Collies Quotes

“Deene had a refreshing ignorance concerning collies; and indeed of nineteen dog-breeds out of twenty. But he had an equally refreshing faith in himself to give wise decisions on any and all canine matters. So, obligingly, he consented to judge collies at Greenwold in addition to his beloved and ultra-tiny Chihuahuas. A similar thing has been done too often to call for comment.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Wolf

“The Master talked of buying a whalebone-and-steel-and-snow bull terrier, or a more formidable if more greedy Great Dane. But the Mistress wanted a collie. So they compromised by getting the collie.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, The Heart of a Dog

“Chihuahuas and collies?" echoed the Mistress, "What a combination! It's like... judging hummingbirds and eagles!”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Wolf

“The wavery light revealed him as a well-grown pup, about eight months old. Golden-tawny was his heavy coat and snowy were his ruff and frill and paws. he had about him the indefinable air that distinguishes a great dog from a merely good dog - even as a beautiful woman is distinguished from a merely pretty woman.

His deepset dark eyes had the true "look of eagles" young as he was. His head and foreface were chiseled in strong classic lines. His small ears had the perfect tulip dip to them, without which no show-collie can hope to excel.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Treve

“Never before, in all the Westminster Club’s forty-odd shows, had such a collie been led into the ring. Eugenie breeding, wise rationing and tireless human care had gone to the perfecting of other dogs. But Mother Nature herself made Lochinvar Bobby what he was. She had fed him bountifully upon the all-strengthening ration of the primal beast; and she had given him the exercise-born appetite to eat and profit by it. Her pitiless winter winds had combed and winnowed his coat as could no mortal hand, giving it thickness and length and richness beyond belief. And she had molded his growing young body into the peerless model of the Wild.

Then, because he had the loyal heart of a collie and not the incurable savagery of the wolf, she had awakened his soul and made him bask rapturously in the friendship of a true dog-man. The combination was unmatchable.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, The Heart of a Dog

“Out stepped Lass, - tired, confused, a little frightened, but eagerly willing to make friends with a world which she still insisted on believing was friendly. It is hard to shake a collie pup's inborn faith in the friendliness of mankind, but once shaken, it is more than shaken. It is shattered beyond hope of complete mending.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Bruce

“A dog is only a dog. But a collie is – a collie. Says the scotch proverb:
“A collie has the brain of a man, and the ways of a woman!”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Buff: A Collie and Other Dog Stories

“But a collie is like no other dog. Back in his brain ever lurks the queerly wise instinct, though never incurable savagery, of the olden wolves he sprang from.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“He was undersized; though witily powerful and as lithe as a panther. His coat, which should have been wavily abundant, was as short and as thick as a chow’s. It was not unlike a chow’s in texture and growth. His bushy tail was three inches too short. His head was broad where it should have been chiseled into classic lines. His muzzle was not long enough for the rest of his head. The “‘stop’”’ above it was too prominent. His glowing dark eyes were round; not almondshaped or slanted as called for in the “Standard of the Breed.”

In brief, he was not a true type of collie; though of royally pure lineage. He was a throwback;—a throwback almost to the ancestral wolves which form the trunk and roots of the collie family-tree. It was this queer outward resemblance to a young timber-wolf which gave him his name.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, Wolf