That's Tom on the left. Tom was born on July 14, 1999.
Very soon we realised that Tom needed a friend, so in the late October we went to some Perth Border Collie breeders looking for a partner, and came home with Tessa, or Contessa Maria, or Tessa Marie. The length of the name depends only on the depth of sh*t she is in at the time.
Yup, Tess is the energetic one, the one that gets over the fence, the one that gets to the ball the quickest, or gives Tom a hard time if he is given a head start and has the ball. Tess is the one that will find water if you are out for a quiet walk, and go in it to her belly. And Tessa is the one that will get into a fight if she thinks another dog is coming between her and her master (family).
Born on July 28, Tess was quite an ugly puppy with a long nose, ungainly build with long legs, and the lack of balance in her colouring just seemed to emphasise the strangeness of it all. But, as ugly as she was as a gangly pup, she grew into a beautiful dog with a fantastic nature, and she is the perfect balance to Tom. And both of them are too intelligent for their own good.
Tess and Tom had their first litter of pups in 2000 while we were living in Eaton. That is a story all of its own. There were six pups, three black and white (standard) and three grey and white (blues). Two of the blues and one of the standards are still in the family.
And the proud young parents went on to have another two litters with five pups each time.
