Tacker and the puppy maker
The puppy maker misread the order. Instead of making eight collie puppies he only made seven. At the last moment he realised his mistake and quickly set about making up the eighth. He was a bit short of parts but he found a nice collie face, two spaniel ears, a long retriever body and a sturdy set of Labrador legs and feet. Then he realised he had a problem. Collie cross puppies should be mainly black with white markings but he only had a small piece of black fur, certainly not enough for even a small puppy. However, he did have a lot of white silky fur as he'd skimped a bit on recent batches, mainly to save time. He also was short of soft black leather for a nose so patched what he had with some pretty pink leather from the paw pad box.
He set about making a very desirable cross breed puppy, mainly white with a pink and black nose and he used the remaining scraps of black fur to cover both ears. Then he really panicked, he couldn't find any ear hearing mechanisms and although he had two beautiful soft brown eyes, one was a bit smaller than the other and didn't work too well. Although he was very upset that he couldn't make a perfect puppy, he knew he had done well enough to ensure that the puppy would be loved by the right people. To compensate he added a kind nature and some extra intelligence to help the puppy on his way through life. And this is how our puppy Tacker, came about. Tacker has been with us since he was two weeks old, when we fostered his mum and her eight pups for NAWT, and we adopted him at nine weeks old. He is totally deaf and has one eye that doesn't function as well as the other.
We were initially apprehensive because we'd never had a deaf dog before but Lynn Crooks got us a book on training deaf dogs (using hand signals instead of voice commands) and Su French was very supportive when Tacker went to her puppy socialisation classes (which he completed successfully and has his certificate to prove it). He loved the classes, especially all the attention he received, and really looked forward to his special night out. Tacker is now a year old and resembles a collie x Shetland pony, he's extremely bright - too bright for his own good at times, not being distracted by noise appears to leave him plenty of time for planning and scheming-and he is very loving though a bit clumsy at times. We wouldn't be without our special gentle giant now. Not being able to hear or to see as well as other dogs does not prevent him from having a full and active life and having fun with our other five dogs and fourteen cats.
So our thanks to the puppy maker - you did a good job mate! Pat Liddicoat