YA British novels by a woman, published circa 1970, about dogs and their people in a small rural vil

I may be confusing a pair of linked novels by the same author, whose first name might be Sheila, but not Sheila Burnford. I think I read at least three of her novels, mostly set in the same community. One of the novels begins with a pregnant shetland sheepdog running away because her master keeps drowning her pups, and this time she wants to keep them. She has them in the woods, four of them, and one by one they're taken, by an owl, by a fox, etc. She has one puppy left, whose name might be Rex, and then she dies somehow and someone gets the puppy. Plot includes rural pub scenes, sheep-herding, fox-hunting, and a reclusive old man named Jasper who has a really old terrier, or maybe the terrier is Jasper. Later the villagers need the terrier, and his master reluctantly allows him to go down a burrow after a badger. The tough old dog gets down in the hole and kills the badger, crawls up, and dies in his master's arms. Subsequently the old recluse becomes more involved with the village, and inherits an elderly Irish setter in need of a home--her name is Nell? and later, maybe in the second novel, Nell and the old man are struck and killed by a car, and the vet reveals that Nell had cancer anyway (this sounds ridiculous but I'm putting it badly). There's also a scene of a pack of weasels--it's a hard winter, and in a freak of nature the weasels hunt in a vicious pack. They're seen by night coursing silently through the village, hundreds of little glowing red eyes, running the terrified sheep. Illustrations are black line drawings, and I remember one of Nell, the dignified setter, and one of the weasels going by. Would love to read these books again.

Is it any of Joyce Stranger's books?

You rock. Thanks for the help!

Was it those? :) Which ones specifically? Rex I'm guessing. I haven't read that many yet.

Yes, I think it was Rex. I've ordered it from Amazon, also Fire on the Dragon, and The Running Foxes.

Cool. Who wrote "Fire on the dragon"?

Joyce Stranger wrote Fire on the Dragon. I think it features a deer. Have you read A High Wind in Jamaica? I haven't, but I think I ought.

Ooooooh. Joyce Stranger, The wind on the dragon! I didn't recognise the title Fire on the dragon and cannot find it listed on WorldCat. I have that book, under the title RUSTY. I've yet to read it, but I love deer! Fascinating creatures.

UK title: Rusty.
USA title: The Wind on the Dragon.

That means I can take Born to Trouble off my wishlist, as I already have Casey.

UK title: Casey.
USA title: Born to Trouble.

(Source - Joyce Stranger republished titles shown in Google Books result.)

No, I haven't read A High Wind in Jamaica.

From a Google Books search it looks like Nell, Bess Logan and Jasper are in Rex, The Running Foxes, and Breed Of Giants. I didn't realise they were connected! I've only read The Running Foxes of those three so far.

Rex came in the mail today. I had it three hours before losing it. Can you bear it? Now to reorder.

What? Lost it how? Where, what...don't leave us hanging!

On the bus. Or on a street, or in a cab. it was a busy afternoon. I retraced my several stops at nightfall, to no avai. Replacement copy came a few days later and I'm very slowly reading it. A few rich pararaphs at a time suffice. It's not a long novel but will last a few more days at this rate. It's passionate prose--about dogs, about weather, and people. Very plain subjects but psychological, and atmospheric. I used to think of it, trying to remember title or author, as Young Adult fiction but now I think it's not especially aimed at young readers. An unexpected rush of sensory memories while reading the paragraphs, of oreos dipped in milk, of different reading chairs and lamps in the house where I grew up, the material of my childhood bedspread, etc etc.

At first I left the replacement copy at home, then realized I cannot live in fear of losing it as I lost the first, of losing any book for that matter, and by extension, anything at all. I rarely lose books. The last book I lost was about five years ago, a penguin copy of "The Awkward Age." Had it probably twenty years, so was sorry to see it go--I ran back to the ATM at which I surely left it, and it had been adopted.

I think I've never managed after numerous attempts to finish "The Awkward Age." If I have, I've forgotten the ending. I think it's one of those not-exactly-an-endings, Henry James version. I also think it's over my head, though I'm quite at home in "The Portrait of a Lady" and even "The Golden Bowl."

This from "The King Bear," which arrived a few days ago: a pair of sentences I've been carrying in my subconscious forty years, since reading the novel repeatedly as a kid. Right before I came upon it in the text, I realized it was coming, and then there it was: "Through cracks in the floor he could look down on the cows in their stalls. From above, the cows looked like strange, prehistoric fish, with fat stomachs and no legs."