Introducing Willow, our beautiful Border Collie.

Willow was born in November 2010 and came to live with us in January 2011. On reflection, we should have waited another two weeks for her as she came to us at just six weeks old. We got her from a lovely man in Petworth. He lived in a very large country house with lots of grounds. He was Border Collie mad and had, if I remember rightly now, six of them.

Willow was one of many pups and I chose her because of the sweet noises she made in my ear when I picked her up and held her close. I was instantly in love. She travelled home in the back of the car, all snuggled up on India and Hope’s laps and has now for the past six years been a much-loved member of our family. What is absolutely beautiful is that she still snuggles and makes those same noises to this day.

Willow is very friendly. If you’re a human. If you’re a dog, forget it! Her aggressive behaviour toward other dogs can be worrying at times but she’s quite easily distracted by a ball or a stick! Talking of balls, whoever invented those long ball throwers deserves a medal. They are simply brilliant for high energy dogs like Willow. Having had Rune home for much of the time, long walks over fields and through woods were a ‘luxury’ that happened only on the rare occasions when Rune attended school. Mostly, it was a case of going to a park and a car park close to the green was an essential so I could keep an eye on Rune should he choose to sit in the car, which was a regular occurrence. So yeah, those long ball thrower thingies were a God send. I could keep one eye on Rune and Willow would still get to run miles. She’s great at bringing the ball back to me and will be relentless in her running until she finally flops on the floor, unable to go any further.

Willow is a loving girl and we look forward to many more years of long, muddy, country walk with her.

Love Heidi. xxx