The first collie girl I’d like to applaud is Jane. I sold this spunky tricolor pup to Kristin Brooke Parma over 8 years ago. Jane was a pup meant to be. At birth, Jane’s umbilical cord had broken off way too short, and she was gushing blood. I applied pressure immediately to keep her from bleeding out. I used some blood stop powder on the hole, but it didn’t help enough. Finally, I grabbed some Super Glue, and a blob of that finally stopped the blood loss. I wrapped Jane’s belly with a bandage, and had to keep her dam from licking her until the wound healed. The makeshift treatment worked, and Jane thrived. She ended up with an adorable, smooth belly.

Kristin had contacted me about possibly getting a tricolor female puppy. Jane seemed to be just what Kristin was looking for. Nine week old Jane left with Kristin for south Texas to be her pet, and live on the Czech Out Ranch. Jane took right to farm life and became not just a beloved pet, but useful around the ranch in all kinds of ways. Like many collies, she seemed intuitive about what and how things needed to be done.

Kristin had never trained a dog for agility but this was one of her top goals for Jane. Jane learned some very basic obedience and proceeded to agility right away. Kristin and Jane learned together. They got better and better and had a lot of fun. Jane mastered everything she and Kristin tried- even deer and javelina hunting! Jane learned obedience, and herding, but agility was where she really shone. Together, Jane and Kristin captured title after title. Jane reached the summit of her achievements as an 8 year old at the Collie Club of America national show last April where she qualified in herding, got a perfect 100 score in obedience, and was High in Trial in Agility. Kristin and Jane have accomplished so much in their partnership. It warms my heart to see the love and fun they share.

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Bridgit was my game changer. She made a huge difference in the look and quality of the Tairis collies that came after her. I had wanted a Milas Collie for a few years, but it hadn’t been in the budget. The Milas Collies had the beauty, style, good movement, and great temperament I wanted. The stars aligned just enough that I was able to buy Bridgit when she was about a year old, and only lacking a couple of points to finish her AKC championship. Lynn Butler arranged a ride for Bridgit from New York to Pennsylvania, then to dog shows in Georgia. I got a professional dog handler at the Georgia shows to bring her back with her to Louisiana. I picked up Bridgit in Louisiana. My jaw dropped when I saw her. She was so beautiful! Bridgit always had the regal bearing of a queen.

Bridgit loved people and attention. She played with my other collies, but no one dared challenge her when she took her place on the couch. And that’s how it was for the nearly 11 years I had her. I recently lost Bridgit. She is buried in my front yard along with a piece of my heart. I’ll never forget my beautiful Bridgit.

Bridgit gave me some wonderful puppies. Bridgit had 4 champion offspring. She had two champions sired by Cheryl Kobularcik’s excellent producer, Ch Cherann’s No Stranger to Luv. One of these collies- Ch Avalar Tairis Radiant- produced two champions for her owner, Judy Gorham, from her only litter which was sired by a Southland champion.

Bridgit could have had at least four more champions to her credit if I had been able to show more, and if people that bought show puppies had followed through as planned. No matter. For Bridgit’s last litter, I studied for months about what dog would really compliment her. I decided on GCH Aurealis Endeavor. He is a magnificent collie. I sent Bridgit to Seattle to be bred to Endeavor, and thank goodness she took! She had a beautiful litter. I retained the pure for sable girl- Poppy- who became Ch Tairis A League of Her Own. Poppy has so far produced 5 champions, and another major pointed girl.

Lynn Butler took the tricolor boy- Jax and the tricolor girl Reven. Jax became Ch Milas Rigoletto of Tairis and has produced some exceptional champions. Jax is now owned by Alma Metz.

Reven became Milas Magic Flute of Tairis. Reven only produced one litter, but it contained two outstanding puppies. One of the puppies is the beautiful sable girl- Ch Milas Play My Way, who is herself a champion producer. The other puppy is now Ch Milas Walk the Line- a Collie Club of America winner’s dog and outstanding producer himself.

All the rough collies living with me now are descendants of Bridgit and Endeavor.

I’m grateful to Milas Collies for giving me the opportunity to bring Bridgit home with me. I was fortunate to share my heart and home for over a decade with my lovely Bridgit.

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Last on my list of outstanding girls today is CARLY–a daughter of Poppy- (Ch Tairis A League Of Her Own) from my Bridgit/ Endeavor litter. Poppy already had 3 champions from her litter by GCHP Scalloway’s Lion Hunter. Two of those pups – Willa and Patton – were specialty best of breed winners at barely over a year old, group placers, and grand champions.

My next plan was to breed Poppy to the elegant Ch Milas Walk This Way. Walk This Way (Tyler), was a CCA reserve winner’s dog. When Poppy’s sister Reven was bred to Tyler that breeding produced the gorgeous CCA winner’s dog- Walker (Ch Milas Walk the Line) as well as his lovely sister Ch Milas Play My Way. Breeding Poppy to Tyler would be almost the same breeding. Lynn Butler liked the idea, and said she would do the breeding for a stud fee puppy.

Long distance breedings often don’t work, but this time it did. Poppy had a healthy litter of 8 puppies by Tyler. The puppies were very promising.

Lynn flew down to pick her stud fee puppy. We both liked Grace and Carly a lot! It was a hard choice. I finally went with the “sweeter” one – which was Grace. Carly was beautiful, but she kept biting my feet! And so it was Carly that flew home with Lynn.

It was meant to be. Lynn was very taken with Carly. She is still one of Lynn’s favorite pets and house dogs. Carly was named Milas Tairis Walk My Way. Lynn and Lotta have done FANTASTIC with Carly.

First Lynn took Carly to the Sunnybank puppy match on the old grounds of Albert Payson Terhune’s estate in New Jersey. Carly was selected for Best Expression and Best Overall in the Virtues Match. That match has a great reputation for showing nice puppies. I was very proud of little Carly.

Carly got some other wins just before dog shows mostly shut down because of COVID. Later, as shows got going again, Carly won a herding group en route to getting her championship, along with some other group placements.

Lynn and Lotta decided to enter Carly and their gorgeous white girl, Violet, at the Westminster Dog Show this month (June 2022), since they both looked nice. It’s odd to me for Westminster to be held in the summer, but COVID has made a lot of things different. I’ve always wanted to go to Westminster to watch. Who knows if I will ever be able to go. Westminster is the epitome of American all breed dog shows.

There were some of the prettiest, and best known collies at Westminster this year from across the USA. I was so tickled when Carly was chosen Select Bitch at this years collie competition. It was an honor to see a collie from my whelping box do so well in that competition. Congratulations to all the lovely winners.

Here are the results:

Rough Collie

Judge: Mrs. Nioma Stoner Coen
Best of Breed: GCHG Pleasant Acre Blue Moon
Best of Opposite Sex: GCH Belleville’s Mancatcher Annie
Select Dog:  GCHB Moxie’s Rocknrolla
Select Bitch: CH Milas Tairis Walk My Way
1st Award of Merit: CH Spectrum Arrowhill Dreamcatcher HSBs HSDs HIDs HSAsM FDC
2nd Award of Merit: CH Milas December Bride

Here is a snapshot of Carly being shown from the Westminster video.

They showed Carly at an all breed show in New York a few days after the Westminster show. A lot of the top dogs in the country were there. Carly won best of variety and got a herding group 2 in tough competition. I hope Carly continues to do well for Lynn and Lotta at Milas– including making some beautiful puppies!