Teija
Born Deaf and Blind - January 2006
RIP - January 2011
We communicate through a touch language.
She knows all her basic commands, obedience and does agility for fun (and even does the jumps)
TEIJA means ‘Gift of God’She was a pup destined not to survive even before she was born.
We’d made token efforts to find a new pup. Well, actually we’d done almost nothing. All the common excuses were being used and expertly re-used so you can imagine my surprise when the advert on Many Tears Rescue site jumped off the page and lodged itself securely in the bit of my heart that had been excused common sense duty.
Born deaf and blind a tiny eight-week-old white Border collie pup, a sad project. The rescue were asking people not to “write her off” or have her “put-to-sleep” as she could have quite a “good life with help”. She needed someone special. Hats-off to those who take-on disabled animals but this was not something I could ever do - or so I thought!She is what’s called a ‘Lethal White’. The term is used to describe a Border Collie merle-to-merle bred pup that is born with two merle genes. There is a trend towards breeding a pedigree pure white collie but this throws up life threatening birth deformities and the term also alludes to the fate of death that usually befalls most of them if they do survive. Only perfection sells the rest are disposable. They are also known as double-merles or homozygous (but I can’t even pronounce that).
Touch is our way of communicating and through trial and error we have developed a language so vast that there are now so many signs that they get lost in everyday life. Her disability is just a label. She doesn’t know she is different and a lot of the time neither does anyone else. Obedience and good manners are important for every dog and just so for Teija. She is now well socialized with people and other dogs and has learnt to sit, stay, lie down etc. and is starting her Good Citizen Award soon. She does tricks, gives her paw and loads more including beg and fetch (not the usual fast game for us as sniffing things out takes a bit of time but when she finds it she brings it straight back, I just have to remember not to move). She is a normal little hooligan who gets up to all sorts of mischief, beware the collie with nothing to do they all need to be occupied and Teija is never happier than when learning new things or getting into mischief.Heat winner - 2007 RSPCA Rescue Dog of the Year.Living with Teija is just second nature to me now and I know that some people think that it must be hard work but it's not - it is just different. One thing I have had to come to terms with is that there are still people that call me cruel and self indulgent or wicked for 'putting her through this kind of life' and tell me I should have let her be put to sleep but she is a very happy, well adjusted, healthy little dog who loves life so much - everyone who has met her will tell you the same.This is the very start of our story. Teija has now joined Springer agility team. She will never compete in the speed stuff but as in everything we set our own path. She loves every minute of it and yes she does jump!
Our world is far from perfect but mans cruelty and exploitation for personal greed (or in some cases the ignorance of the consequences) towards animals leaves me speechless. These types of pups should not be born but now she is here I feel privileged to be the one chosen to share her life.
I am so proud of her.
This is such a sad update :(
Teija suffered a massive fit in January 2011 from which she never really recovered completely. We made the very hard decision to let her go.
You taught me so much my beautiful baby.
Run FREE in the Summerlands.
Click HERE to read about our fist year
We’d made token efforts to find a new pup. Well, actually we’d done almost nothing. All the common excuses were being used and expertly re-used so you can imagine my surprise when the advert on Many Tears Rescue site jumped off the page and lodged itself securely in the bit of my heart that had been excused common sense duty.
Born deaf and blind a tiny eight-week-old white Border collie pup, a sad project. The rescue were asking people not to “write her off” or have her “put-to-sleep” as she could have quite a “good life with help”. She needed someone special. Hats-off to those who take-on disabled animals but this was not something I could ever do - or so I thought!She is what’s called a ‘Lethal White’. The term is used to describe a Border Collie merle-to-merle bred pup that is born with two merle genes. There is a trend towards breeding a pedigree pure white collie but this throws up life threatening birth deformities and the term also alludes to the fate of death that usually befalls most of them if they do survive. Only perfection sells the rest are disposable. They are also known as double-merles or homozygous (but I can’t even pronounce that).
Touch is our way of communicating and through trial and error we have developed a language so vast that there are now so many signs that they get lost in everyday life. Her disability is just a label. She doesn’t know she is different and a lot of the time neither does anyone else. Obedience and good manners are important for every dog and just so for Teija. She is now well socialized with people and other dogs and has learnt to sit, stay, lie down etc. and is starting her Good Citizen Award soon. She does tricks, gives her paw and loads more including beg and fetch (not the usual fast game for us as sniffing things out takes a bit of time but when she finds it she brings it straight back, I just have to remember not to move). She is a normal little hooligan who gets up to all sorts of mischief, beware the collie with nothing to do they all need to be occupied and Teija is never happier than when learning new things or getting into mischief.Heat winner - 2007 RSPCA Rescue Dog of the Year.Living with Teija is just second nature to me now and I know that some people think that it must be hard work but it's not - it is just different. One thing I have had to come to terms with is that there are still people that call me cruel and self indulgent or wicked for 'putting her through this kind of life' and tell me I should have let her be put to sleep but she is a very happy, well adjusted, healthy little dog who loves life so much - everyone who has met her will tell you the same.This is the very start of our story. Teija has now joined Springer agility team. She will never compete in the speed stuff but as in everything we set our own path. She loves every minute of it and yes she does jump!
Our world is far from perfect but mans cruelty and exploitation for personal greed (or in some cases the ignorance of the consequences) towards animals leaves me speechless. These types of pups should not be born but now she is here I feel privileged to be the one chosen to share her life.
I am so proud of her.
This is such a sad update :(
Teija suffered a massive fit in January 2011 from which she never really recovered completely. We made the very hard decision to let her go.
You taught me so much my beautiful baby.
Run FREE in the Summerlands.
Click HERE to read about our fist year
Why not have a look at our book ...
House of Misfits - Teija
Read all about our life together - all profits from sales go to a rescue
Available on kindle ... click HERE for details
Copyright © 2007 L Montgomery (All Rights Reserved)