Sheep song: Second history thread: Jack

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Second history thread: Jack


PuppyJack, his nickname even after he was grown

Jack, born in 1988, was the pup I kept from the first litter I bred, with strong support and mentoring from Jennie Jenkins of Wrenwood Aussies.   She actually preferred a female pup named Rugby, but Jack to me had a better temperament and his conformation was pretty close to Rugby's. In the end she agreed he was a fine choice to keep also.

Jack's dam was Cassie, Wrenwood's Charade, a dog that Jennie had given me to show, although she lived with Jennie because we were at our limit of dogs in the city with Sunny and Smokey.

The sire of the litter was Ted, I'm a Teddy Bear Too, and I do not have a picture of him, but he looked a lot like Jack.   Jack moved with me to Wisconsin while I was still in college.   I worked with him on sheep some in his later years after I had some idea what to do, but not a lot.   He had a hard bite, which he showed after a ram attacked him, and was otherwise not grippy and a pretty good working boy.

Jack was the sire of Jazz, my mom's first foundation bitch, out of Jennie's female, Ashley, Wrenwood's Ghost of a Chance.   The litter was bred by Jennie, so they were Wrenwood dogs, and Jazz was named Wrenwood's Jazz in Blue.

Jazz was a funny little dog that belonged to my parents. She did not like certain people, and my mom tended to agree with her judgments.    Of course she loved Dane, and kept trusting him even after she begged for some sand he was making into a castle down by the creek and he obligingly gave her the sand. She figured it must be to eat and she ate it. Goofy dog. Well, she still liked Dane after that, but for the rest of her life any time someone fed her she'd take it from their hand, spit it on the ground and make sure it was actually food before deciding to ingest it.

Jack was essentially Dane's dog. Officially he was my dog, but really he and Dane shared the most special bond.    When he was 5 months old, Jack was saved from drowning by Dane.   Jack thought he was big enough to go for a swim in the creek and started paddling out, but his nose started to tip up, his back end went down and his feet started flailing wildly. He was sinking lower and panicking and Dane jumped in fully clothed before I could react and fished out our little puppy Jack.   That was when we were dating.    Of course, you can see why I married Dane.