Goodbye to Nell The Sheepdog

5/4/1990 - 2/5/2004

Very sadly, we had to say goodbye to Nell one Sunday morning early in May 2004. It's an unhappy fact that we're not allowed to keep our dogs as long as we would like, and not even a Video Star can avoid the inevitable.

Nell was 14 — 103 in dog years — and was fit and happy up to the last few hours of her life. 4 days before she brought the sheep in, and 2 days before she was playing with stones in the beck, but on the Sunday morning she went peacefully to sleep on the settee where she had spent so many (illicit!) hours. She was buried on the lawn near her predecessor, Jess.

Few working sheepdogs have the privilege of making so many people happy, and Nell will be commemorated forever on Step 14 of Whitby's renovated 199 Steps — there is a plaque at the top, and a special book inside St.Mary's Church.

She will also live on in her films for as long as they remain popular around the world. Her sheep duties have been taken over by a new young dog, Meg, but there will only ever be one Sheepdog Video Star — Nell.

Her web pages are kept here unchanged in her memory.