Lassie Come Home

My brother sent me this picture of my old Collie I had when I was much younger. He sent this to me as a "place" of meditation when I was going through chemo and radiation last year.
How did I end up with a collie? I showed horses all around the country as a teen. While at the large horseshow, "Aksarben" in Omaha, Nebraska one year, Rudd Weatherwax (breeder of all of the Lassies) was raffling a puppy of Lassie (Lassie was a male). The puppy being raffled was a female pup. There must have been 100's of entries for this was a very big horse show. My Dad came up with the name "Melan-collie Baby." I remember sitting in the grandstands of the indoor arena right before they named the winner of the collie puppy. My Dad handed me a comb and said, "Comb your hair. I have a feeling you are going to win." Right he was! Imagine how a young girl at about 12 yrs. old felt being called to the center of the arena for newspaper pictures, etc. receiving a puppy from LASSIE. I was ecstatic.
The flip side of this exciting trivia, was that the pup had distemper. Imagine how I felt when my LASSIE puppy died. Our veterinarian was so distraught for me, that very soon I received another Collie puppy. Her name was Duchess. She lived a long and happy life. She wasn't a puppy from Lassie, but she filled a special place in my heart. And, my Dad always introduced her as a puppy from LASSIE. :0)