We share this with consent from the Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders, a marvelous anecdote of why breeding purpose bred purebred dogs still matters:
The rest of the text is below:
I got an e-mail this morning from Doug Putman who has this blue merle male puppy out of Tide and Draki’s February 2017 litter. Just the kind of letter a working dog breeder loves to get so sharing with his permission. I saw video of “Jimmy” his first time on a calf several months ago and knew he was a good one. Doug’s e-mail:
“Good morning, Terry,
Burr, its cold today in Kansas. Almost blizzard like. Just wanted to drop you a note and the on-going saga of Jimmy, the wonder dog.
Today my daughter and I looked out and saw one of our good coming two year geldings stuck in the middle of the pond. We had three days of 50 degree weather which melted the ice. But last night the weather changed and it dropped 32 degrees within three hours. The gelding wandered out on the new ice and went through getting stuck with ice surrounding him. Jimmy and I went down to see how we would get him out. Obviously he had been in the water for a few hours. I thought I would have to either rope him with a horse and drag him out or worse pull him out with a tractor across the sharp ice. As I was leaving to go back to the barns to get equipment I turned to see ‘Jimmy’ crossing the ice and walking up to the gelding. Unbelievably he went and licked the gelding’s face then went to his rear and bit him driving him through shallow ice following him on paper thin ice. So unbelievable if you didn’t actually witness it! He drove him into the corral and we took him inside a box stall. Then we went to feed the pen horses and cows. The snow and sleet were driving so hard it was tough to see. I noticed I had a little angus calf missing. Jimmy and I went looking for it. Then Jimmy took off. I could just barely see through the sleet and snow as the dog ran down to the creek. Pretty soon I saw a black blur and then Jimmy. He found the calf nestled in the creek. Obviously Jimmy put the calf back into the pen with her mother.
Terry, this undoubtably is the greatest dog I have ever had the pleasure of being around. I know I bother you with emails, but I like to share this reality show with others. Don’t ever quit raising these great dogs.
Awesome Aussie!
Agreed, Terry, and not a surprise given the breed, and that leads to the other great thing about purebred dogs: predictability! Thanks for writing!
Just posted some more pics of “Jimmy” on Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders FB page. I love the circle here – Virginia organization, featuring a dog bred in Texas, now living in Kansas – being celebrated all over the US!!
Thanks, Alice, for first sharing Jimmy’s story with us. He is indeed being celebrated everywhere! We encourage everyone to see more of Jimmy at the Facebook page you mentioned, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaFederation/