AUSTRALIAN BLUE HEELER

Rerun from August 2009
Don't really have anything so I thought I'd rerun my biggest hit maker. So far it has gotten 33,542 page views which is 20,000 more than 2nd place. It still gets hits today.

Not my picture but accurate representations.

When I moved to Okeechobee Florida I had never heard of a Blue Heeler or Australian Cattle Dog. Okeechobee being cattle country, used the dogs quite a bit as cattle herders. The around 30 pound dogs are called Heelers as they nip the heels of cattle to herd them.  

I saw the pack of Heeler puppies in a back yard of a high bill complaint.  I fell in love with the exotic looking dog.  I was a little put off by their $125.00 price tag which was huge so many years ago but I was smitten and had to have one.  

Not my picture.

She was a little female and I named her Jip.    As she entered her second heat, I breed her to a marvelous working Heeler. The breeding took and Jip produced a lovely litter of 6 pups. Of course the pick of the litter went as stud fee and I was left with 5 really cute puppies. 

When I took them to the vet for their shots and worming, I met a lady outside the vets office who just fell in love with the runt. Of course they were too young to sell so I gave her my card and told her when they would be ready and how much they would cost --- hoping she would never call.

I am very ashamed to say, I prejudged this woman totally on her appearance. As she had cornered me on the way into the vets office with my basket of puppies, I saw her vehicle. It was an old battered car. She had 3 very young children who were very well behaved and dressed in clean but thread worn clothes. I felt she was over extended was hoping that was the last I would hear from her.

When the puppies grew, I found what I hoped would be wonderful homes for them.   Only the runt was left and then, "that lady" called. I quoted her full price of $125.00 and she never wavered.  Later, when I saw her drive away with the pup, I was certain I had not done the right thing for that little dog and felt quite guilty.

Before a year was up, all the puppies that I had meticulously placed in loving homes were dead. Three had been run over and one had been shot by an irate neighbor. That left only the runt and her iffy home.

I ran into the woman at the grocery store almost two years later and she insisted I stop by her home and see the runt, now named Emma Lou. Interested to see how my only surviving puppy had turned out, I followed her home.

I was quite surprised by her home. It was not elaborate by any means but was very neat with a fenced in, well cared for yard sporting flowers and a vegetable garden. Emma Lou bounced out of the house and joyfully leaped up into the arms of the woman with a happy grin on her speckled face.  She was obviously happy, healthy and alive, something her siblings had not managed.

I left that day feeling quite stupid about my previous prejudgment of this woman. Her family didn't have a lot of material things but they had enough for comfort and I am pretty sure she would have done what ever was necessary to provide for her children and her pets. I totally admired her and felt Emma Lou was one lucky pup.

Right before I moved to Arkansas, I got a phone call out of the blue.

"You probably don't remember me," the strange female voice started, "but I bought a Blue Heeler from you 19 years ago."

"Yes I do remember you," I said honestly for she had so impressed me.  "How are you?"

"Ok now, I guess," she said with a catch in her voice, "This is the first I have been able to call you and not break up. I just wanted you to know that Emma Lou passed away last month. She was 19 years old and I thought you would want to know, she had a long and happy life."

I was almost speechless. Emma Lou had lived 19 years!!! That was just beyond amazing. We talked a while and finally she ended our conversation with,"I just wanted you to know and to thank you."

I thanked her for calling but in my heart, I thanked her for firmly embedding in me years ago that appearances mean little, character means all. The kindest hearts are rarely clothed in the finest silks. It was a lesson never lost on me.