Excerpt from
50 Things to Know About Border Collies: A Comprehensive Guide for Becoming a Well-Informed Dog Parent
During the Edwardian era, many collies were imported from the United Kingdom to New Zealand at the request of James Lilico. Of these pups, one went on to be the champion pup of New Zealand and Australia. She was a sweet lady named Hindhope Jed, after Hindhope, Scotland. She is thought to have been bred from one of Queen Victoria’s beloved collies. Hindhope Jed is credited as being one the foundational mothers to Australian and New Zealand Shepherd breeds that strayed from her Border Collie roots, such as the Kelpie, which bred with Border Collies again to become the Australian cattle dog. These breeds may look similar at a glance but show great differences upon further inspection.
Australian cattle dogs may look a lot like Border Collies, but different terrain in their respective countries of origin made for different herding styles, minor changes in personality traits, and eventually minor, albeit noticeable differences in phenotypes. For example, the Kelpie has a shorter, thicker coat that developed in the harsher, hotter climates.
Border Collies made their way to the Americas along with the country’s forefathers. There even exists a painting of George Washington and his family in which there are two dogs. One of the presidential pups very conspicuously has the markings of a collie. While collies in early America were not yet considered Border Collies, as the breed had not yet been named or officiated, most of them were in fact imported along with livestock from the Anglo/Scot border-lands. Which, of course, meant they were early Border Collies.
Making the long, wet journey from the United Kingdom to a young New World was perilous for all that attempted it and dogs were unfortunately no exception. But the following short but sweet, true story of Scottish immigrants coming to the Americas, specifically Canada, came to be my absolute favorite Border Collie tale and may soon be yours too:
“When our family sailed from Scotland to Canada in 1929, our black and white Border Collie was kept in the hold. After docking in Halifax, we boarded a train without having seen our luggage or dog. The next morning in Montreal, we had to transfer to another station to continue on to Toronto. Because we still hadn’t seen our belongings, we questioned the baggage-car crew. To our dismay we were told that a small dog had run off while being transferred to the second train. Just then, a porter appeared and announced, “There’s a pile of luggage over on No. 8 platform that might belong to these people. But there is a little black and white dog sitting on it and won’t let any of us touch it.’”
- From Eoin P. MacIntyre’s entry of Reader’s Digest in August of 1994, courtesy of the Border Collie Museum.
Border Collies can now be found all over the world working and playing hard with adoring families and handlers.
Cora Poe 2022
Excerpt from Unworldly Projections
"A species so crazed by the need for control would naturally create fictions where the obtaining of power is prominent and dominating to the plot. David Seed wrote of some works that exhibit this theme; Edgar Rice’s, The Land that Time Forgot, John Jacob Aster IV’s, A journey in Other Worlds, and of course Space Operas such as Star Wars. Seed writes, “By logic of Empire, planets offer themselves for conquest”. This logic is the same primitive ideology that leads Earth to destruction. White men and their Colonizer mentality have always viewed what is not theirs as something to obtain. Space travel empires are an old story told in a different setting. The need for control and pathological conquest is often what leads to the need for space travel in these plots in the first place.
Throughout our history, Man has raped and plundered his way across the Earth, absorbing any culture or resource in his path of avarice. Naturally, when there are no more humans to rule and the Earth is dead, he must turn to the stars. It is terrifyingly satirical and gorgeously ironic how humans Hollywoodize the typical “ Space Alien Invasion” as Horror when it is the very foundation of our species, and then we have the gall to render our own conquest of Space heroic. "
Cora Poe 1/17/18
Excerpt from An Ecstatic Fallacy
"Her beauty almost played as a curse during her life. The patriarchy could not listen to or acknowledge her brilliance whilst distracted by her attractiveness. Though she as a woman was independent, vastly intelligent, ambitious, and felt she was the subject of her own desire; she was condemned to bear meaning to the men around her. This also occurs in “Ekstase,” when she falls in love with the sweet young man. Though our sweet protagonist, Eva, had just reclaimed her independence from her callous ex-husband, her meeting of the young man discernibly shifts her meaning from her own, to his. We immediately are meant to view her through the young man’s eyes. This shift in dynamic suddenly reveals Eva as a highly sought after, sexualized pawn to the plot rather than the leading lady. A phallocentric lens has been placed over the camera. The film quickly comes to serve the nameless young man’s character rather than her own. The audience begins to have feelings of cupidity with a touch of pity for her rather than empowered and proud for her.
This film conveniently metamorphosizes Eva into a Femme Fatale upon her ex-husband’s suicide. The idea of the Femme Fatale is disturbing to me, for they almost only appear in Film Noir stylistic movies. These are movies are based around singular or multiple male characters being unable to cope with their toxic masculinity. The men either kill themselves, or each other simply because the woman in the feature had the audacity to be independent as well as beautiful. The term Femme Fatale exists only in the presence of men who are too emotional or weak to continue on without violence or self-sabotage. Sheri Chinen Beisen alludes to this as she refers to the twisted plot of “Gilda” when she states, “Her sexual exploits are allegedly not for real, just meant to emotionally hurt her tormented beau (Glenn Ford) with whom she has a history” (page 70 para. 4, Women and Cinema). Much like in “Gilda,” Eva’s character in “Ekstase” causes an ex-husband to die and all her growth and experiences leading up to that moment become null. The circumstance that deems an actress the Femme Fatale immediately strips her of personal power, and places it in the hands of the men based on their actions. Once again making her the bearer of meaning to others rather than carrying her own. The mysterious, and whimsical traits of a female character are compressed into dangerousness."