Wendy Fassam & Cruise (Just Cruising)

Just Cruising or Cruise as he is known at home, came to us by a sequence of events and fate I suppose. I had been looking for another dog for about 6 months when at last I found a puppy locally just before Christmas 2005. Little did I know what was going to happen next, there I was happy with my new little boy, when in the New Year I received a phone call from the breeder asking if I knew anyone that might like a 2 year old Jack/Collie cross as the people who owned him couldn’t keep him. Although secretly my heart was thinking yes, my head was saying you have got your work cut out with a new puppy.

So I set to asking around, but it seemed to be the wrong time for everyone [lucky for me]. Then my daughter said she was interested, with me secretly thinking that I could play a little agility with him. We arranged to go round and see Cruise [nee Bruce], he had spent the last 2 years running round a farm yard, doing what he liked.

The following week my daughter went and collected him, he was riddled with ticks, I lost count after 50, but he was a very patient boy letting me do the painstaking task of removing them. Cruise also had very bad gastro enteritis, which took months of medication and diet to cure.

I borrowed Cruise and we set off for our first agility training session. Cruise took to it like a duck to water, everything just seemed to happen. Looking back I don’t actually remember spending a lot of time teaching him things.

Then about eight weeks later there was another twist of fate as my daughter announced that she had realised her tenancy didn’t allow her to keep a pet. So again there was a battle between heart and head, this time the heart won. How lucky I was and the final twist has been that the puppy I had originally bought has had so many complications, but Cruise is Mr Trusty.

Progression happened very quick, winning out of grade 3 at his first competition in 2007, during that year he progressed up to grade 7 and qualified for the Mini/Maxi pairs at Crufts 2008 with his partner Jack (Mr Scrumpy), finishing 3rd.

In 2008 Cruise won grade 6/7 in the Rescue League, finishing 2nd in the finals held in June 2009. We also qualified for Crufts 2009 gaining 2nd overall in the Small Agility and 1st in The Circular Knockout.

He is my shadow, and running Cruise is like wearing my comfy slippers. How lucky I am to have found such a special dog and that fate set out the events for him to be mine.

 Wendy