By Brianna Tompkins
Before I was born, my parents bought a “pure‐bred blue
heeler” at Trader’s Village in Dallas. Megan was a mutt,
no doubt about it, but this was how my parents first
learned about Australian Cattle Dogs. Upon doing re‐
search of the breed, they found out about heelers and
ACDs. They fell in love with the breed but they weren’t
about to get a second puppy for their apartment.
We had just moved into our new house and our dogs,
Megan and Misty, were 16 and 10. It was time to add a
new member. The search for the perfect puppy lasted for
over a year. My dad put his foot down and said it was go‐
ing to be a real blue heeler this time and it was going to
be a girl. My mom, just as picky as my dad, said it was
going to come from a reputable breeder. I didn’t care be‐
cause I was getting my first puppy.
My mom found Silverdust ACD’s. She was won over by
the puppy questionnaire and the location. My dad de‐
cided if he was going to have the best breed then
he would have to have the best of the best, leading
to our decision to get a show quality pup. Our tim‐
ing was perfect too. We were soon on the waiting
list for a blue show quality female out of Deb Ca‐
sey’s co‐breeder in Kansas. The co‐breeder, David
Campbell, was amazing enough to put a web cam
in the whelping box. Everyday after school, I
would tune in to watch my future puppy. My mom
and I decided that we just had to have the feisty
puppy with the tail‐stripe nicknamed Tank.
When we went to pick up Keeper, we finally
met Deb and her cattledogs, Butter and Reggie.
Keeper was adorable. She and her sister Whisper
looked almost identical. We were so ecstatic when
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