Sunny Shelties

Rain

A Sweet and Loyal Girl

Rain was our first sheltie. She was from lines of working shelties and was actually born in a barn on a sheep farm. She used to herd kids in the backyard and was terrible at playing fetch. She would run to the ball but instead of returning it she would either circle it like she was trying to herd it back, or she would lie down and bark at it. She was a clever little dog and on one camping trip she learned how to unzip the tent - something she never forgot, unfortunately.

 

Rain was our drama queen, at a young age she realized that limping = sympathy. The words "poor Rain" would cause her to lower her head and limp on one of her front legs - of course after a few steps the "injured" leg would change and she would limp on the other. One of her other idiosyncrasies was her trick behavior. If you told her to "sit" she would, but if you didn't reward her immediately she would skip to the finale and roll over on her back to play dead. It confused many of our visitors when they would pick up food and Rain would immediately tip over onto her back (hoping to get a treat).

 

Rain was our little guardian and protector of the human "flock".  She kept tabs on everybody and if a member of the family was missing, she would lay by the front door waiting for their return. After the first kid went to college Rain kept a constant vigil at the door waiting for her to come home. As she got older, we made her a comfy dog bed, but she wouldn't sleep on it unless it was directly in front of the door - so we made a truce and purchased her a thick doormat.

 

We lost Rain at age 13. She had a stroke and lost the function of her left side on a friday morning. She hung on just long enough for me to make it back from college to say goodbye before she went to rainbow bridge. She will always be missed, but we know she's waiting for her flock by the front door to heaven.