About Me

My love for animals and my fascination with their biology was sparked very early, when our families pet Jack Russel was involved in a altercation with the local butcher’s cross Rottweiler/Bullmastiff, when I was just 6 years old.

I watched in total awe as the Vet stitched “Gypsy” under local anesthetic asking millions of questions, while my father who was holding her, sagged at the knees at the sight of the blood.
From there on I spent most of my school holidays pestering the Vet’s in our area to allow me to watch them at work, finally at 14 getting a full time job of cleaning the kennels every Saturday morning.

One Saturday the Vet did a Caesar on an old collie bitch, with twelve pups being born, alas the bitch had a major haemorrhage and died on the table, thus I was roped in to bottle feed the pups until the owner arrived in the afternoon to collect them. On seeing the number of pups, the “breeder” immediately picked out the eight strongest, and insisted the other four be culled. To which I immediately offered to hand raise them on her behalf-this offer being accepted. The pups being smuggled in my satchel into school with me daily for first three weeks, at six weeks when they were ready for their first vaccines they were duly returned to their breeder, who was totally surprised that they were bigger, fatter and much more sociable than their siblings which she had raised. In appreciation she gave me the smallest bitch of the four, thus “Las” came into my life. Little did I know that this was to start a lifelong interest in Collies.

I Started obedience training with Lass at the local GSD training club, and within weeks progressed to their top non-competitive class – she excelled in heelwork. Alas she point blank refused to retrieve, thus we never could proceed to the competition classes. Lass was also not registered so we were also unable to compete at conformation classes, even though at the time, I was convinced she would have been a champion.

While living at home, I was restricted from getting any more dogs, Lass remaining my constant companion while completing my B.Sc.

In 1976 I was accepted into the Veterinary Faculty at Onderstepoort, and immediately on moving out of home bought my first show dog –“Blaise” Ch Madre’s Sheena, though she only gained her title as a veteran, long after I had qualified as a Vet in 1981.

Since 1986 I have practiced as small animal clinician from Ontdekkers Animal Hospital, first in partnership, and then as sole owner of the hospital.

I have a particular interest in theriogenology and neonatal medicine.