes and she seemed to be telling me how much she loved me and that she knew she wasn't going to be around much longer.I knew by the way she moved and panted that she was going to leave us and it would be within the hour. I told my son to call the vet immediately! we got a blanket and all I did was was Aspen to she if she could move onto the blanket and reassured her she wouldnt' have to do any moving because we would do the rest.
She understood and relaxed as we picked her up and carefully place her in the car and rushed to the hospital with her.
She was gasping andshallow breathing within minutes. There was nothing we could do! We were loosing her because of her bad heart.
I knew along time ago that when we would loose our special friend it would be fast and she would go into heart failure very quickly.
We got her to the hospital and everyone rushed out to help us. WE brought her in and layed her down, by that time she was shallow breathing but still there with me. My son had to leave ... it was too much for him! I cradled her in my arms and told her how much she meant to me and that she was going to a better place .Aspen seemed to know and she looked up with her big borwn eyes and as much as then said goodbye, took one last breath and relaxed in my arms, and died. Oh I MISS her so much!!!! My very special friend and wonder dog! Take care my Friend I will be with you some day and I know you will be there waitng. Love ya always. Mom.