“Yes,” John Angus says, “and it’d be easier on the dogs. Are we going to Wales, then?”
“Aye.”
“You’re very confident. How do you know I’ll make the Scottish team?”
“Well, John, you’d just better pull your socks up and get to it.” And Helen gunned the car through the mud and away.
Image Gallery
Pip
Viv Billingham and Holly.
Whitehope
The dogs of Tweedhope.
Jonh Angus with Dougie.
Mrs. David McTeir with tomorrow’s champion.
John Templeton with Roy.
Jock Richardson at Neilston.
Alasdair MacRae with Bute.
Geoff Billingham with Cap.
Tom Reid with Gael.
Outside the beer tent.
John Templeton waiting his turn at the International.
Stuart Davidson at the International Brace Championship.
Just before the difficulties: John Angus with Taff.
Stuart Davidson and Moss at the pen.
The Duke of Atholl with the 1988 International Team.
John Angus McLeod.
Davie Sutherland with Bert and Bob.
A NOTE TO THE READER
If this has persuaded you to buy a Border Collie for a pet, I have done you and your dog a disservice. If you don’t have work for a Border Collie, or time to train it properly, your bright young Border Collie will invent his own work, and chances are you won’t like it.
There are dozens of dog breeds bred to be good pets. If a pet is what you seek, you should choose among them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank those shepherds, farmers, sheedog admirers, and book people whose hospitality and generosity of spirit made this book possible.
IN BRITAIN
Mr. and Mrs. John Bathgate
Geoff and Viv Billingham
Mr. Kenny Brehmer
Mrs. E. B. Carpenter
Mrs. Ian (Marjory) Chapman
Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Davidson
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Hetherington
Mr. A. Philip Hendry, Esq.
Mr. Douglas Lamb
Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Mackenzie
Mr. and Mrs. Hamish MacLean
Mr. J. A. MacLeod
Mr. Alasdair MacRae
Mr. and Mrs. David McTeir
Mr. and Mrs. Alasdair Mundell
Mr. Boyd Mundell
Mr. Matt Mundell
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Merchant
Mr. Tom Reid
Ms. Helen Smeaton
Mr. and Mrs. Jock Richardson
Mr. David Sutherland
Mr. John Templeton, M.B.E., and Mrs. John Templeton
IN THE STATES
Ms. Kathy Banks
Mr. Knox Burger
Mr. Edward Burlingame
Mrs. Bryan Conrad
Ms. Vicki Hearne
And thanks to Pip and Gael—without whom
the story would have been completely different.
About the Author
Donald McCaig is the award-winning author of Nop’s Trials; Nop’s Hope; Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men; Rhett Butler’s People; and Jacob’s Ladder. He, his wife, Anne, and their border collies work a sheep farm in the mountains of western Virginia.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Portions of this book have appeared, in somewhat different form, in the Atlantic Monthly, Country Journal, and the New York Times.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to:
Robert Burns for stanzas from “The Twa Dogs” and “The Auld Farmer’s New-Year Morning Salutation to His Auld Mare Maggie.”
James Hogg, who wrote Part I of “Sirrah” in his A Shepherd’s Calendar.
The unknown photographer who took the dandy photograph of Pip.
Copyright © 1991 by Donald McCaig
Cover design by Mauricio Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-4976-3025-3
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY DONALD MCCAIG
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Donald McCaig, Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men: Searching Through Scotland for a Border Collie
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