DFF's Raiden HSAs HSBs HIAs HIBs HXAs "Raiden"

Raiden came into my life when I was working for a horse/ dog farm named Dragon Fly Farms, located in
St. Cloud, FL and owned at the time by Norma and Ken Najorka. I was starting to need a second dog to
help Hope with farm duties and me with learning more about herding. So I started looking lazily, but
then heard that the farm I worked at was about to have a litter of border collie pups. I made
arrangements with Norma and told her that I would like a puppy from her litter. I was super excited
when I was told that I was placed on the puppy list for choosing a pup. As time went by I watched the
pups grow and started seeing the many personalities come out. I knew it was going to be super hard to
pick out a puppy since I have never done that before and they were all so cute. But, there was one
puppy who ALWAYS was the first one to greet me, would stop doing whatever he was doing to interact
with me and grab my shoelaces every time I was inside the puppy pen. This pup was a handsome black
and white male that looked like he had a lightning bolt on his face. This puppy gave me no choice in the
puppy selection process and made me the chosen one for him.
Raiden grew up and decided to be a powerful working dog on livestock that I THOUGHT I was prepared
for..lol but clearly was not. We bumped heads a lot due to me still being a novice in herding and Raiden
wanting to work the sheep his way (pure chaos). I was helped by my mentor Sherry Lee, (retired DVM
and owner of Linden Hollow Sheep Farm) who gave me exercises that made Raiden and I a wonderful
team when working livestock. Raiden blossomed into a superb working dog, partner and teacher for me.
He rocked the competition fields for me all the way to the beginning of his herding championship when

an unexpected injury that sent him to permanent retirement. Raiden now enjoys his retirement of
swimming, sleeping, being my buddy, chasing lizards and eating turkey poo.