Recently someone looking for a first dog asked me if Shelties were gentle to other animals. "Yes, they are," I answered at last, after a few moments of reverie, remembering this little story. The perpetrator in question was Blackberry Bi, and this story is true.

Like many dog breeders, I like animals. Over the years I have had several unusual pets. As a biologist, I have always had a soft spot for our native rodents. One of my favorite pets is the kangaroo rat, Dipodomys species, appealing little rodents of the western desert country. K-Rats, as I call them, are fun to keep because they are naturally docile, easy to keep in an aquarium with a few inches of dirt in the bottom, easy to feed on hard wheat, birdseed, and the odd strawberry, grape, or spinach leaf, and entertaining to watch. Built rather like kangaroos, K-Rats have very short, delicate arms and large, powerful hindquarters with big hind feet, ideal for jumping. They have long, furry tails to balance their weight while hopping along. Add to this picture their huge black eyes, long whiskers, attractive color scheme of white and rosy buff, and a short silky coat, and you have a great little pet. The clincher: K-Rats (unless given moist food or water all the time) do not urinate, but produce small pellets of solid urinary waste. Their extremely efficient kidneys allow reabsorption of most of the water in their systems, and their feces, too, are very dry. The result? No mousy odor! For years I have kept K-Rat pets. Since they are nocturnal, K-Rats are ideal pets for working owners, since when the sun goes down, they emerge from their burrows to forage. I have enjoyed watching each of my K-friends hop busily around my kitchen searching for stray crumbs, ever since I was in college. (K-Rats are solitary; they must be housed each in his or her own terrarium. Please do not barge out and get yourself a K-Rat without checking with your state fish and wildlife department. Some species are endangered, and each state has its own regulations about keeping wild pets.)

At the time of the following events, the current K-Rat pet was a friendly individual known as Cleopatra II. Cleo was a rescue from a research program. She was so tame that she would bounce up onto my lap and sit on my shoulder. Her home was a 30-gallon aquarium kept in the guest bedroom.

On to Blackberry. Blackberry was a very good brood gal, housedog, popcorn-lover, and one of my best friends. She was by Ch. Banchory Thunder Blue, ROM, ex a daughter of High Born. That year, I bred her to Am./Can. Ch. Harvest Hill's Shoeshine Boy, ROM, and was looking forward to an all bi-black litter. Since Blackberry was a veteran mother, I simply set up her whelping box in a corner of the guest bedroom without any exercise pen or other barrier around it. The other Shelties would not have access to the box because the bedroom door would be kept shut.

The birth of the three little bi-black girls was uneventful, and all were doing well. I was careful to carry Cleo out into the kitchen to play that night (rather than letting her hop out), because I was not sure if Blackberry's protective instincts would cause her to want to get the little rodent away from her babies.

The day after the puppies were born, I came home from work and went at once to the guest bedroom to check on them. When I opened the door and looked quickly into the box, all three puppies and Blackberry were curled up together and all was well.

Then I noticed that the screen cover was NOT on Cleopatra's tank! "Oh, no!" I thought, upset with myself. "You idiot. You should have moved Cleo to another room. Of course Blackberry would not tolerate a rodent being in the same room with her newborn babies."

Do you remember how your mother used to use your first and last names when you had done something bad? I said, "Blackberry Bicolor, what have you done with Cleo?" But there was, of course, no answer. Blackberry didn't even look guilty. I got down on my hands and knees and searched the room for Cleo. I searched for over an hour. I moved the bed, took everything out of the closet, looked behind the computer desk. No Cleo.

Alas! I was certain that Blackberry had helped herself to a light lunch consisting of one female K-Rat. Yum, yum.

Then I looked in the whelping box one more time. The three puppies were actively nursing, but wait! What was that tannish thing there at the end of the row of three bi-black girls? "Oh, no!" I thought. Had Blackberry produced a late, SABLE puppy? How could that possibly have happened? Looking closely into the box, I saw three bi-black puppies nursing. At the end of the line, a slimy tan thing about the same size struggled away from Blackberry's side, crawling slowly as if dazed with fatigue. You have guessed it. This was Cleo!

With a patient sigh, Blackberry pulled her lips back, and with her teeth very gently lifted Cleo by the back of the neck and placed her in line with the nursing puppies. Cleo tried to crawl away, but Blackberry bumped her back into place with little nudges of the nose. After a moment, Blackberry began licking Cleo, and I realized that Cleo, already absolutely soaked with saliva, had probably spent the entire day being "washed" by Blackberry, who was no doubt worried that this sable baby just didn't smell quite right! I lifted the exhausted, terrified Cleo from the puppy box and placed her in her terrarium, which I then moved to another room. Cleo crawled down her burrow and did not reappear for three days!

Far from trying to eliminate a threat to her litter, Blackberry's mothering instincts had overflowed to include the hapless K-Rat, and Blackberry had probably deliberately knocked the tank cover off to "rescue" the "lost puppy." I laughed long and hard over this one. (For you Sheltie history buffs: a descendant of one of Blackberry's three Shoe girls is Ch. Shadow Hills Rio Grande. Blackberry also carries on today through Ch. Duluta Fist Full of Dollars, ROM; some of the Jetsong dogs, our own Merlin, and others at Logan Isle, Lloreal, and Calypso.)

I will never forget Blackberry's attempt to make a puppy out of a kangaroo rat!

The End

Please use your "back" button to return to Sheltie Stories.