THE BORDER COLLIE MUSEUM
Above, two beautiful stamps from the Faroe Islands. It shows a saddle-patterned
herding dog.
The dog is probably not a Border Collie, but more likely a cross of
imported Border Collies
with the smaller Shetland
Sheepdog-like collie that was used in the Faroes for herding
the small, quick, almost wild sheep that were grown there.
Above, Jocelyn and Jurgen Fricke's saddle-patterned Border Collie-type dog, Chico
One year, Jocelyn and Jurgen Fricke, a couple from Germany, were vacationing in the Canary Islands. There are many stray and ferel cats and dogs roaming the islands, and one in particular drew their attention. He appeared every evening among the tourists dining at outdoor tables, and endured kicks from the irate waiters in order to beg scraps. He had been dubbed Chico, the Spanish word for boy. Chico had the luck or foresight to also make appearances at the Fricke's apartment patio, and, after feeding him for some time, they realized that he had won their hearts. They bought him a collar and a leash, took him to the local vet's office, gave him a bath, and when they returned to Germany, their new companion accompanied them. Chico was only about a year old when the Fricke's brought him home, and he lived a long and happy life until he was 15, a life that would not have been possible for him had he remained on the island of Gran Canaria, where lack of nourishment keeps a dog too thin, and periodic roundups of strays, or disastrous meetings with cars on the road, end their lives quickly.
Above, Chico (left), and the dog (right) that stared out at them from the stamp catalog
who was the model for the stamps.
The resemblance is uncanny.
It just so happens that Jurgen Fricke is a philatelist (stamp collector), and one day. after Chico had died, he saw Chico's face staring out from a photo in a stamp catalog of stamps from the Faroe Islands. On the back of the catalog it simply said "stamps depict sheep dogs of the Faroe Islands". The Frickes wanted to know more about these dogs and wrote to the Faroe Islands Post Office. Two years later, an answer came:
We would like to inform you that most of the dogs on the Faroe Islands descend originally from Scotland. They are, however, often crossbreeds, having been interbred with some other breeds on the islands. The dog shown on the stamp is 1/2 to 3/4 Border Collie and comes from the Faeroe island of Hestoy.
By now, the Frickes had email, so they immediately emailed the Faroe Islands Post Office and this time they received their answer right away and were able to get the name, address and phone number of the owner of the dog who had modelled for the stamp. She lived not on Hestoy as they had been told, but on Streymoy, the largest of the Faroe islands. The Frickes phoned her and here is what she said:
Oh, yes, it was our dog, our Sam. He lived from 1984 to 1992 and was a very hard worker on our farm. We have over 300 sheep, you know! Oh yes, he was what we here call simply a Sheep Dog. His father had quite a lot of Border Collie, and Sam was probably more than half. He fathered many pups in his time and some of them went to Denmark. The fishermen often like to take them for themselves, too. Where exactly all Sam's puppies went I cannot say.
Where DID Chico come from? Likely we will never know, but as Jocelyn Fricke says, "Perhaps someday we will find a link between Chico from the Canary Islands and Sam from the Faroe Islands."
Maps of the region may give us a clue to where Chico may have orginated. Above left is
a map of the entire region. The Faroe Islands appear toward the top center of the map,
and the Canary Islands are at the bottom left. It is not too difficult to imagine that
a sailing vessel from Iceland or Norway or Denmark could have stopped in the Faroe
Islands on it's way south to the southern tip of Africa, picking up a sheepdog puppy
there, and leaving it behind on a stop in the Canary Islands. Above right, a map shows
the position of the Canary Islands near the west coast of Aftica. The map, left, shows
the Faroe Islands, with Streymoy toward the top, left of center.
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