My love for the Rough Collie started from my childhood, and that would have been through watching all those wonderful Lassie films which always used to make me cry. I remember saying to my mum "when I grow up and have my own house I'm going to have two Lassie dogs".

As the years passed and I grew up, I met and married Peter whose family had German Shepherds. One day I sprang it upon Peter that I would like to get a dog. This was my chance to have my two Lassies that I had always wanted. I knew that he would not object as he was used to having a dog around. Of course the first thing he said was "A German Shepherd?” "Most certainly not!" was my reply (no disrespects to German Shepherds) it had to be a Rough Collie.

So the search was on for a Rough Collie, Sable and White, Bitch.
Our first enquiry was to the kennel club who put us in touch with Sue and David Gable, who lived in Dover. They had ready a litter of eight Tri-Colour and Sable and White puppies. They were not big breeders this was the only litter they bred.


When we arrived we were greeted by eight beautiful bundles of fluff. The first puppy to approach us was a Sable and White Bitch, which I picked up, gave a kiss to and fell in love. I knew she was the one, or should I say she chose us. Obviously we had to wait until she was eight weeks old before we could have her. So it was in January 1990 that we took Her home, we called her Sadie.


We enjoyed every moment with her and loved her very much.


As time went by Peter and I both agreed that it would nice to get another puppy, this would also be nice for Sadie to have some canine company when we were out.

We had kept in touch we Sue and David because they had been doing some showing with their dogs and as we had shown some interest in showing they invited us to join them at shows and show us the ropes. Sue had a close friend called Hazel, who also had Rough Collies.


One of Hazels bitches had a litter of puppies but sadly only two had survived the litter, it was from these two puppies that we chose Skye, our second Sable and White Bitch. So later in the year of 1990 we took Skye home. We did a small amount of showing with them, mainly companion shows and open shows.

At last I had my two Lassies.


SADIE AND SKYE

In 1992 our eldest son, Jake was born and in 1996 our youngest son, Joshua was born. It was then that we stopped showing as I found it difficult getting dogs ready for shows when I had young children to attend to. So we just carried on family life, enjoying the children and the dogs. Sadly in December 2002 we lost Skye. She lost the use of her back legs so we felt it was only fair to let her go, naturally we were heart broken. Skye was a real bundle of fun, we used to say she was a tom boy; she was into everything and always up for a game.
Sadie at the time seemed to be in good health, but six months later we had to say goodbye to her too. We were not completely sure what was wrong with Her, but the Vet said there were many things going on internally and they suspected kidney failure, as she was almost thirteen we didn't think it was fair to put her through tests.
I had lost both my Lassies. Not a day went past when we didn't think of them.

As time went by Peter started dropping hints about another dog but I felt very reluctant as I found the heart ache unbearable when we lost Sadie and Skye. However the other half of me missed having a dog around so we decided to take the plunge and look for another puppy.
We knew the type we liked, so the search was on again for another Sable and White, Rough Collie, Bitch. Sadie had some Corydon connections and as we particularly liked the traditional type we decided to contact John and Barbara Blake of the Corydon Kennels.
At that particular time they had no puppies available, so we put our name on their waiting list and in January 2005 they contacted us to say they had a litter available. We were very excited but also a little nervous of getting another puppy. However in March 2005 we made our way to the Corydon Kennels to collect our little bundle. We were delighted with what we saw, so off we went home with Wave. (Corydon Rio Onda at Bellawave)

Wave is an absolute delight and has turned out to be everything we had hoped for. Since having Wave we have started showing again and are getting more established round the show ring, Wave is starting to show her potential by being placed at many shows we have attended and we had our first trip to Crufts in March 2007.

CORYDON RIO ONDA AT BELLAWAVE

at 8 weeks

Wave with our boys Jake & Joshua

Wave and her first litter

Wave winning RBB & RBOB EACA Open Show

OUR NEW BABY

Bellawave Moonlite Melody [Luna]



Sire : Demelewis Dark Moon Driftin Over Corydon - Dam : Corydon Rio Onda at Bellawave

Peter & Gina Stillwell

Maidstone
Kent

Phone 01622 671587

E-mail: sadie_skye5150@yahoo.co.uk
Webpage: www.bellawave.co.uk