Okay, what’s been going on with me? I’ve been working on Book 5, but we had a little change in our home. If you remember, we were supposed to pick up our new puppy, Sullivan, last weekend. We did, and OMG, I had forgotten just how much the baby dogs are a handful.
Isis doesn’t know what to do with him, he thinks she is another mom and he’s tried to nurse. Of course she wants none of this and she’s pushed back on him a bit.
And he loves feet and toes. He nips toes whenever he can. That is going to have to stop.
We have a playpen for him and it has corralled him for about an hour, then it’s barking to get out. Yes, he found his voice and it’s high pitched right now. If he’s out of it, we’re chasing him around, trying to keep him out of stuff as he explores his new confines.
But, what is all this about the Shelties? Why that breed? And why did I include one in Fangs & Halos?
Well, Shelties are fun. They’re wicked smart (no matter what Baron says about Lance) and they can be a lot of fun. There had to be a Sheltie in my books. It’s something that gives Marcus one of his few good moments when he’s working with him.
Sheltie is short for Shetland Sheepdog. The breed originated in the Shetland Islands of Scotland where they were bred to herd sheep. They are very good at it, this is a breed that loves to work. They excel when they have a job to do.
The origins in Scotland are also responsible for their big, double coat. All that fluff is designed to keep them warm in winter and cool in summers. It gets cold in the Shetland Islands. This coat is beautiful, fluffy and it makes the dog look like they’re floating when running.
But, the downside is that they shed. A LOT. All over the floors, especially twice a year in fall and spring. They need brushed a lot to keep it off the floor. Even then, your Rumba © will clog up with the hair, believe me.
Shelties are smaller dogs, not usually more than 18 inches high and about 25 pounds.
They come in several colors, sable (brown, white/ cream), tri-colored (black, brown and white/cream), blue merle (gray, black, and white), and then the bi-blacks (black and white). If you see a Sheltie with just a dark head and white body, he’s unusual and not “breed standard,” not usually used to breed for better dogs. There is also a white version of the blue merle that is the result of breeding 2 blues together. This is almost always a blind, deaf, or both, which is not good for the breed or the dog.
Another quality of a Sheltie is their “tipped” ears. About a third of a Sheltie’s ear folds to the front, which is a trait needed for a show dog of this breed. It also makes them look cute.
Shelties bark. They do. Loudly and often. They make good watch dogs because of that barking. Mine bark and I depend on them to tell me when there’s something wrong.
Shelties are great therapy dogs. They are obedient and fast learners. They can be taught to work with the disabled, working with everything from seizures to PTSD and other things.
My girls basically trained themselves for therapy. Isis can pick up on my gait and will alert when I’m close to falling. She now barks every time I’m getting up when Bruce is home so he knows to come help me. (.It just occurred to me I haven’t introduced my husband—more on him later) Isis doesn’t bark when I’m here by myself, there’s no one to alert. When I did fall a few weeks ago, she led the firemen to the room I was in and waited for me to get up. I didn’t train her for this. Rhi Rhi was my pain dog, she would come up and sit with me when I hurt.
It’s because of my love of Shelties that there’s on in the Fangs & Halos series.
In the books, Lancelot is a champion show dog. These have backgrounds going back many generations and registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC) or the English Kennel Club (EKC) in Great Britain. The breed was first registered in England in 1909 with a female dog named Badenock Rose and in the United States with a male, “Lord Scott” in 1911. Marcus is very proud of Lance, there are photos with him with the dog all over the walls of his penthouse apartment. Which is why, when Lance meets up with Baron and the fights happen, Marcus is furious, a show dog depends on their coat and other aspects, which can be changed with a cat fight.
And then Lancelot gets out and….go read book 3, Vampire rEvolution.
I love writing Lance into the stories. I don’t know where this whole thing is going concerning him but whatever it is, he’s going to have to make peace with Baron eventually. Or Baron’s going to have to make peace with him.