My now ex-husband Ron grew up moving from town to town with his family,
droving cattle and working horses. They always had koolies, and swore by
them as the only
working dog worth feeding. Jack (Ron's dad) had a thousand great working dog
stories, all about his koolies. When we first met, Ron's companion and
working dog
was Smokey. She was 'half' koolie, and half Qld blue heeler, but had the
merle
colouring, and the big white colour/chest/feet that some koolies have.
I'd never seen a koolie before, and was fascinated with her. She was truly a
'one
man dog' and wouldn't acknowledge anyone else other than her owner, but - I
called
her, and she actually came to me, so that was when Ron decided that I was
worth
hanging on to!
After we married, and moved out to a cattle property at Roma, we decided
that Smokey
was such a good bitch, that she should be bred to a good koolie dog.
So, at the time that our first son was 12 mths old (1990) we bought Shadow
.. got
him from a breeder near Isisford, and they sent him out to us at Roma on the
train.
He was a great pup, and took to working straight away .. he was fast, and a
natural
lead dog. My husband worked him on cattle mostly, and before long he was the
number
one choice, when you needed to take out a good dog to do a good days work.
Even though he was an outstanding working dog, his real value to us was as a
companion
to our son Matt. Matt had ADHD, and from age 2 could climb anything, had no
fear,
and would take off all the time. He twice wandered off when our backs were
turned.
Both times, we found him in the paddocks, because of the white tip on
Shadows tail.
Shadow would never leave his side, and I'm sure kept him safe until we could
find him.
The first time he wandered off, was on a property at Theodore. It was a lazy
30 000
acres, and Matt had crossed a small creek before we caught up with him. Both
he and
the dog were dripping wet, both with big wide grins on their faces ... boy
and dog
having an 'adventure' together.
The second time was outside of Gympie, we'd just returned from town, and had
let
Matt into the backyard to play while we unpacked the truck. Someone had been
into
the yard while we were gone, and left the back gate open .. off shoots Matt
again
(luckily with dog trailing along behind) and we found him heading for the
highway
after traversing a dam. Again, it was the flash of white on the tip of
Shadows tail
which saved the day.
Shadow was extremely faithful to the family. He slept on the back of the
truck
(didn't want to miss out on going to work) and once, when Ron felt sorry for
him,
because of a lack of work, he loaned him to a mate to use. Well, the mate
drove
right up to the forestry with him, before stopping to open a gate - but the
moment
he stopped, Shadow slipped his collar hightailing it home, and was back
before the
mate had even gotten to the paddock, and realised he was down one dog!
He was tough too. When he was about 4 yrs old he went down with paralysis
tick. When
we found him under the house, he'd already gone completely in the back legs
and
couldn't move. We rushed him to town, to the vet, who told us that once a
dog is
that far gone the chances of a recovery were slim. Ron said "you just give
him the
drugs, he'll do the rest"; and he was right. Twenty-four hours later Shadow
was up
and moving around. The vet said to "Keep him quiet for 2 weeks" to prevent a
relapse, but as we walked out the door of the vet surgery, Shadow trotted up
to the
truck, sprung onto the back! The vet was amazed, saying that he "shouldn't
be able
to do that for at least a few days".
When he was bored, he'd 'work the guinea pigs' by eyeing them through the
side of their
cage, and would even try to get to the front of birds flying over-head.
He was supremely confident in his ability to work anything at all, and there
was
nothing he couldn't get to the front of. He needed at least 100 acres just
to
stretch his legs, and could clear a fence, even with one front foot hooked
up in his
collar to slow him down. My dad (a city slicker) was convinced there was
money to be
made, if we could just get him onto a greyhound track .. He was a really
special
dog, and earned his keep 10 times over, both as a working dog, and as a
companion.
