Angel and Chase

But when I think about my rescue dogs, grateful isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, I don’t think my rescue dogs are grateful at all. First off, I think grateful is a human emotion, not a canine one. Though I guess maybe Angel could have been grateful. To me, though, she just seemed more relieved to have a safe place to live finally.

Tatum… she isn’t grateful at all. LOL. She’s our princess, and it seems to me that she thinks she deserves every second of her pampered life. In fact, I would interpret her behavior as being entitled. She has a lot of confidence at home, and thinks she deserves the best treats, the best sleeping spots, and when other dogs get close to her when she is resting, they get an earful of growl. It’s like she’s saying “he’s touching me, stop touching me!” I need to get some pictures of her with her teeth showing, or some art prints of her, she is such a goof.

Chase and Muffit are just happy to do whatever. They love to run and expend their energy. But they don’t coddle or fuss over us either. They don’t seem to exhibit any behavior that I would label as gratefulness. But they are both Border Collies, so maybe that has a lot to do with it too. *shrug*

So anyway, do your rescue dogs seem to be grateful? Mine don’t. But I’d rather have it that way. I want my dogs to be as confident as possible. Strong either with me around, or on their own. Secure in themselves. That’s the kind of life I try to give them.

She held her sit stay too, the honor sit, even though I talked to her the whole time. She got a 181 out of 200 which isn’t too bad for my little girl. I am going to work on some more heeling with her, and walking with me, and I’m going to enter her in AKC Rally later this month, in Idaho Falls. It’s a 3 day and if Mom doesn’t mess up and miss any stations, she could potentially get her first title, an RN.

So I am pretty proud of my rescue collie girl. She had a rotten start in life, coming from a hoarder in Houston, Texas. And any people experience she had was bad. And she’ll always have issues, but she’s a trooper and she always comes back home to rule the house.

Kip

Yeah… it still hurts. I put off this post all day because… well, I wasn’t sure why, but now I know. My heart still hurts when I think of Kip being gone.

I read in a book once someone said “Death lasts so much longer than life” and I really didn’t understand that until I loved a dog who only lived 14 very short years. Kip was with me when I was young, in my 20s, so time went by slower then. But still, I wish he could have lived much longer. Kip was my best friend in the world through some hard times.

Kip was a Shepherd Mix… and you can read more about him here.  I love Kip with all my heart, I miss him still. He died on his own in the back yard on a Saturday morning. I didn’t know how to handle it… I think I’d be better now. Kip, I hope you are free somewhere experiencing wondering things I cannot even imagine. Thank you for spending 14 years with me.

A Mess of Play

Chase is a very happy boy… for the first time in months he was playing with our other dogs. Unfortunately Chase does not like it when we have fosters. And so for his sake (and our own peace of mind really) we can’t foster anymore. Titus is gone, he went back to his breeder. No health insurance in NC for him, or for us either… but our house is a lot quieter with him gone.

He was a very sweet boy and we loved him a lot.  But he was a bit loud and he raised the energy in our house for some odd reason. He had a hard time settling down, more so than our regular dogs. And Chase did not like him at all. They would even fence fight through the baby gates… so we have to take care of Chase first and foremost. So please, remind me not to take any more fosters, even sweet smooth collies, if I think I might want to again. I have to focus on our regular pack. And myself too. And have a peaceful quiet house. And all our 7 dogs are, actually, very peaceful and quiet and they get along really super well.

This pictures is of Muffit, Chase, Tatum and Jet all playing in the back yard. It’s so good to see them all play and get along again!  Yay for a quiet peaceful house.

Chase Is Not Happy

Unfortunately, Chase is unhappy with our foster dog Titus. Chase doesn’t like other dogs very much… he has space issues and doesn’t like dogs getting into his space. He gives off the weirdest signals. And Titus doesn’t know how to interpret them so he just stares at Chase. And no matter how much I tell Titus that staring is really bad dog manners, he doesn’t understand and keeps on doing it.

So we keep Chase and Titus apart. But it’s been getting worse lately. Chase took his frustration out on Lucy the other day, and even broke skin on Lucy’s nose. That is rare for Chase, he never breaks skin. So we are in need of a new foster home for Titus. We do have to put Chase’s needs first… but we’ll get Titus a great new foster home, or even a great forever home, which would be best!

I wish some sort of diet supplement would help Chase mellow out, but we’ve already tried many things. He has a low thyroid and he’s being treated for that. We just need to give Chase a good home environment too. He’s a good boy and he works so hard for me.  So, we’ll see, Titus will get another great place to stay!

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….

Tatum in her Bed

Whenever we get a new dog in our house, and usually when he’s a bit insecure and worried about his new place like Titus is, I always go back to realizing what is most important in life.

It’s not things of any kind, or cross country movers, or houses or money or toys or glasses or floors or anything. It’s how we feel. It’s being loved and loving.

So I snuggle my dogs and try not to worry about money or the dog sports. I just want them to be happy and safe and loved.  This picture is of Tatum on the dog shelf on the dog bed on the dog shelf (because the 4″ foam isn’t nearly comfy enough, you need a dog bed on top) and I a just so glad she is happy now. She even got her CGC recently. She’s come a long way from the scared dog she used to be.  I just adore her still, and always will. And I want her, and all our dogs, to know they will never be alone or unsafe.

I just can’t imagine anyone putting their dogs outside and never letting them be in and part of their family. My dogs would probably just die out there alone. They need the family to survive.  And I need the family to survive, too.

Titus and Jet

Yeah yeah, I swore no more fosters. And I’m really sticking to that except in very special circumstances.

This is Titus. He is the son of Sonny, a smooth sable collie boy who lives around here locally and I just adore him. Poor Titus’ Mom in California, his Human Mom, passed away recently and he was going to go back to his breeder. Which is good… except his breeder is having problems of her own. Her Mom has had to move in with her and needs 24/7 care, and so she doesn’t really have the resources to take care of Titus either.

So he’s with us now. And, yes, we already love him. He is very sweet and a bit shy and needs some confidence building. And in California they didn’t have any stairs so he doesn’t know stairs, but we are working on that. He might actually go to another foster home, a friend of mine, which would be good for us because we will just fall in love with him too fast! Though we might have him at least through the end of December.

Titus is a smooth tricolored collie boy. I didn’t really like the tris as much as the other colors… but the more I see him and spend time with him, I think I like the tris just as much. He is so fancy and handsome in his suit. And now we have one of each color of collie except the white…. we have the blue merles, the sables, and the tricolor…. and well, we have been joking that Jet is a color-headed white. LOL.. he’s a mini-smooth-collie tri-headed white! Hehe okay okay he’s a Danish Swedish Farmdog but it’s kinda funny.

So for nowwe sit under the ceiling fan and try to get this guy a good home. I think he’ll be easy to find a home for. He’s so sweet and gorgeous and people love collies.