Collie Heroes
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The following true stories are taken from the book The New Collie by Collie Club of America.
KEN-L-RATION AWARDS
TANG
Tang was one of these Collies whose herding instinct adapted perfectly from lambs to children. Four times, the award announcement declared, he had leaped in front of cars to push a tot to the curb, seconds before tragedy could strike.
Tang's heroism is owed largely to fate and a persuasive veterinarian. Air Force Captain and Mrs. Maurice Dyer of Denison, Texas, had lost a beloved Collie and could not bring themselves to adopt another. A veterinarian talked them into taking a look at Tang. Just emerging from puppyhood, the sable dog had been badly mistreated and was distrustful of people, especially children. Considering this unpromising background, the Dyers were surprised when they saw something in his eyes that reminded them of their lost Collie. Albeit and with misgivings, they took him home, where love worked its wonders. Within six months Tang had developed his full Collie potential.
On one occasion Tang planted himself squarely in front of a parked delivery truck and refused to budge, barking loudly all the while. When the puzzled driver alighted to see what had caused the strange behavior of the normally friendly dog, he found that a two-yearold girl had clambered unto the back of his truck. From this perch she would most certainly have fallen when he started his vehicle. The moment she was removed, Tang stopped barking and returned calmly to the sidewalk.
The Dyers credited Tang with having saved no fewer than five children from death or severe injury.
BLAZE
Blaze, named for his handsome face marking, was the second nationally-acclaimed Collie in the Ken-l-Ration
awards, receiving the Heroes of Heroes plaque in 1957. Dawn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Duana Hecox of Timewell, Illinois, owes her life to her Collie playmate. The two-and-a-half-year-old child was attracted by some baby pigs in a fenced pen next to her yard, and crawled through the fence for a closer look. The sow felt her litter was threatened. Charging at top speed, she knocked Dawn to the ground and was severely mauling the youngster when Blaze came on the scene.
Despite a long-held fear of the formidable sow, Blaze cleared the fence in a bound and attacked so savagely that the sow gave ground. Dawn, shocked and bleeding from serious injuries, had time to crawl back through the fence to safety.
Wounds from the sow's tusks put the little girl on the critical list for two days, and it took many weeks of care before she recovered. The official record does not reveal whether Blaze sustained injuries, but it would be surprising if he did not. A hog is a dangerous foe for man or dog and only devotion to Dawn made Blaze take the risk.
DUKE
Fire, an element so dreaded by most creatures that only man brings it to life intentionally, was responsible for the near-tragedy that won the 1961 gold medal for Duke, a rollicking Collie from Niles, Ohio.
On a blustery March afternoon, ten-year-old Penny Grantz went into her backyard to burn some papers. The wind made her skirt billow into the stream of glowing embers rising from the flames. Panic-stricken at the sight of her flaming skirt, the youngster raced toward the house, 25 yards away.
Duke seized Penny's blazing skirt in his teeth. The Collie tore and pawed the garment off her to the ground, burning his tender mouth in the process.
We do not know whether previous experience had taught the Collie about fire, or if he simply did battle in the best way he knew - with snapping fangs and grappling paws - as he would against any foe which hurt his little mistress. Experts say dogs could not reason it out; Collie owners have come to accept such acts of devotion without question.
BUDDY
Matthew Crinkley and his family, of Budd Lake, New Jersey, count their luck in terms of their livestock saved from fire by Buddy, 1964 winner of the heroism award. For this unusual exploit the 20-month-old sable also received the title of Businessman's Best Friend from an association of his master's colleagues.
An early morning fire had been roaring for some time in the maternity barn of their dairy goat farm before Buddy's frantic barks in the yard were heard by his waking owners. They rushed to the window just in time to see the barn crash into flaming ruin.
The Crinkleys were astonished and elated to see Buddy marching back and forth like a reviewing general, watching over the entire flock of seventy milking goats he had herded out of the barn. The Collie had received severe burns on his paws and smoke damage to his delicate nasal passages in the process while rescuing the stubborn animals.
Buddy's warning barks gave the Crinkleys time to wet down the smoking roof of a second barn which housed their thirty remaining goats. Counting the kids born later to the rescued mothers, the Crinkleys calculated that their Collie had saved three hundred goats. This not only saved the owners' livelihood, but also preserved a vital service to area people who needed goats' milk for illness ranging from allergies and digestive disorders to ulcers.
How does a dog's owner repay such a debt? Unlike a human, the dog expects no repayment.
HERO
Collie lovers claim that their favorites have both beauty and brains. Hero, a blue merle from Priest River, Idaho, was the first show dog to prove it, capturing the title of America's Dog Hero of 1966. Quaker Oats' press writers described Hero's exploits a "an exhibition of courage, stamina and intelligence that has never been exceeded in the history of the award."
Owned by Mr. and Mrs. George Jolley, Hero was a good ranch companion as well as a promising show dog. Peril seemed nowhere near as Mrs. Jolley, with her three-year-old son, Shawn, worked in the barn loft pitching hay down to the horses coming in from the pasture. The first inkling Mrs. Jolley had that her son was not beside her was when he screamed from the barn floor below. She looked down to see the youngster running toward the end of the barn with a mare in pursuit.
Shawn tried to slide under a tractor at the end of the barn, but his clothing caught on a projecting piece of the equipment and he was pinned, at the mercy of the unaccountably raging animal.
His frightened mother shouted for Hero.
The mare was rearing to trample Shawn when a blue and white bolt whizzed into view. Transformed from his usual good-natured self, Hero was a blaze of fury. Before the lethal hooves could descend, the Collie's teeth were fastened onto the horse's tender nose and his eighty pounds deflected the horse's charge and her attention.
The enraged mare swung her head furiously from side to side, whipping Hero back and forth. Finally, the dog's grip gave way with a rending of tender flesh. Hero landed violently against the tractor wheel sinking into a stunned heap. Spurred by the mare's return attck on Shawn, however, Hero leaped up to distract her again.
Now she gave her full attention to the Collie adversary, and Mrs. Jolley was able to put Shawn safely atop the hay. She joined the battle, parrying the striking hooves with a pitchfork. After a few more blows at Hero, the mare suddenly raced out the stable door, with Hero in close pursuit. Only when she had disappeared into the distance did the Collie sink to the ground, blood pouring from nose and mouth.
Mrs. Jolley rushed him to a veterinarian in Spokane, forty-five miles away. The doctor found that Hero had suffered crushed forefeet, four broken ribs and five teeth either broken or knocked out.
Only six weeks after this the indomitable Hero scored a major show win. However, the Jolleys did not continue on to finish Hero's championship, it became to much of a strain. The showing stopped each time while they had to explain to an enthralled judge how their Collie had lost his teeth. They did not need anyone else to tell them that their dog was a champion. He had already proved that to them.
It is interesting to note that Hero, Harlequin Hero O'Shane, was sired by Ch. LuNette's Blue Print and that his dam was Ch. Kitsap's Shadow O'Shane, who produced five champions. Hero had two champion littermates, and both parents were BIS winners.
MORE STORIES FOLLOWING LATER
