| On June 11, 2009 our beloved Mardi was sadly allowed to go to the rainbow bridge where she will wait with her sister Deli and play border games until we meet them and the others there. Our lives will be a bit sadder and lonelier now without her smiling face and her morning escort to the day. The pain is beyond description. |
| Mardi had no extensive alphabet before or after her name. She had some but the letters are not what made us love her. It was Mardi that you loved. Her smile, her drive, her focus, her incredible sense of humor. Just Mardi being Mardi was all we needed. Below is her final pictures, One shortly before her first surgery for lymphoma, and the other shortly after. We kept her for 8 more months than we would have, every minute was cheished and not long enough. I resented every minute I had to be away from her. Every hour at work was agony, as much as I love all dogs, I wanted/needed my own! |
| Deli left us on Christmas eve 2008, the same as she lived, on her own terms. Shortly after her sisters first surgery she was also diagnosed with the same vicious disease. However hers was inoperable and very fast moving, she was gone within days. It somehow seems fitting that they left us so close together, they were always together. Only they knew the complete rules to the original BORDER COLLIE GAMES, which they shared only with other BC. The insisted other breeds just could not play them. |
I really hate reading memorial pages, they make me cry. I really hate writing memorial page,
they make me cry.I have come to think they are one of the (11?) steps to grieving in the new
millennium. And a way of remembering and perhaps not having to entirely letting go. I so do
not want to let go. I have not been able to for a while, I think I might be now. Or this just may
never be finished.
I first saw the girls playing in a mountain a shavings on a rather wet Feb afternoon. I went to
look, only look at a red girl. Of course I couldn't just look. Deli was chosen very quickly, I
knew she was the one almost immediately. But there was a girl in the other litter, born a day
apart from Deli that just gently hooked me and drew me in. As I say of many of my dogs, she
simple spoke to me soul. She became one of my first BC soul mates. Quinn, Deli, and Mardi
(in no certain order). The walked into my life and changed my entire world. They made it
fuller, and happier, and taught me more than I ever thought a few dogs could do. And this is
strange in the life of someone whose entire life is run by dogs at some level or other on a
daily basis.
Mardi & Deli taught me to pay attention. It was a daily occurrence to simply stop and watch
what they were doing. Often it was only have too much fun! I laughed daily and smiling was
the order of the day with them around. The games they played were the most riveting I have
ever seen. I am an avid dog watcher, and have never seen such well thought out and
complex exercises.
Their favorite we simply called Border Collie game. The rules seemed simple, one took to
part of the "grazing sheep" while the other was the working sheepdog. As all sheep do it
eventually tries to bolt to the greener grass. The one that was the dog of course did what a
good BC should do, stopped the escape and took sheepie back to it's pasture. This went on
for hours, with each changing from sheep to dog every so often. It was simply fascinating,
They taught all the puppies the game, tho they never play to the same level. They even
attempted to share the game with the other breeds. They shelties just never took it serious
and always just dissolving into normal sheltie barking, must to the disgust of the girls. The
cresteds just never got the meaning of the game, never could remember the rules, and
thought it all rather boring. However they did gladly play they role of the sheep, They love to
form a herd and are very, very good at being sheep. I am totally convinced that this game
made these girls the outstanding dogs they were in the sheep pen. They took what they had
and used it to hone their skills. Which was good but as far a a shepherd goes, I suck. My
dogs were awesome because of genetics and natural intelligence. I only regret that I have
no video of them. I guess I always thought I'd have more time.
Behaviorists claim that dog *play* is in fact practice for role they live. While I agree, to a
degree, I have watched all my dogs just simply having fun, and Mardi & Deli had some fun
times, just being together. Or by themselves. With or without me. They just love being.
Deli in her youth seemed to be set on doing harm to herself. Ed came home early one day to
find her laying upside down on her back being abnormally still. Seems she had rolled over
(she loved to wiggle) close to the chain link and somehow managed to catch her collar on the
links. She did this twice before I had the sense to get her chipped and just let her go naked.
And then there was the time she managed to wedge herself between the walls of the house
and the kennel. There is a space about 8" maybe. For some reason, never discovered, she
crawled several feet into the space. Just out of arm reach. Did I mention that there was a
hornet nest between her and the opening? In the end a portion of the living room wall was
demoed to remove her, unharmed and quite put out that we had took so long. We also
sealed up the stupid space, which had existed for many years unnoticed and untouched by
the dogs, and just paid the extra insurance for being joined. She has several other
adventures less memorable, and eventually we finally got every fence, crate, room, etc.
99.9% Deli-safe, thus 110% safe for any other dog alive.
While Mardi wasn't much of a toy dog, Deli had a passion, stainless steel bowls. For almost
11 years every bowl in the kennel bore tooth marks from her bowling games. These were a
solitary event. She'd toss them and roll them and skip them across the floor for hours. It was
noisy and woo to what ever was in the path of the target bowl. Needless to say anything
raised in this house is pretty sound proof. For years I just replaced them, but just can't seem
to toss them out now.
Mardi's greatest passion was ceiling fans. Up to the end she was convinced she could catch
one. Her first conformation show was in Hutto, Tx in a building with what had to be 100 fans.
OMG, if I hadn't been silently laughing I guess I might have been embarrassed. Really tho it
was funny. Of course we discouraged this behavior, yeah right. She would sit on the back of
the couch following the fan until she got dizzy and fell into the cushions. We trained her show
ring bait to bird, and it worked. She had and intense *eye*.
Her seasonal second job was protecting the world from terrorist insects. She would stalk
them for ever, often from across the room. Her most joyous year was one with an over
population of those large mosquito type things. She was delighted. Heaven is safe from flies
and other flying things.
OK I may add to this as I think of all those things that made me love them but for now I am
going to stop. I am sad, and I want it to go away. They made my life full and it is empty and
not as happy without their smiles. Someone once made a remark that because I had so many
dogs I surely didn't grieve one's loss. I didn't even try to explain, they would never understand.
I wonder if the rainbow bridge is real. I hope so, because in my mind I can still see all my
dogs, and other's dogs I've loved, hanging out. And two little Border Collies teaching border
collie game rules. Have fun girls,
they make me cry.I have come to think they are one of the (11?) steps to grieving in the new
millennium. And a way of remembering and perhaps not having to entirely letting go. I so do
not want to let go. I have not been able to for a while, I think I might be now. Or this just may
never be finished.
I first saw the girls playing in a mountain a shavings on a rather wet Feb afternoon. I went to
look, only look at a red girl. Of course I couldn't just look. Deli was chosen very quickly, I
knew she was the one almost immediately. But there was a girl in the other litter, born a day
apart from Deli that just gently hooked me and drew me in. As I say of many of my dogs, she
simple spoke to me soul. She became one of my first BC soul mates. Quinn, Deli, and Mardi
(in no certain order). The walked into my life and changed my entire world. They made it
fuller, and happier, and taught me more than I ever thought a few dogs could do. And this is
strange in the life of someone whose entire life is run by dogs at some level or other on a
daily basis.
Mardi & Deli taught me to pay attention. It was a daily occurrence to simply stop and watch
what they were doing. Often it was only have too much fun! I laughed daily and smiling was
the order of the day with them around. The games they played were the most riveting I have
ever seen. I am an avid dog watcher, and have never seen such well thought out and
complex exercises.
Their favorite we simply called Border Collie game. The rules seemed simple, one took to
part of the "grazing sheep" while the other was the working sheepdog. As all sheep do it
eventually tries to bolt to the greener grass. The one that was the dog of course did what a
good BC should do, stopped the escape and took sheepie back to it's pasture. This went on
for hours, with each changing from sheep to dog every so often. It was simply fascinating,
They taught all the puppies the game, tho they never play to the same level. They even
attempted to share the game with the other breeds. They shelties just never took it serious
and always just dissolving into normal sheltie barking, must to the disgust of the girls. The
cresteds just never got the meaning of the game, never could remember the rules, and
thought it all rather boring. However they did gladly play they role of the sheep, They love to
form a herd and are very, very good at being sheep. I am totally convinced that this game
made these girls the outstanding dogs they were in the sheep pen. They took what they had
and used it to hone their skills. Which was good but as far a a shepherd goes, I suck. My
dogs were awesome because of genetics and natural intelligence. I only regret that I have
no video of them. I guess I always thought I'd have more time.
Behaviorists claim that dog *play* is in fact practice for role they live. While I agree, to a
degree, I have watched all my dogs just simply having fun, and Mardi & Deli had some fun
times, just being together. Or by themselves. With or without me. They just love being.
Deli in her youth seemed to be set on doing harm to herself. Ed came home early one day to
find her laying upside down on her back being abnormally still. Seems she had rolled over
(she loved to wiggle) close to the chain link and somehow managed to catch her collar on the
links. She did this twice before I had the sense to get her chipped and just let her go naked.
And then there was the time she managed to wedge herself between the walls of the house
and the kennel. There is a space about 8" maybe. For some reason, never discovered, she
crawled several feet into the space. Just out of arm reach. Did I mention that there was a
hornet nest between her and the opening? In the end a portion of the living room wall was
demoed to remove her, unharmed and quite put out that we had took so long. We also
sealed up the stupid space, which had existed for many years unnoticed and untouched by
the dogs, and just paid the extra insurance for being joined. She has several other
adventures less memorable, and eventually we finally got every fence, crate, room, etc.
99.9% Deli-safe, thus 110% safe for any other dog alive.
While Mardi wasn't much of a toy dog, Deli had a passion, stainless steel bowls. For almost
11 years every bowl in the kennel bore tooth marks from her bowling games. These were a
solitary event. She'd toss them and roll them and skip them across the floor for hours. It was
noisy and woo to what ever was in the path of the target bowl. Needless to say anything
raised in this house is pretty sound proof. For years I just replaced them, but just can't seem
to toss them out now.
Mardi's greatest passion was ceiling fans. Up to the end she was convinced she could catch
one. Her first conformation show was in Hutto, Tx in a building with what had to be 100 fans.
OMG, if I hadn't been silently laughing I guess I might have been embarrassed. Really tho it
was funny. Of course we discouraged this behavior, yeah right. She would sit on the back of
the couch following the fan until she got dizzy and fell into the cushions. We trained her show
ring bait to bird, and it worked. She had and intense *eye*.
Her seasonal second job was protecting the world from terrorist insects. She would stalk
them for ever, often from across the room. Her most joyous year was one with an over
population of those large mosquito type things. She was delighted. Heaven is safe from flies
and other flying things.
OK I may add to this as I think of all those things that made me love them but for now I am
going to stop. I am sad, and I want it to go away. They made my life full and it is empty and
not as happy without their smiles. Someone once made a remark that because I had so many
dogs I surely didn't grieve one's loss. I didn't even try to explain, they would never understand.
I wonder if the rainbow bridge is real. I hope so, because in my mind I can still see all my
dogs, and other's dogs I've loved, hanging out. And two little Border Collies teaching border
collie game rules. Have fun girls,