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Shetland Sheepdogs (aka shelties) have been in my life since I was seven and I adore them. I currently have two of my own and my mum has her own making up our little trio of ‘Shelties By The Sea‘.
One thing that struck me throughout my 25+ years of sheltie ownership was the lack of representation and awareness of the breed. Which I believe is a massive shame because they are a highly intelligent, beautiful breed with a sweet temperament and they make wonderful companions.
As a child, I wanted to read and own everything with a sheltie on but I soon found the selection limited. It started to become a dream of mine to create more sheltie related merchandise, products and materials but I didn’t quite know how to make it a reality. However, as my skills in design and book publishing have grown, I realised that I had the knowledge to start creating sheltie products so this is what I’ve been doing to help bring more sheltie related joy to the world.
The I Love Shelties Annual is an annual book project that I launched in 2020 based off the concept of the Christmas ‘annuals’ that I grew up reading as a child. My aim was to get the wider sheltie community involved sending in their pictures and stories to create a book that celebrated our love for the breed.
The response was incredible and the I Love Shelties Annual 2021 edition featured over 150 shelties and raised £300 for the English Shetland Sheepdog Club’s Rescue and Welfare Co-ordination.
This year’s edition; I Love Shelties Annual 2022 is due for release November 2021 to raise money for Yorkshire Shetland Sheepdog Club Rescue published under my publishing branch Tecassia.
Tecassia has also released a short story to form part of the Super Shelties series that I have ghostwritten, telling the true story of a sheltie called Apricot who broke her leg at only 11 weeks old and chronicles her recovery.
I Love Shelties is the brand I created that acts as the umbrella for my sheltie related projects. The website itself was created in order to share information and news about the breed and work as hub for all things sheltie. We also have a small but growing collection of sheltie related merchandise available for purchase on the website.
From there we have created our own community on Mighty Networks and are the first shetland sheepdog community on there. It is free to join, not connected to Facebook and has its own app for iOS and Android devices so you’ll never need to worry about connecting to fellow sheltie lovers should Facebook ever go down. We’d love to have you join us!
The Sheltie Show is going to be the first Shetland Sheepdog breed-specific podcast of its kind where we’ll explore more about this wonderful breed and hear stories from the sheltie community. Coming soon.
“A must have for anybody that loves the Shetland sheepdog, beautiful book full of interesting reading & lots of beautiful photos”. – Pam Marshall
“This is a delightful little book for those who love the Sheltie, filled with photos of those adorable Shetland Sheepdogs. Great for an afternoon’s read, filled with interesting stories about individual Shelties, and plenty of closeup photos of these beautiful dogs from around the world.” – K Leonard
