Painting of Border Collie "Birch" by Cora Larson

This whole adventure started whenever I spotted this great dog painting online. There was no identification of the dog. I only had the artist's name, so I contacted her. She stated that she painted this around Christmas of 2002 at a sheep ranch in Oregon. Unfortunately, she could not recall the dog's name, nor the name of the ranch. I REALLY needed to know the dog's name, so the artist kindly contacted her daughter. The daughter contacted the dog's owner. The owner was wonderful and supplied me with all of the information that I needed as well as the dog's name "Birch." "Birch" was a female working sheep herder on the sheep ranch. One of her eyes was blue and she was described as an "extremely talented and gifted girl." Her pups had inherited her natural instinct. She was "a lovely partner and lived to the age of 15." The owner stated: "I still miss her." This owner was not actually the "original" owner. The original owner died from cancer when "Birch" was four years old.
The artist said that the owner showed her how "Birch" herded sheep around the time she painted her portrait. She also added that she was "amazing."
It turns out that "Birch" was a Canadian bred Border Collie from a ranch called "That'll Do Ranch." The ranch was owned by a "very impressive handler/trainer."
The icing on the cake was the wonderful photo of "Birch" (front) and her friend "Cap" with their owner!!! You can actually see her one blue eye!
So, I started out with a great painting of an unidentified dog, but "Birch" has now become one of my dogs. She was calling out to me to identify her, and I managed to do just that with the help of a few very kind and giving people. I have identified "Birch" on the back of the portrait, so that she will never be lost again.