Anadune Dark Desire AW(B)

Raven

13 October 2012 — 23 August 2024

Raven was the most cheerful little girl: she loved her training sessions, and was the first to learn words for actions, and flopped nicely from any position as soon as she heard anyone say 'down'. She was very keen on sheep and loved playing (especially with new toys!). Her ability to kill a broom was second to none ;)

As she got older, she become more and more impressive: her enthusiasm for just about anything was amazing! She put 100% effort into anything she did with me. She could have easily been called Kangaroo, as she was able to leap to an impressive height in the air from a complete standstill (she is not being encouraged in this!). Staying put was a concept that took her a while — I think she struggled to believe that given all the fun things that she COULD be doing for you, you'd want her to not do any! The shorter version of her name, Rave, fit her perfectly.

She been enjoyed the conformation rings: a video of her Crufts qualifying go at her first show (aged 6 months) is available here. And she gained Raven gains her stud book number at Working & Pastoral Breeds of Scotland under breed specialist Sheila Gay in November 2018. She enjoyed her agility training, was very quick and very responsive: a video of her at 16 months is available here. She started 2015 as a grade 5, and finished as a grade 7 ☺

She was a very nice worker on sheep: she spent a while thinking only one direction existed, but then got into the sheep field on her own once while I was doing something else and when I spotted her, she was moving the sheep across the field at a nice, steady pace, having worked out that both directions exist and that calm is best — things I'd been trying to teach her for months!

In 2016, Raven became a mum to 4 puppies by the versatile boy Int Ch Borderline Country Justinstyle, and she looked after her daughter Pip, who has stayed with us, until the very end.

Ravey loved life, and Ravey loved everyone. Just checking on what she was doing gave you a reason to smile: from when a new dog bed arrived, when she would be the first to go on it (despite it being totally deflated ... and then she'd wait for it to inflate under her!), to working out a new route to get to her favourite sheep (for example through gate bars...). You loved your privileged position upstairs as you got older, and even towards the end, when we knew you were ill, you'd still come up and make sure you wagged your tail whenever I woke up. I miss seeing your face in the window, when you stood on the window seat to watch me pull into the driveway, and I miss you pawing away at the stair gate to get to me quicker when I came in. My Little Pickle, I can't believe you aren't here any more. My heart is broken.