After raising and loving Maxine and losing her much earlier than I ever thought I would, after she passed I would, of course, have to adopt another Australian Cattle Dog. I was prepared for many of the behaviors inherent in the breed from my time with Maxine, but I can’t say I was totally prepared for crazy Cally. Cally possesses the ACD characteristics on steroids which was exactly the medicine I needed to lift me out of my depression from losing Maxine. Cally kept me busy 24/7 demanding attention, teasing me, and being alternately naughty and nice. I spent my days training her, playing with her, taking care of her, and just generally having fun with and enjoying her. Cally is now my girl all the way, or maybe I’m her girl, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Just recently, she is actually letting me sit and do other things that don’t necessarily include her, like writing this, sort of, love letter about her. Because of her frenetic busy nature, it has been difficult to take pictures and videos of her along the way, and almost impossible to find time to post them on social media. I’ve felt guilty that I haven’t let the world know what a great pup she is, especially since I posted so many things about Maxine. Now that she is occasionally giving me some “me” time, I’m going to have to catch up and write about her and post the pictures that I did manage to take. One bad thing about her having calm moments though, Phil and I start worrying that she might be ill.
To start off, the world seemed bleak and the house empty and quiet without Maxine. Her illness, osteosarcoma in her back left leg, came on quickly and it was heartbreaking to see her in pain. I’m crying now picturing our poor girl unable to walk without helping her with a sling under her belly. She no longer had her happy expression–all that showed was was pain and sadness. We couldn’t let her suffer and had to make the awful decision that all pet parents eventually face. I was devastated and my heart still sinks at the memory. It wasn’t very long before we began looking for a new pup. Seeing the darling pictures and videos of Blue Heeler puppies did make me smile and we got in contact with a few breeders. One of them, Tammy Mosier, contacted us on St. Patrick’s Day 2023 with the news that her female, Ellie Mae, was giving birth early and, knowing we just lost Maxine, wanted to let me know right away. Tammy kept me informed the entire time Ellie Mae was birthing. It turned out that Cally was the first female of the litter to have a tail. Prior to her, all of the pups were males or female stumpy tails. We wanted a female and I wanted our girl to have a tail, so as soon as I heard Ellie Mae had a girl with a tail, I told Tammy right away that I wanted that female and her name would be Calamity Jane.
