Jill's (growing) Collection [update 4.30.24]

Very very clever! It works like transparent balconies without distracting and they surely do not fall from them. The aestetic effect is also perfect. I think I will start using polish nail or whatever it is called.

Those are really great displays and I love that you found a solution! Hurray! Your collection looks great. :)

What a beautiful way to display your collection, I love how because the shelves are transparent it makes the figures stand out more!
All those shelves of dogs!

Great displays!!

That really works awesome. They look great up there!

That is such a neat way to store and display.

Thanks, I'm quite pleased with it! I plan to get more, since there's always more minis to display, but . . . just gotta make more wall space . . . .

The last batch of newcomers has been All Dog All the Time . . . Except Those Two Horses. Toy Major, Funrise, AAA, and some little Japanese figures. I was channeling [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for a while there, I think.
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Nice dogs and horses

So jealous of some of these! That cocker spaniel is darling... I never would have considered a spaniel as a dog for me years ago, but since I got my rescue Flynn I am a little besotted with them. You have many really great new additions, big congrats on them all!

It has been a joy to see all your varied and interesting dogs! I have made a mental note of some of them that were new to me so that if I ever see them in the future I'll be able to recognise them!
Photos like this with all the dogs together are definitely among my favourites- I could spend ages looking at each one! The first thing I noticed was how tiny those Japanese dogs were though- wow! So so sweet, next to the Toy Majors they look absolutely minuscule! There is something so beautiful about them altogether as a group, I think it's the shiny texture and that bright red some of them have! And to complete it all a wonderful row of Funrise dogs, those beautifully sculpted TM pups and the three charming AAA models!
And not to forget the two lovely horses too!

Thanks so much everyone! The spaniel really is a very nice model, and has such a good face. (And I also can't get over how tiny the Japanese ones are, still.)

In my continued hunt to display things attractively and without creating too much clutter, I found a place for my bakelite(?) dogs, because they are so fragile seeming and also so tiny and easy to lose. They now live in front of my dog novels! Or well, the dog novels that are out on the shelf . . . like everything, a lot of them are still in storage.  

(Featured novels, as their own small collection, include: The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, Algonquin: The Story of a Great Dog, Along Came a Dog, Kazan the Wolf Dog, Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, and even though they are technically wolf books, The Jungle Books and Julie of the Wolves)

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Along with dog models dog books are another big favourite of mine!
You have so many of my favourite dog books, like the Call of the Wild and One Hundred and One Dalmatians- what a fantastic collection! I'd love to know what your favourite dog book of all time is?
A perfect place to display the models too!

A great question, you've already mentioned two of them! I can't pick a single favorite, so I would say Call of the Wild for classic literature, Hundred and One Dalmatians for "children's" or YA literature, and Algonquin for extremely obscure I am not even sure what it's classified as literature.

Have you read Albert Payson Terhune's collie books? I feel likely surely you would have, since all the heroes are rough collies. I grew up reading those! I also had Champion Dog Prince Tom, though I think all of those I gifted to my dog-loving nephew many years ago.

I would definitely agree with those two, both wonderful dog books I have read many many times!
I have never heard of Algonquin, it sounds really interesting and I'll definitely see if I can buy a copy at some point- I'm always searching for new dog books that I haven't yet read!
Funny that you should mention Albert Payson Terhune's books, as I was reading about them today and was amazed that I had missed a collection of collie books that looked so wonderful! I definitely must read them, I thought that Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight (Another big favourite of mine ) was the only Rough Collie book out there, but I must definitely look into these too, thank you! I must have a look at Champion Dog Prince Tom too!

The Terhune books are Lassie-esque in their feel. In fact, Lad a Dog is the first one - only fitting to have Lad and Lassie.

Algonquin is a very unique tone. It's not a . . . very cheerful story, but then, if you love Call of the Wild or anything else by London, I shouldn't worry about a dark tone being to your taste. Here's one review that I largely agree with: "Do not be fooled by the amateurish bookcover; this is a sophisticated and deep novel written for adults. Algonquin is the most powerful and soul-rocking story I have ever seen in print or in movies. In a lifetime of avid reading, which includes works by some of the world's finest authors, I have encountered only a few who could capture this tone of melancholy understatement of life's mighty truths."

Prince Tom is about a Cocker Spaniel if I remember correctly. That one falls much more squarely into the Children's Literature section, but still a charming story. Really, I'd recommend any on my shelf, since that's why I have them there!

A perfect display! And I am now educated on some new dog books to go find and read.

I see some of my old favorites there, and a few I haven't seen before- like Bonnie, I shall have to find Algonquin. Two of my preferred childhood authors were Margeurite Henry and Jim Kjelgaard, along with Jack London and Walter Farley.

Lilias, you should definitely enjoy the Terhune books- I did.

Good old Margeurite Henry! And Walter Farley! As a certified Horse Girl, I had all of 'em. A very select few of the classic horse stories of yore are up on my shelf now.

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Somehow, I never read the Kjelgaard books. I SAW them . . . I may have even read a few from the library perhaps? But I can't remember them. I probably need to take another look!

I love Jack London is someone so many of us read as kids. Very dark!! Very excellent!

Aah, I had the Flicka trilogy also! I recently found the first at a thrift shop, it was wonderful coming back. Hope to find the others.

Don't recognize the first 2 books, something to look for!

Oh gosh, they're so good. Okay, I know this is very off topic, but it's my collection thread, so I feel like that's fine. But the Fire Pony is certainly a middle school reading level, but with some mature themes and concepts worked in really well, I think. I got it at a Scholastic fair one year because I liked the cover, and it became one of those books that you remember in detail forever for me. A simply "coming of age" story with horses, but with like . . . this other layer of grief and . . . anyway, here's a good review that explains it well: "Philbrick's novel The Fire Pony is perfectly accessible and comprehensible to little kids and so is just the right book to introduce them to tragedy."  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Smoky is basically Black Beauty in the American west, and it does it very soundly. There's even a Breyer of Smoky modeled after one of the illustrations in the book.

(I honestly didn't know there were two more Flicka books! Guess I'll look for those also!)

The sequels were Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming. I enjoyed all of them.

Best way I can describe the Kjelgaards, looking back 30 years, is Walter Farley with dogs. Hunting dogs, I think the most famous was Big Red about an Irish setter.

Edit for autocorrect, why does it think things like celluloid are cellulite...

Thunderhead does sound familiar. Like maybe there was a movie. (And Big Red sounds SO familiar, I must have read at least one at some point . . .)

Big Red, Irish Red, and Outlaw Red are all good books. My dad loved them as a kid and I do now. They are about a hunting Irish setter and two of his sons, and (its been a long time I may not quite remember right) a hunting trial competition. If you aren't sensitive to the concept of bird hunting, I reccomend them.

Those titles brought up some very deep but utterly vague memories, ha! Especially Outlaw Red.

My Jack London was an omnibus. I especially remember a short story where the protagonist froze to death. 80°below zero seemed very exotic to a South Florida kid.

I think I still have a book named Something in the Wind, herding Aussie type dog.