In Memory of Miss Mione by Pamela King

Our beautiful Groenendael*, Sassy, (Weedram Sara’s Star) was expecting her first litter. Like everything Sass did it all went with a minimum of fuss. Throughout her pregnancy, my stepson, Carlo, had told her he wanted a Terveuren**. Now, this was highly unlikely because she had been mated to another Groenendael. Beau. But Carlo persisted giving Sassy instructions.

Finally, the day came. Again, with a minimum of fuss Sass went onto labour popping out four Groenendael pups with no trouble. When the next one was born, as Carlo helped the tiring mother, he questioned the colour of the pup – it wasn’t as black as the others but very dark. 




Was it a Terv just very dark from moisture? As the baby girl dried it became obvious it was fawn. The next five pups were all black.

This was our first pedigree litter to be registered with Dogs NSW. Breeders often use one of two methods for naming puppies. They either give their first litter names beginning with A, the second litter B and so on or they have a theme for the names. We had decided to name our pups after childhood heroes. With our ages spanning more than 35 years, we had a variety of generations to choose from. Names included Cinderella, Topolino (Italian for Mickey Mouse), The Phantom, Zorro etc. The name chosen for our little Terveuren was Hermione Granger.

Hermione Granger is a bit long and so like many pedigree dogs she had a call name, Mione. Later she was often referred to as Mimi (pronounced mymy), Meanie or, my favourite, Miss Mione. She answered to every one of them.

The ever patient Mione and her brother Phanto

She was a serious pup and rarely played with toys but had one soft toy, a lamb she adored. Mione’s biggest brother was The Phantom (Phanto). There was absolutely nothing phantom-like about this big, cuddly, adorable clutz. Without realising what he was doing he would sit on his sister, gobble down her food, and generally dominate attention. To add insult to injury he destroyed her little lamb.

When she was three months old, we took her to visit friends who had about ½ dozen sheep. We put her in the paddock to see if she had any herding instinct. Although Belgian Shepherds were traditionally herding dogs few dogs in the show ring have a natural herding instinct today.

In no time she had them herded into a corner and kept them there. We asked a Belgian Shepherd breeder who also trained herding dogs about this incident. Her response was it was unusual especially at that age to have such a strong herding instinct and she must be a throwback to an old line.

She was different from the other pups. She always seemed to be a wise old soul maybe it had something to do with that old line. But she was a very loving dog with the fastest tongue of all of them and it moved at the same rate and at the same time as her tail as if they were linked.

She was easily offended too. If you were busy just when she wanted attention and you ignored her, she showed her displeasure by ignoring you when you were ready to pat her. She could sulk for hours!

She was never naughty even as a pup, very loving and smart. We will miss our Miss Mione and the smiles she brought to our faces along with those rapid-fire kisses. RIP Mimi.

 *A variety of Belgian Shepherd. Gronendaels are a long hair variety with black hair.
** A variety of Belgian Shepherd. Terveurens are a long hair variety, fawn (sometimes grey) with a black overlay.

www.pam.id.au

Follow Pamela King on her Facebook page

Pamela King Amazon Author Page

Pamela King Goodreads Author Page