CollieTag Archives

Maybe Puppy Time

Levi

Well… perhaps. I’ve been quite saddened lately since we lost Lucy last August, and Angel the May before. And Levi is 12, and he’s going downhill, unfortunately. So I kinda feel like I’m running out of collies.

The original plan was to get another Danish-Swedish Farmdog next year, before or after I retire. But I’ve actually been talking to a quite wonderful collie breeder (who will remain nameless for the time being) who is breeding this year. I’m still looking around a bit, though, so nothing is in stone. But I would love to have a drivey collie to do sports with. Agility and obedience mainly. Tracking, Herding, Flyball, if possible.

I hope the Danish-Swedish Farmdog breeders will still consider me in the future, since I do want another. Probably in 2014 now. I do want to get another DSF while Jet is still young. He loves to play with the small dogs we meet.

So perhaps a collie puppy will join our house this year. I am looking forward to it. It may not work out, but you just never know. My wish would be to get a blue-headed white collie. White collies are beautiful, and very healthy. There are unhealthy white collies but they have two merle genes and can be born deaf and blind. A healthy white collie has two copies of the white gene, which are separate from the merle gene. But I may end up with a blue or a tri. It all depends on what is born and who is right for me. I do want another smooth. I just don’t like all the hair!

So we may get back up to six dogs before we go down to five again. Loosing Levi will hurt very, very much.

Jet is almost three. Tatum is almost six. Muffit is about 7 and Chase is 8.5. So really I’d be okay taking another puppy training on. Chase may have another year left, but perhaps not much more than that. Muffit I don’t train, he’s my husband’s hiking dog. Tatum I train only occasionally. Jet is my main training and competing dog. So adding another dog for competition would be just fine.

I’d show a collie in conformation, too. Why not. Done it before, and I do love that Levi has his championship. So I will need to retire… because I have to much I want to do!

Cynthia

January 31, 2012

Daily Posts

3 comments

Collie

Happy New Year 2010

Titus - Smooth Tricolor Collie

Well another year has gone, and another started. Even another Decade… depending on how you measure those things. For me, I consider it a new decade because it’s easiest.

I’m a bit late with my New Year wishes but oh well. Been doing some work on the house, more so than the dogs. But I’m still working with them and loving them. And we still have Titus, the smooth tri collie boy. He is amazing and we are already head over heels in love with him. I need more computer memory to put all the pictures I have of all our dogs on disk.

This is really why we just can’t foster anymore. Especially my favorite breed. We just fall for them too hard. He’s up on Petfinder now though, so hopefully a really good family will come along that will be more perfect for him than we are. I tell myself he’ll get more attention someplace else. Even though I know I’d probably try to do agility with him if he stayed. He’s only 3.5 years old so he’s young and in really good shape. Hrmph.

So no decisions yet. He’s a doll and we adore him. Chase doesn’t like him but that’s typical. Levi doesn’t really care about him which is odd. I think it’s because Titus is very Omega and doesn’t pose a threat to Levi at all. So that’s good.

Tatum and Jet and Titus just play and play and play. They get along really well. Dangit, we are getting too soft in our old age. There was a time when I didn’t fall in love with any of the fosters. Oh well….

Cynthia

January 3, 2010

Rescue

5 comments

Collie, Fosters, Rescue

All The Fosters Are Gone

Sasha Happy

Well, our house is now empty of fosters. And it is nice and peaceful. Most importantly, Chase is happy. Chase does not like the foster boys, and it’s best if we just don’t have any boys. Girls occasionally, perhaps, but no boys.

Sasha went to Wyoming yesterday to her new forever home. The family lives in northern Wyoming and and they took the weekend to do the six hour one way drive to come and get Sasha. That is some dedication! Sasha will have five kids to play with in her new home. Sometimes I wonder about a home with lots of kids, but I think this will be a good one. Muffit was in a home with seven kids for a while, they are the ones that dumped him at the Humane Society. So that is why I worry. However, I think this family is a good one and Sasha will be happy there.

Sasha has her Pemphigus still, and always will, so we sent her up with her tetracycline and vitamin b3. It’s manageable, and we are glad she doesn’t have cerebral palsy. Here is a picture of her nose… she has hair growing back! Her nose looks so good. You can look at the old post of her that has a picture of her nose when we just got her. There is a big difference!

Sasha's Nose

She has a bit of a scab in the middle of her nose from when she was playing a bit rough with Tatum. But it’s healing up, too.

We are looking forward to see pictures of her as she heals up and progresses and plays with her new kids. I think she is going to be a great dog for kids, but then again, collies usually are!

As for the other foster boy we had, he’s gone… and where did he go? Well, we cannot say. It’s a secret! So we can’t really talk about him. Leave it to say that he’s going to a place where he will be happy and safe. I removed the posts of him from this blog for his safety. And no, there’s nothing illegal or anything, but he will be someplace warm and happy and he will have a great life.

And it’s most important for these rescue dogs to have a great life.

Oh and my arm is healing where Chase bit me. Chase is a good boy and I didn’t get mad at him. I didn’t go to the doctor… didn’t get a tetanus, mainly just because I’m lazy and too busy and a doctor appointment is just not something I want to plan into my schedule! Ugh! I will watch for streaking and infection but so far there is no sign. I probably should get a tatanus anyway… though I should look into what tatanus really is, because I’d like to know!

So our house is calm again, the dogs are sleeping, and it’s a down day for me. Tomorrow is flyball practice I will try to remember to bring the camera!

Collie, Rescue, Sasha

Sasha Has Pemphigus But Is Healing!

Happy Sasha

Well I am very happy to report that Sasha is doing so much better! I went to visit her a couple of days ago, and dropped Lily of to her new home (yup Sasha’s foster wants to keep Lily!) and I was amazed by how much Sasha’s nose has healed up.

Sasha looks so great! She even has hair starting to grow back. And it hasn’t been that long. The biospy of her nose came back, and as the vet feared, she has Canine Pemphigus. However, it appears to be one of the milder forms. It’s an autoimmune disease and she’ll have it her whole life. But the vet is hoping (and so are we) that we will be able to control the outbreaks with tetracycline and vitamin B3.

Sasha’s foster Mom has been putting neosporin on her nose and that, it seems, has helped too. Along with a healthy diet and a good environment, we all think Sasha will be just fine! I’m so releived and excited.

It is possible she could get worse, not better… and then she might have to go on steroids. However, with her already healing up, I think the possibility of her on steroids is quite low. And we have someone who may be interested in adopting her, too. I have been honest about her condition (I couldn’t be otherwise, lol, since I’m scrapbooking her progress here on my blog), but hopefully her condition won’t dissuade a potential adopter.

I’m just thrilled that she is doing so well. We did get her prescriptions filled from the doctor, and her foster Mom is giving them to her. Eventually we will back her medications off to see what the minimum acceptable dosage is to keep her collie nose outbreaks under control.

Otherwise, Sasha doesn’t care she has a scabby nose. She’s as happy as a clam and such a cute wonderful collie girl! We still are a bit behind on funds in Utah Collie Rescue, we haven’t quite covered her bills, even with donations. Hopefully her adoption fee will help pay for some of her medical as well.

Yay for Sasha!s

Collie, Rescue, Sasha

Keep Those Nails Trimmed

Lily's Nails

Rescue still pisses me off… I wonder if anyone would buy a small business for sale… Utah Collie Rescue? LOL okay I’m not quite ready to sell yet. I got some pictures of Lily’s super long toenails. Another thing that makes me pretty angry about rescue dogs. I trimmed a few of them this morning, and I trimmed off a lot. I saved the clippings and I’ll take pictures of them a bit later. For now you just get to see how long her nails are.

Lily's Teeth

And I was able to get a picture of her nasty teeth, too. You can hardly see the white of her teeth, they are so covered with gunk. Poor dear. I tried scraping them off with my fingernail a bit, but nothing would chip off. Her gums are a bit red above her teeth, too. For comparison, here’s a picture of Levi’s teeth:

Levi's Teeth

Levi doesn’t have the best teeth in the world, but you can see his teeth! He does have a little redness on his gums too. However, the vet says he’s okay. He has had a few teeth cleanings over the years. Lucy, on the other hand, has excellent teeth and has never had a cleaning. She is a lucky girl!

Pretty Lily

On a good note, Lily seems happier today. She played a little with Muffit and Tatum. She ate all her breakfast, her poop is solid, and she had big drinks. I had to bring her in from eating snow outside. I’ve never seen a dog down that much snow before. Which suggests to me that she was an outside dog, and her water froze so she had to eat the snow. Poor girl. Inside she has lots of water to drink and lots of love to receive.

Keep Those Teeth Clean!

Lilly Girl

So when it rains it pours, however, it’s not quite pouring rescue collies, thank the gods. But I just went and picked up another rescue collie girl. She was found down in Saratoga Springs, which is about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. I took Tatum and Muffit to Tanner Park first, then we drove down and picked her up.

Lilly and the Pack

But anyway, as per the title of this post, dangit, why is it that so many of the dogs that come into rescue have horrible teeth? Okay okay, sure, I know, they are in rescue, right? Which basically means their homes did not care for them. But it makes me mad. My dogs get regular vet visits and their dental care is one of the most important things, and we make sure their teeth are clean and healthy. And don’t have any mesothelioma either!

So even though I will try to find this girls home (no microchip, no collar, matts in the rear and awful teeth) first, I would hope to get her healthy and make sure her teeth are cleaned up.

We are calling her Lilly for now. She’s sleeping peacefully on a dog bed in the basement near us all. Have I said recently, how badly I hate rescue? I do. I don’t feel good about doing something good for the dogs anymore. Well, I like to see them get healthy and happy. However, I just get angry that rescue has to happen. That so many dogs are homeless, neglected, abused, unwanted and unloved. I love them all, and wish I could keep them all.

Sasha’s Nose and Medical

Well, Sasha came back to stay with us overnight on Monday night for her vet appointment on Tuesday. I haven’t had time to post, been running amok with Christmas stuff since then. But here she is after she came back from the vet.

Sasha's Nose

Ouch… they took two spots of skin to biospy on her nose, and as you can probably see they stitched them back together. Poor dear. She looked miserable when we got her back from the vet. Her ears were so compacted with gunk they had to clean them all out, too. She’s kinda cute with wet ears though…

Sasha's Nose Ouch

Sasha also had three teeth pulled. Which wasn’t, actually, as bad as we had thought. When I looked at her teeth after she got back, they looked sparkly clean! I think her mouth and ears will feel much better now. Though her foster Mom did pick her up Tuesday night, and I haven’t talked her since then.

Sweet Sasha

I want to thank everyone so much for all the donations Utah Collie Rescue has received for Sasha! Her surgery on Tuesday cost over $350, and when we had her in before for bloodwork and a general checkup, that was $140. We have raised over $250 so far to help with her medical bills, and it all helps so very much!

Sasha is so precious and such a wonderful girl. Hopefully I’ll visit her again and get some more pictures in the next week or so.

I do hope everyone had a good Merry Christmas and Yappy Howlidays! I’m taking it easy, which I love to do, taking care of my neck that doesnt’ hurt too much anymore, maybe I should look at a shoulder pain pump and see if that might help too… hrm.

So, one more week of 2008 and then it’s 2009! Wow, the time goes by way too fast.

Collie, Rescue, Sasha