Myriehewe Forget Me Not
and her daughter
Bluchip Monachs Moonlit Skies

I have always loved dogs - all dogs, but especially Collies and I would have dearly loved to have one as a child, but Mother said no, so that was that. So I did the next best thing, I walked all my neighbours dogs big and small, all breeds. When I got married and the children were school age I told Michael [my husband] I wanted a dog, he said no...but I was made of sterner stuff by then and said I would buy one with my money and I would do everything for her. Chloe arrived at eleven weeks old, a tri colour bitch from mostly Rokeby lines and she was my shadow for 13 and a half years. When she was seven I suggested to Michael that we get another dog as he loves fell walking and Chloe always went with him, but obviously as she got older she would find it difficult. It was quite a wait because I wanted a blue merle bitch and they didn't seem very thick on the ground. Eventually we got Skye [Myriehewe Forget Me Not] a pretty little bundle of blue fluff from Gwen Beaden.

She showed promise and we were persuaded to show her but due to commitments of a young family this was only once or twice. When she was 2 years old we decided [or should I say I decided] to have a litter from her and decided on Ch Brilyn Rum'n Black, a well-known tri-colour dog. Skye gave us a lovely litter of 6 and was a devoted Mum.

We kept a tri-colour bitch who my son named Tiffany [B. Monachs Moonlit Skies]. She was the light of my life, I loved everything about her. She won BP & BPIG at her first show and we were hooked. She and Skye won everywhere they went for the next 12 months at Open Show level and aquitted themselves well at Champ. Show level. Tiffany gaining her Junior Warrant and Skye her Stud Book Number. After this Skye was retired as she didn't really like the show ring and much preferred to be on the fell tops with Michael.

Tiffany was mated to Ladyfayre Blue Lagoon of Karava and produced 8 puppies. We kept a blue bitch who we called Ailsa [B. Skyes Silver Lining]. She is a beautiful colour with a fantastic outline and she won very well as a puppy winning BPIB at SKC at 9 months. Tiffany came back into the ring at Leeds winning the Bitch CC, closely followed by 2RCC's at SKC & Midland Counties. Tragically she had an accident and spent 4 days at the Vets fighting for her life while they pumped everything they could think of into her. She survived but was never the same again.

Skye had a second litter to Wicani Knight in Satin Amour at Vonarkle from which we kept Shana [B. Skyes Moonlight Shadow] who we had a lot of fun with and who gained her Stud Book Number.

Bluchip Skyes Moonlight Shadow

Bluchip Spirit in the Skye 2 C.C's

Bluchip Skywalker JW

The highlight of recent years was the puppy from Ailsa's litter to Ch Sundorne Spiritualist.

There was only one bitch in the litter a blue but not as good a colour as her Dam. So we kept the blue dog puppy. I wasn't thinking of keeping a dog so hadn't really had a good look at him, but everytime I walked past the pen by the time the puppies were six weeks I couldn't stop looking at him, he stayed!!

Ross [Bluchip Spirit in the Skye] has had a wonderful show career [He now has 2CC's]. He is a lovely dog to live with and has proved to be a good sire.

We are now showing Ross' son Lewis [Bluchip Skywalker] a big tri-colour dog who is doing well.

Dog puppy from "Ross' first litter
out of Skyes Moonlit Shadows

Our Bitch, Bluchip Tainted Skye (Erin) won the BCC on Sunday and it is difficult to explain how pleased we are.We nearly lost Erin in January when she was rushed into the vets after found to be vomiting blood.

We thought at first that she had picked up some poison on her early morning walk but it transpired to be far more sinister.

Angela walks the dogs in fields behind our house at 7 in the morning, as do a lot of other people, and on this particular
morning nothing much different had happened. The dogs had all been running around and had been out of her sight
for no more than 1/2 a minute.

When they got back home Erin started vomiting and kept on being sick. Angela rushed her down to the vets, which luckily is only a couple of miles away, and Erin, who by this time was very ill,
was immediately put on drip. The vet took some blood and sent it off for analysis. Her heart rate was up at 188 and she was closely monitored all day. When the results of the blood test came back it showed damage to her liver which needed an immediate operation.

On opening her up, the vet found a 2cm tear in her liver and severe bruising to her gall bladder. As stitching a liver can cause more bleeding, all they could do was to remove the blood from her chest cavity and hope
the liver would heal itself quickly.

She was kept on a drip for another 48hrs and even though the vet thought she may not make it (he said she only did because she was really fit and well exercised) she recovered enough to be brought home on the 3rd day and has more or less, just about, fully recovered. Although she had developed a heart murmur, brought on by the stress, this has now disappeared and all that is left to remind us of the incident is a scar down the length of her stomach and a very hefty vet's bill.

What the vet told us had happened really shocked us, because they said the only 2 things that could have caused such severe damage was either she was clipped by a car or someone had kicked her !

As the dogs were in a field, there was only one answer. Someone out walking their own dog had kicked her !

We let everyone who walks their dogs in the fields know what had happened, informed the police and the local newspaper ran the story, together with a picture of Angela and Erin, appealing for witnesses, but all to no avail. We believe we know who did it, although without witnesses, we can do nothing about it.

Erin, who is now 3, has never been campaigned since a puppy and The Northumberland and Durham show was her first show back after a litter and then this incident and to get the ticket was just incredible.