After Czárdás died at the age of 14 the house seemed cold and empty. I checked the Collie Club website for a new nest and found one in the northern provinces. One male for sale. A nest of beauties, five females and 3 males, a tri-colored father and a gold-blonde mother. All names of the puppies had to start with the letter D and so I gave my pup the name Double-O-Seven (007) of the Willow Tay and introduced him as James to friends around. Harry, a good friend as well, made the birthday cards.

James turned out to be very affectionate and I found him right behind me throughout the house. At night he was so tired from it he fell asleep in the bathroom before I had finished getting ready for bed. I used to lift him gently and cary him to a soft-pillowed gardenchair next to my bed.

I remember hiding a dog bisquit in the bedroom and he learned to search for it. He found it way too quick to be a real game, but it was fun every night.

James is an inquisitive dog and he turned out to be one from the start. I remember Czárdás stayed in his box as a puppy, only to leave it for his walk. James however was different. Didn't stay on my lap, didn't want to rest in my arms. On walks he was eager to be a pioneer and I had to run behind him.

     





He tried every hole in the fence around the garden to make an escape, if possible to the wild garden, a piece of land with high grass and wild flowers. He wanted to be outside and play, rather than to stay inside and get yelled at when he defecated on the floor.

In the wild garden we found a car-seat for children. I planned to cary him in it when walks got out of hand but he didn't feel for it. To James it was a toy. He jumped in and out of the thing and dragged it all over the terrace.

After his first shots (his first "cocktail") he joined me into the big world. In his first months this meant a little neighborhood park called "Kortenbosch" in The Hague. We met other dog-owners and James learned how to behave amongst other dogs. Pretty soon we met Vera and Holy Smoke.

It took some getting used to because Holy Smoke was big and strong. James took no chances and threw himself on his back quickly. He still did so when we arrived in Halle this September. All Smoke needs is to establish who's the boss and who will follow. It's a ceremony.

He never skips greeting Vera, as soon as the ceremony involving Holy Smoke is over, because Vera always greets and rewards him. In fact, Holy Smoke insists.

Ofcourse James is a big part of the holidays celebration. He gets all worked up when he notices he gets a present from under the Christmas tree and starts to howl and squeal with anticipation. The wrapping has to be removed real quickly or he will charge at it himself and ripp everything to shreds. Next time I am going to let him… Every year I design my X-mas cards and this year we joined the Collie Club contest to make the nicest card. We won the first prize !

Once I saw him chase away a big dog and at the time James himself was still a youngster. It amazed me to see this gentle friend of mine become so fierce as to scare off what appeared to be a Staffordshire, all over the children's playground and across the park.

As young as possible I showed him the beach, the sea, the dunes and everything else in this wide landscape. He saw storms and the snow. And I took him with me to the stables where I ride horses. Those animals are just a little too big for him to enjoy. He once saw a horse slide to the ground from a wet wooden bridge and it took some time before he got over the shock. He didn't want to meet with horses for a while after that and he is still extra careful when visiting stables.

Portraits

I made both portraits myself. I took on painting and started with watercolor. I had already painted people and children and thought it was time to paint animals. I copied a picture of a fox from a magazine to learn how to paint fur. Then I turned to James as my favorite model.

Last year we visited Scotland in the summer. I had been there thirty years ago and found it strikingly beautiful. Nowadays you are allowed to take dogs into England although you need the proper papers to do so and I wanted to show James the land of his ancestors. A splendid journey. We met a lot of border collies, but only three rough collies. There's a lot of sheep roaming Scotland and James found himself a new hobby chasing them everywhere he could. That's how I got the idea to train him as a sheepdog.