Puppy Pickup Road Trip

I'll never be completely over the death of my Shetland Sheepdog Buzz. I still half expect to see him walk round the corner to greet me at home. But he's been gone 6 months now (since January 2020), and isn't coming back.

The Perfect Sheltie Puppy - For Us

I've had at least one Sheltie (Shetland Sheepdog) in my house for over 40 years. They're very loyal, sweet, easy to train, and great on trails. So I knew I wanted another one.

We got our male Bernese Mountain Dog Taylor as a seven-week puppy in June 2019. After all the challenges from an over-enthusiastic, sometimes annoyingly-demanding male dog, we said, "No more boys."

I'd also decided I wanted a blue merle-coated Sheltie puppy, one not looking like Lassie (sable) or like Buzz (tri-color - black with white and tan markings). So our next Sheltie would be a female with a merle coat, or so we thought. (Merle coats feature somewhat random black markings on an otherwise white dog.)

Sheltie pup Jessie (near) and Berner Taylor (far) Jessie is actually much smaller than Taylor — Sheltie pup Jessie (near) and Berner Taylor (far)
Jessie is actually much smaller than Taylor

Searching for Breeders

Prior experience led me to start looking for another dog as soon as I could bring myself to do it, since you never know how long it'll take to find a dog you want. I'd started talking with Sheltie breeders in the US Southwest in March.

I'd had breeder recommendations from a former California Sheltie breeder I'd purchased two dogs from in the 1990s. And the American Shetland Sheepdog Association's website had breeder referrals. I pulled breeder listings from Texas west through Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada to California. (There are none in New Mexico where I live, but I've traveled through the other states to visit family and photograph dogs at ruin sites, volcanic lava flows and other Southwestern landscapes.)

One breeder in Houston, Texas had an adult merle female available in April. But Houston is an 870 mile drive each way from our Albuquerque house. When that breeder said he didn't use a sales contract for his Shelties, and considering the state of the coronavirus pandemic in April, I passed.

Other breeders either had no litters coming, only bred sables, had dogs which didn't look like Shelties (blue eyes, tall floppy ears), or had puppies already promised. Then I contacted Julia French at Shirehill Shelties in Fort Collins, Colorado. She was very nice, knowledgable about the breed, and had a litter coming in April. She also said if necessary she'd keep a pup for us until coronavirus restrictions lifted enough to make travel possible. When the litter was born with three males and four females, all merles or bicolor-blacks (bi-blacks), I put down a deposit. It looked like we would be getting a Sheltie puppy!

...Buyers Are Liars

The merles (bi-blues) were very cute, but the bi-black female stole our hearts with one look (from a picture). So we wouldn't be getting a blue merle after all. The broker we bought our Albuquerque house from used to say "Buyers are liars," since most people buy houses nothing like their original description of what they want. That certainly applied to a Sheltie for us.

After waiting 8 weeks and monitoring trends in Coronavirus cases in New Mexico and Colorado, we were on our way up to get her.

Slow Ride, Take It Easy - Hiking in Raton

Storm from the Climax Canyon Trail, Raton, NM

We don't blast through when we travel in our RV - we prefer short driving days. Our first stop was Raton, New Mexico, just south of the Colorado border. We watched ominous thunderstorms move away as we hiked in nearby Climax Canyon, seeing great views and just one other person on the trail.

Dinner was at Mulligan's, inside Raton's Best Western Plus hotel. We were one of the first two parties in the place, so widely-spaced tables were pristinely clean. All staff wore masks, and the maitresse d' took our contact information before she sat us down. That's to their credit - if there's a coronavirus problem with staff or other diners, everyone can be contacted.

Hiking Near Lake Pueblo Reservoir

We figured trails would be more crowded near our next day's destination Manitou Springs, Colorado than in on-the-way Pueblo, so we stopped for a hike at Lake Pueblo State Park. Our somewhat water-phobic Bernese Mountain Dog Taylor actually enjoyed getting his feet wet, and we got some exercise. We're used to reservoirs in desert landscapes, so the sight of so much water in scrubby-planted rock and sand looked almost normal. We discovered we were lucky with crowds. The previous days had seen car lineups for a couple miles outside the park. We had no problem getting in at all. But area thunderstorms may have had something to do with that.

Looking for outdoor dining in Manitou Springs that evening, you'd think it was Spring Break. Downtown streets were full of crowds bunching together without masks, and the wait for an outdoor table almost anywhere was over an hour. We eventually ate Mexican inside a restaurant where we kept somewhat distant, and servers and staff were sort of masked (sometimes covering mouth only, or masking the neck). No one took our contact information. It was almost as if people thought there was no pandemic in southern Colorado.

The Devil's Backbone and Fort Collins

The next day's big push (well, 135 miles anyway) was to Fort Collins. But our hiking destination was several miles south of the city, near Loveland. From a distance, the Devil's Backbone looks like a stegosaurus' back plates sticking out of uplifted hills.

The Devil’s Backbone and approaching storm

When the Rocky Mountains thrust themselves up here, rock layers tilted and some broke away, and canyons eroded into the softer rock. After the area filled with windblown silt over geologic time and seeds blew in, you got the grass and wildflower-carpeted rolling hills with rocks poking up. It's a nice place to hike, especially when an approaching storm keeps trails empty. We managed to get to the Keyhole and almost made it back to our RV before the storm hit. Thankfully, I had a water-resistant case to keep camera gear dry. And all of us are pre-shrunk too.

Dinner at Fort Collins Lakeside KOA (Pat Goodman photo)

After the crowding in Manitou Springs, we decided to order takeout near the Fort Collins KOA we were staying at. White Tree Asian came through in spades - lightly-crunchy potstickers, some of the best Korean bulgoggi I've ever had, nicely-battered shrimp tempura, and Poki salmon salad. We scored a Cavit 2019 Moscato and a couple bottles of O'Dell Brewing's Barreled Treasure Imperial Stout from the liquor store next door.

We ate and drank all this at the Fort Collins Lakeside KOA Holiday RV campground on the north edge of town. Our site was clean, well-spaced from adjacent RVs, offered a large table with chairs for outdoor dining, and had nicely-hidden train tracks with just an occasional train to lull you to sleep. My wife Pat found two more Bernese Mountain Dogs to play with Taylor at the campground's dog park. Other campers and staff were super friendly. And it was just over 20 minutes away from Sheltie breeder Julia French's house.

No-Problem Pickup

We pulled up in front of Julia's house promptly at 9:00 the next morning. And her whole family came out. In the arms of one of her sons was a little black and white bundle of fluff. Jessie was a little wiggly in my wife's arms, but accepted her transfer to us with confidence. We got last minute instructions on deworming and copies of the sales contract and limited AKC registration. Then after promising to send Julia pictures as Jessie grows, we were on our way.

On To Las Vegas

Even an 8-week-old puppy in a baby carrier can't go into a restaurant, and dogs aren't currently allowed on restaurants' patio seating in New Mexico. So it looked like carryout was it.

We'd had great carne adovada-based carryout from the Range Cafe in Albuquerque, so we went looking for the Range on Las Vegas' plaza. Alas, the current COVID crisis has meant closure for that location. Instead, we followed a tip from another visitor to Las Vegas' Plaza Hotel and went across the street to JC's New York Pizza Department. I had a Little Louie calzone, Pat had an Empire State pizza slice, and we shared a salad. Great stuff, and it was OK for our dogs to sit outside with us at a sidewalk table.

Look closely at the door - you’ve been magically transported to Absaroka County, Wyoming.

I knew the Longmire TV series had been filmed at least partly in Las Vegas. I got a picture of Sheriff Walt Longmire's door on the plaza.

The next day was an uneventful drive back to Albuquerque with Jessie on my lap or in her basket between the seats. It had been a nice diversion after staying home for three months.

Name A Puppy

Jessie in her basket on the way home from Fort Collins

Buzz had been called Buster by his prior (second) owner. When I got him through Northern California Sheltie Rescue, he was a very calm two year old, and a couple inches too big to be shown at conformation. (That was why his breeder had sold him to his second owner in the first place.) He was very dignified, and needed a special name. So I shortened it to Buzz. That also happened to be the nickname of the recording secretary for the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet LAN standards group I'd been a part of for many years.

My wife Pat was thinking about Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story movies. His girlfriend in the later movies was cowgirl Jessie. So that's what we decided to name our new Sheltie puppy, to honor Buzz a little.

More Information

Best Western Plus Raton Hotel (nd), Mulligans Bar & Grill. Retrieved from http://www.bwratonhotel.com/restaurant.html

Come to Life Colorado (nd), Lake Pueblo State Park. Retrieved from https://www.colorado.com/state-parks/lake-pueblo-state-park

Two Knobby Tires (September 19, 2008), Devils Backbone Open Space – Wild Loop Trail – Loveland, Colorado. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yarrffmc

Plaza Hotel (nd), The Belle Of The Southwest. Retrieved from http://www.plazahotellvnm.com

JC's New York Pizza Department Menu (nd), Regular Menu Items and Specials. Retrieved from https://www.jcnypd.com/menu