Carol Reiter: Watching Moss grow up

Last weekend was a milestone in Moss' life.

My little blue-eyed, freckled pup turned a year old. I can't believe it, Moss is already 1 year old. He's not a puppy anymore, he's a big, burly, semigood- looking dog.

The year since Moss was born has been a tough one for me. I spent too much time in the hospital, and then surgery in the summer. During that time, Moss went from an absolutely cute-as-a-button little guy to an ugly, long-legged adolescent and then to the dog he is now.

But those days of being sick and then the long weeks of recuperation had one good side to them: I got to spend a lot of time with my dogs. It's the first time I've ever been able to spend the large majority of the day -- and night -- with a young, growing dog and those days watching Moss grow up were eye-opening.

When I got Moss, he was absolutely the cutest thing I had seen in a long time. He was fuzzy and had that one blue eye. Usually border collie puppies, even at the young age of 8 weeks, aren't very cute, but for some reason Moss didn't follow that rule.

But he left that cuteness behind pretty quickly.

When Moss was about 10 weeks old, I took him with me to visit my friend. She has a huge German shepherd who doesn't have a mean bone in his body, despite looking like he could tear a person limb from limb. I wanted Moss to be socialized around dogs that didn't slam him to the ground every time he looked at them, like my three evil dogs were inclined to do. So it was off to Shadow's owner's home, to show Moss that not every big dog was mean.

Moss loved Shadow from the first time he saw him. And Shadow was so good with Moss. At that time, Moss was a fuzzy little puppy and my friend thought he was the cutest thing she'd ever seen.

After that first visit, I didn't take Moss to see Shadow and his owner for a while. The next time he was at their house, Moss was already about 6 months old.

When my friend saw him, I could see the surprise in her face. Trying to be nice, she stammered and stuttered, and finally said 'That's Moss?'

I told her, yup, that's Moss. She didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, and then she said he certainly had changed and grown up, hadn't he.

I had to laugh. I told her I knew Moss wasn't very pretty and he certainly wasn't cute anymore. Like most border collies, he had his two weeks of cuteness and then went right into the ugly bugglies.

Moss has been unlike any other border collie I've ever raised, and I've raised a bunch. Between my own litters and puppies that I have bought, I've probably raised about 20 border collies in 30 years. All of those dogs were pretty much the same: dogs that were easy to train, didn't really like people too much, and just wanted to work.

Not Moss. This freckled dog loves everyone. He never met a person, or a dog, that he didn't like. He especially loves children, which really blows me away. Over the years, the border collies I have owned have stayed as far away from kids as possible. When my nephews were young, my dogs wanted nothing to do with them. Even when the kids got older, my dogs said 'no thanks' and let me know kids were not a big priority in their lives.

But Moss is ecstatic to see kids. He loves to go to the dog park, not for the dogs or for the exercise, but to get his kid fix. When I take him to the park, he's at the end of his leash, scanning the park for suitable children. Once he finds kids who are willing to play with a big dorky dog, Moss forgets all about me. I can sit and read or talk to other dog owners, and Moss never checks to see where I am or comes over to be by me.