Big Creek Farms

I'm going to begin this as introducing myself. I'm Shelby, the oldest daughter, the writer, and the one behind all the technology. My mom, Heather, is the original founder of Big Creek Vizslas but we expanded Big Creek Farms together. To really understand the whole story, though, I have to start at the beginning, with Abby. It started as nothing more than us wanting a Vizsla because friends had one. At the time, we had only one other dog, our terrier mix, Jesse. Getting another dog was no big decision and after taking some time to look, we found our Abigail the summer of 2005.

We planned to keep one puppy from our first litter but never intended to keep two. Calleigh, our number six, wasn't breathing when she was born and was the smallest of them all. The biggest puppy, number two or Fat Boy as he was later named, easily doubled her in size. Calleigh was too small with too many health issues and after weeks of bottle feeding her, there was no way we could let her go. Fat Boy was too big and eventually, we just got too attached. 

By the time Calleigh was old enough to breed, we realized that there wasn't a male around who wasn't related to her. At that time, we had Abby, Calleigh, Jesse, and Ziva (the great dane we'd gotten a few months after losing Fat Boy). We talked it out and eventually decided to add an unrelated male to our family. And so came Max (pictured here with Jesse).

All good things come to an end, I suppose. Calleigh and Abby retired and we got away from breeding for a while. Max sired several litters but outside of that, we spent most of our time just loving them unconditionally.

We lost Max to a freak accident the January after we got Ruby. Between recovering from that time, dealing with Ruby, and changes happening at home, we left breeding entirely. It was the best decision for us at the time.

Abby was eight when she was diagnosed with breast cancer but a simple lumpectomy took care of it. She lived a wonderfully healthy life for 5 more years but after developing bronchitis that wouldn't go away in the winter of 2018, masses were found on her heart, her lungs, and her spleen. She was ten days shy of her 13th birthday when her spleen ruptured and we were forced to say goodbye to the one who started it all. 

We started out the New Year in a way that perfectly describes us. After many long talks and my impending college graduation, my mom and I decided to expand our breeding with Australian Shepherds. I plan to eventually go into rescue work with animals and for me, this is a gateway. Ruby and I were so excited to welcome Daisy into our little family.