Once a year, the third weekend in August, the Collie Health Foundation, of the Collie Club of America, holds The Gathering, a fund-raising event. It takes place in Wayne, NJ, on the site of the estate of the late Alfred Payson Tehrune, called Tehrune Memorial Park. He was the author of the Lad stories that appeared in print, serialized in magazines and as novels during the beginning of the twentieth century. It is a wonderful preservation although sadly, the family home does not survive. I have been to several and so I see many familiar faces when I go.
This year, the two sisters of my late husband came to New Jersey to attend it from New Hampshire where they live. One sister brought her new dog, a Shetland Sheepdog named Dasher, with whom she is working in Agility and Conformation. He is a lovely youngster. We all enjoyed our time together at The Gathering, especially enjoying seeing so many collies and collie puppies. You could feel the congeniality of the attendees toward one another, even those meeting for the first time. I felt so honored to be there.
It was tempting to purchase and bid on auction items, but truly, at this time of my life, the time of “collecting”, is behind me, so I successfully resisted. But the products available to purchase and/or bid on were lovely. When they had to depart at Noon on Sunday, leaving me there on my own alone, I must confess to feeling so lonely and sad. I left my chair that was set up around the ring outside to sit under the tent thinking perhaps someone would talk to me there. It was a wise move because a very kind woman looking as equally lonely and dejected as I, began talking to me right away. I realized about an hour or two later I was feeling very tired. It began to feel like a crushing fatigue, although I knew I had gotten less sleep than usual for the past two nights. Why, I asked myself, was I so sad and lonely?
There were the Sunday evening ballroom dancing classes I purchased that I did not want to miss just a few hours away. And then, I thought about the hound, borzoi, or all breed point shows coming up in two weeks. Would this crushing fatigue last until the dog shows? It is so important that I get enough sleep, but that does not always happen regardless how disciplined I am or how hard I try.
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I feel deeply troubled tonight. Harsh words have been spoken and written to me by a trusted friend . I will struggle never to refer to them again – they are the rantings of a cad after all – but they are indelibly stamped on my soul. I hope it made him feel better for having written them, for having thrown the last daggar. At least that would have been achieved. He succeeded in darkening my mind and it will take a huge effort of self discipline not to think about them anymore.
Lorene with Leslie’s new Sheltie, “Dasher” during The Gathering this August (2016)
Photograph of the grave of the original “Lad” collie that lived at Sunnybank
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However, this is the wonderful time of year when the late summer dog show season in New Jersey has arrived. Therefore, I will let myself feel its joy. It was one year ago exactly that having received Tresor back only a short time, he finished his Championship Dog Title and we were all so proud and happy for him. As always, I will turn to him for joy and comfort. Having clearly lost the love and respect of my heretofore considered true friend who has abandoned us, I know I have to be there all the more for Tresor and love him in fuller measure than I have already. And I know his unconditional and special love is there all the more for me.
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Strange….. recent readers, or readers who have not read everything on the Blysskennels.us website, may not be familiar with my poem, “Opal’s Prayer”. I wrote it when she died and became extremely depressed. I would write a new verse every year for a long time. I would then repeat the verses over and over to myself for comfort when emotional pain or stress overcame me. I have found myself doing just that again now. Examples of some of the verses are:
“Dear God, Opal is yours now. Please take care of her every day. May we meet again, Dearest Little One!”
or,
“I’ll never forget those days, too brief though they were, When Opal was our dog…..Halcion days…..gone forever.”
as I ask God and Opal for protection from pain.