It's That Time of Year . . .

To be thinking of Christmas shopping!  As the holidays approach and the new year is getting closer, what better gift to give family and friends than a calendar full of gorgeous dogs AND (here's one of the best parts), almost all of the proceeds from the sale of these beautiful, well designed calendars goes to help dogs in need. 

The bulk of the money raised by WBCR goes to provide spay/neutering and other much needed veterinary care for the dogs, as quite a few of the dogs arrive in rescue in bad physical shape and often very heartbreaking situations.

Dogs like Callie.

Darling little Callie is one of the special WBCR girls that came from a hoarding situation in Oklahoma, where 120 + dogs were found to be living in desperate circumstances, many of them Border Collies. Callie was transferred to a Colorado shelter and was determined to be too shy for the shelter to care for very well...so, she was transferred to WBCR where she could gets lots of TLC and special attention as a loved dog in a foster home.

Like many of the Ada rescues, Callie had no idea what people were or how to trust them. When she first arrived in her foster home, she had to be hand fed for a couple days before she would even allow anyone to touch her. Slowly she has come around to her new situation and is making great progress in gaining confidence and trusting people.

Then there's Banjo.   

This chocolate-eyed, baby faced cutie was picked up as a stray by a highway in Idaho and was one saaaaad puppy dog --confused, dejected, frightened, you name it.  BanJo curled into a ball and cried for a full day. But on day 2, we caught a glimpse of an impish grin, and by Day 3, it was clear BanJo has quite the irrepressible spirit!

But, the next month in foster care was up and down. She seemed to have good days (when she felt great and was full of play and fun) and bad days (when she was lethargic, restless, uncomfortable), so we took her to the vet again and in late July, BanJo was diagnosed with liver failure, and given just a few weeks to live.  But nobody told her that, and she continued to have good days...so we went and got another opinion, and it seems that she was NOT in liver failure, but had a liver shunt which was thought could be easily remedied with one surgical procedure.  Thanks to a caring vet in CO, BanJo’s surgery was done with a deep discount, and was performed in mid-August.  Unfortunately it did not go as well as we’d hoped. Her shunt was inside the liver rather than outside of it, which complicated things considerably, but the surgeons did what they could to redirect blood flow to her liver, and now it’s a waiting game to see how she does post-op and over the following few weeks. She's been clearly feeling better since surgery although we won't know for sure till what her long-term prognosis will be.

So, here's your chance to help us help dogs in need.  Buy calendars for everyone on your Christmas list this year.  :D

  A BIG thanks in advance from:

              Vixen!                                            

Beck

                                                                      Daisy

                              Paddy

                                                                     

Meg

Patches

Rosie                                                                

Steffi

Trina

Moss

and all of the other dogs at Western Border Collie Rescue!

Happy Holidays!

Order yours now!

2010 Western Border Collie Rescue Calendars

WBCR at Soldier Hollow 2009

We had a great adventure over the Labor Day weekend (and I am still recovering). Western Border Collie Rescue had a booth at the Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trial and it was such a great experience. I haven't heard an official tally yet, but rumor is the attendance numbers were close to 30,000 people attending over the four days this year. It was quite the crowd!  I was at the venue from early morning until evening, but only managed to see one single run. 

One of the activities that the Soldier Hollow organizers set up was an instinct test for WBCR's rescue dogs. They thought this activity would be a good way to show the public that even rescued Border Collies had sheepherding instinct and it would also give good to exposure to our rescue, because we don't have many foster homes and volunteers here in Utah.  However, they wanted 10 dogs to test - which meant we had to try to arrange to get 10 foster dogs to Utah from Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming. Well . . . that didn't quite happen, but we did have 10 WBCR dogs (either foster or alums) at the exhibition round pen at 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning.

Mark Peterson, the man behind SHSDT, did a quick check with each dog in the pen prior to the exhibition and 9 of our 10 dogs passed muster and we were set for the 10:00 a.m. demonstration (Trixie*, an adorable little blue merle BCx new to WBCR, got herself booted because she was extremely reactive to Mark and the sheep and barked herself silly.) *On a side note, pretty little Trixie got adopted while at the trial by a very nice couple who had been cleared for adoption through WBCR's application process about a year ago and who came up to the trial to meet her.

Max works the sheep.

Don Hensley, a former judge for the Soldier Hollow trial who was a competitor this year, graciously offered his time and expertise to evaluate our dogs for their interest and potential ability to work sheep. It was a very interesting experience and most of our dogs did quite well.
 

Zeke likes working the sheep.

Cade, a sweet, big (55 lb.), BC boy who spent 3 months languishing in a Nebraska shelter before WBCR pulled him in early August, was a star, despite never having been on sheep! Don thought he showed an amazing amount of potential as a stockdog and Mark Peterson got on his phone to let some friends know about Cade and his availability.  One of the best things about Cade is he also a very sweet and friendly BC and is fabulous with kids.

Cade (Photo courtesy of WBCR)

Grace (Photo courtesy of WBCR)

On the other hand, we were told little Grace, a petite, but intense little foster BC in Idaho, would make someone a "great little frisbee dog."  She just didn't care about the sheep at all. Oh well, Grace was absolutely a trooper in our booth and is wonderful with people (and like Don said, is a terrific frisbee dog).

And Allie . . . well, Allie's evaluation was amazing to me.  Allie had never seen sheep before, but from the minute she laid eyes on the wooly creatures she was enthralled.

She went into a low crouch, her eyes glazed over and she went for the sheep with a gusto! (I was glad she was on a long dragline!)


Let me at 'em! I'm goin' to eat me some sheepies!

Ahem . . . I asked Don, "Is she really supposed to be chewing on the sheep's feet like that?" "It's ok," he said, "she's actually a little tentative and needs to be more assertive or they won't take her seriously." Assertive??? If she was any more "assertive" I was afraid we were going to be banished from the venue in disgrace for taking a big bite out of somebody's sheep.

Don said Allie showed a lot of interest and had some good instincts, but needed training before he would turn her loose on stock. (No kidding. I kept imagining blood and gore everywhere.) Then there was the problem of his using the command "That'll do." She just didn't know what the heck that meant. She was used to "Leave it!, Allie, dam*&@# leave it!"

Please note the wildly twirling eyes as Allie gazes longingly at the sheep.

Al was like a whole different animal after her 10 minutes in the roundpen and for the rest of the time we were at Soldier Hollow kept trying to drag me back to the scene of the crime.

But seriously, it was a very exciting experience for both me and Allie. It was interesting to see those generations of Border Collie genes kick in and I was amazed at her desire to work those sheep. She really wasn't quite as terrible as the pictures or my commentary would suggest and she could be called off the sheep (once we straightened out the confusion over the commands).

Oh yeah, and Don's verdict on Allie -- she would probably make a "real nice little farm dog." :)

WBCR was treated very well by the organizers of Soldier Hollow and we got to camp in the vendor camping area which is below where the handlers and their dogs set up base. It was a great site, with a gorgeous view, a large covered pavillion and nice restrooms.  It was also a good place to exercise the 15+ dogs we had with us.

Cade and Wylie (fresh from a pull at the Spanish Fork shelter)

Our booth at the event was set up in the big canvas Intermountain Farmers Association tent (IFA is a major sponsor of SHSDT).  We had a lot of room and protection from the elements.  We got a lot of inquiries, answered a lot of questions and sold calendars and t-shirts.

On top of manning our very busy booth for the four days, we managed to squeeze in a shelter pull, two home visits (one for adoption, one for a potential foster home), an adoption (Trixie, who was mentioned above) and Tonya, WBCR's fearless leader, manning the phone non-stop trying to arrange a foster home and transport for 7 brand new BC puppies dumped in a Wyoming shelter (which is no mean feat, considering that these puppies didn't even have their eyes open and were going to have to be fed via eye dropper every three hours).  Whew!  Add all that to wrangling foster dogs and volunteer dogs at the venue, it's no wonder we were all exhausted.

The shelter pull was from the Spanish Fork, Utah shelter and we pulled four BCs (well, actually three BC/BCx and one little Aussie who was on the "E" list, so Tonya just couldn't leave him there). 

Just back from the shelter.

Spanish Fork dogs relishing their freedom.

Wylie and Bandito (Spanish Fork dogs) meet Rusty.

It was a whirlwind weekend and a lot of hard work, not to mention I saw only one run of the actual sheepdog competition, but it was fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  WBCR got some much needed exposure, I met some great people and we were able to help some dogs in need.  The whole thing was a big dog party back in camp most of the time, so Allie and Rusty loved it, too.  I'm looking forward to next year.

Colter (chief dog wrangler) and Molly, a WBCR foster dog, chillin' in camp.  :D

A Summer of Travels

It's been a very busy summer. L0ts of things going on, including a tw0-week camping trip with Allie & Rusty.

We spent the first night in City of Rocks in Idaho. It's a rock climber's paradise and pretty cool camping. Big rain storm that night, however, with lots of thunder, lightning, and wind. Allie spent the night curled up on a bed underneath the dining table in the trailer.

Another fun place that the dogs really liked was the Anaconda Sportsmen's Park near Anaconda, Montana. Right on the Big Hole River, the fishing is usually good and the dogs spent a lot of time swimming in the river.

("Oooh", Rusty says "That's a good spot".)

We spent a few days camping in Yellowstone. Saw a Grizzly by the side of the road.

One evening, while we were camping at Norris Geyser Basin Campground, we were just settling down to dinner and a lot of the dogs in the campground started to bark. Not just a little bark, but loud persistent barking. Then Rusty joined in. I turned about and there behind me was . . . . Sasquatch! Seriously.

I didn't get a picture, because to put it mildly we were a bit taken by surprise. There was this great big, 6 ft. 5 in. guy, in a Sasquatch suit. He waved and started running off through the campground. You could tell where he was he in campground by the dogs barking wildly and the screams. I don't know who he was, but it was actually a pretty good gag.

Another highlight was the Grand Tetons.

My next adventure will be the 2009 Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trials. Western Border Collie Rescue is having a booth at the trial this year! It should be a great adventure.

So, if anyone is up in Heber City, Utah over the Labor Day weekend, be sure to stop by and say "hello".

Spring Break

It's been a long time since we made a post to this blog -- things have been crazy lately -- sure hope it slows down for a while. Whew!

We just got back from our annual Spring Break trip down to "sunny" southern Utah and like most things in our lives lately -- it was a wild one. I won't bore you with all of the details (i.e., multiple emergency room visits, CAT scans, high winds, snow storms, etc.), but it wasn't the most relaxing vacation we've ever taken. We did have a pretty good time (overall) -- the dogs thought it was keen.

We spent the first four days of the trip visiting family in their newly purchased little winter cottage, located in St. George, Utah -- a place supposedly much warmer than home during the snowy, cold months. Unfortunately, we experienced unseasonably cold, wet weather and ended up hunkering inside of the tiny house for most of that time.

Rusty demonstrates the fine art of playing fetch in a very small living room because the weather outside sucks.

Sleeping quarters were a little tight and
Allie slept underneath the end table.

Grandma and Grandpa were pretty good sports, especially considering they aren't really "dog people," and confining 4 adults, 1 sick teenager and 2 restless Border Collies into a 600 sq. foot house for four straight days was a bit of a challenge. Everyone breathed a big sigh of relief when the weather improved, the teenage boy felt better and we could wave goodbye and push on to spend the last three days of our vacation in Zion National Park.

Rusty loooovvves sleeping on the beds in the tent trailer.

Hiking the Par'us Trail (the only trail in Zions N.P. dogs are allowed on).

Will you stop taking pictures??? Isn't this supposed to be a walk!?

Allie hides in her usual spot underneath the trailer. (Oooh! Too many scary noises like chopping wood and popping campfires!)

The dogs snooze in the back of the car while we pack up to leave at the end of our camping trip. Aaaahhh, warmth and sun - finally!

We spent a little time at Bryce Canyon National Park on our way home, but it was a bit too cold to spend much time outside. Very beautiful though!

I guess I'd better go deal with the 30 ft. pile of laundry from our trip, mopping up the bathroom from the toilet that just overflowed (????) and try to remember how to do trigonometry -- someone just remembered he has a project due tomorrow (did I mention things had been very wild lately . . . .)

40 Things About Me

It's taken me a while to get around to this -- I was tagged over a week ago by Danielle -- A Girl and HERDogs -- but the sticking point has been trying to find a picture of the dogs with me in it (never mind the "most recent" part of the deal). I take 95% of all of the pictures and am rarely in front of the camera myself. This picture was taken at Ft. Bridger, Wyoming at the site of Thornburg the Dog's grave in June 2007 - it was very, very windy.

Per the rules of this game, I'm supposed to post the most recent picture of myself and my dogs and then write down 40 little known facts about myself. So, here goes . . .

1. I never had a dog growing up because my Dad wouldn't let us have one. Thousands of cats, though. I got my first dog from the Humane Society when my spouse and I bought our first house (back in 1992). Kamp was a German Shepherd/Rough Collie mix and he was a wonderful dog!

2. I am a Troop Committee Member in my son's Boy Scout Troop and am in charge of the yearly Valentine Rose fundraiser -- last year we sold over 300 dozen roses and they filled my entire living room. What an aroma!

3. I hate chocolate. (I ate 2 or 3 of those extra large Hersey Bars back with a couple of friends when I was in grade school and I got very, very sick -- I haven't liked chocolate ever since.)

4. I also hate cheese -- any kind of cheese. (Yes, I realize that's possibly un-American and people ask me how I can eat pizza without cheese, but I really can't stand it -- it's the texture, I think.)

5. My first real job was packing bags of potato chips into boxes at the Clover Club Potato Chip Factory when I was 16.

6. I worked as a waitress at a restaurant at Bear Lake (up near the Utah/Idaho border) the summer after I graduated from high school. I lived on the beach in a mobile home with 6 other girls and because we only worked like 4 hrs. a day, spent the rest of my time playing swimming, playing tennis and sailing.

7. I love to go flyfishing.

8. I moved to Deer Park, Texas (near Houston) with my family when I was 18. It was a major culture shock for somebody who had never lived outside of dry Utah before and the "waterbugs" and humidity about killed me. :)

7. I'm an amusement park junkie and love thrill rides, corny midway games and cheap souvenirs. We buy season passes to the local amusement park, Lagoon, and go often during the summer. I especially love roller coasters. Disneyland is a pilgrimage we make every other year. (Oh, and Elitches in Denver, Knotts Berry Farm, Six Flags (California and Texas), etc., etc.)

8. I like to go to museums and arboretums while I'm on vacation (I'm a sucker for the Model Train Museums at Cyprus Gardens, Old Lighthouse Museum, Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo-Jump, Shore Acres State Park, etc.)

9. I'm quite short - only 5 ft. tall. Even though I am the oldest of 5 children, my sibs are all quite tall. My two youngest sisters are around 5'10 and my brother is 6 ft.

10. In high school I won a dance marathon.

11. I also went to every school dance when I was in high school, but never went once with the same guy.

12. I once went skinny-dipping in a local reservoir with friends after consuming a number of Tequila Sunrises. (It was still daylight. :O ) I don't drink tequila anymore.

13. I didn't learn to swim until I was 30. My mom and one of my sisters and I all took lessons, but I was the only one who learned. I can now swim quite well.

14. I'm a pretty good cook and like to collect different kinds of cookbooks.

15. I am also a book hoarder and, due to space restrictions, recently had to donate around 250 hardback books to a local charity because we had no space available on any of the 12 large books cases we have at our house. I love to read!!!!

16. I once got to sing in a chorus at the historic old Mormon Tabernacle at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It was actually pretty exciting.

17. I like to paint. Water color is my favorite and I love to paint plein air. I also like pastels and charcoal, but am not very fond of using oils. I frequently take my painting supplies with me camping and on vacations.

18. When my son was in grade school, I used to volunteer teach art as a 2 or 3 times a month. We did fabulous projects from clay sculpture, textile weaving and drawing. We (all of the 3 sixth grade classes and the parent volunteers) even did an extremely ambitious project of doing a large leaded Iraqi Painted Glass window in the library of the school.

19. I was the manager of the Camera & Records Department at a large department store while I was going to college.

20. I have 4 or 5 great 35 mm. film cameras I never use anymore because I prefer digital. One of these days I'm going to get a DSLR!!

21. Gardening is my favorite hobby and I spend hours in my yard every day (when it isn't covered with snow). Pulling weeds is a great way to work off stress.

22. I love to go hiking in the local foothills and mountains with the dogs.

23. I used to down hill ski a lot, but once I fell and got "tipped" by my ski. I showed the wound to the Ski Patrol at the top of the lift and they made me ski down and get 5 stitches in the First Aid Clinic at the Lodge.

24. I prefer to cross-country ski to down hill.

25. I'm very afraid of heights.

26. I love a good red wine.

27. I love Teva sandals and even wear them in the winter (with socks - how granola). I have a really good Teva tan on my feet all year long.

28. I don't watch television. (Unless I'm traveling for work by myself. I was stuck in Los Angeles in May -- and you don't really walk around much downtown after dark -- so I saw a lot of TV that week.)

29. I can fall asleep with all of the lights on, music playing, people talking, etc. It drives my spouse crazy.

30. I love all kinds of music - classical, rock, punk, celtic, western, zydecko. I have a very eclectic selection on my iPod.

31. I learned to play the violin, clarinet and piano and played in both the Orchestra and Band growing up.

32. I have a "thing" for redheads. :D (Yup, my spouse is a red.)

33. My major in college was physical geography. I really wanted to be a geologist, but there was too much required math - which I sucked at.

34. I pick up rocks from every where I go. My coat and jacket pockets always have rocks in them and they rattle around in the washer every time I do the laundry.

35. I can't watch movies about dogs or other animals. They usually end up making me cry. I ran sobbing from the room when my husband rented "The Bear".

36. Yellowstone National Park is my favorite place on Earth and I would live there, if I could.

37. Walking and spending time with my dogs is one of life's big pleasures. I love my dogs!

38. Camping is always my vacation of choice (and the dogs love it, too).

39. My only (human) kid came over 3 months early and weighed barely 2 lbs. He turned out great, but I never dared do it again.

40. I never respond to chain-mail e-mails and delete them promptly (especially if they say "don't delete this").

Whew! This was kind of an interesting exercise. I'm going to have to reserve the right to "tag' other bloggers at a later date (once I have the chance to scroll through the blogs I read to see who hasn't done this yet.)

A Midwinter's Morning Walk

It was a beautiful day today and in celebration of being on holiday we met with our friends, Zephyr and Zin (and their humans Margie and Gabby - and her friend Mollie) for a mid-winter hike through the Parley's Nature Preserve.

It was a momentous occasion because we were taking Margie's temporary foster Border Collie, Zorro, for his first walk with the gang. (I picked Zorro up yesterday at 4:30 p.m. from a small local all-breed rescue that just didn't have a place for him to go. I dropped him off at Margie's last night and he has settled in wonderfully with her crew.)

Introducting "Zorro"

Zorro is telling Rusty a Secret

(Actually, Rusty is not fond of other dogs -- hence the alarmed look, although they actually got along pretty well.)

Zorro had a marvelous time!

Allie loved the hike and had a great time. She ran like a crazy fool!

Rusty mugs for the camera. :)

It was also 5 mo. old Zin's first time at the Parley's Nature Preserve. She thought it was great, but stuck close to big brother, Zephyr.

Zephyr, Zin and Zorro


Border Collies and Human Folks All Have a Great Time.




Allie and Rusty (both "Water Babies") love to play in the river. Zin check outs the river.

Gabby and Mollie (the human kids) play on a rope swing.

What a wonderful day!

Tales of the Kitchen Coyote

We often call Allie our "Kitchen Coyote". It's not really because she looks much like a coyote (anyone who has seen coyotes in the wild knows this), but more because of the way she moves.

Yellowstone Coyote

Allie

She has the undulating lope, kind of sideways and crooked, that makes you thing "wild creature". She has been mistaken for a coyote several times, however.

Once we were on a camping trip in Zions National Park and a group of tourists got off of the tram when Allie and I were walking by. We were quickly surrounding by the tourists who were snapping pictures and pointing at Allie. The only word I understood was "coyote!". I guess that these folks must have thought that here in the wild, wild west we put pink bandanas on our wildlife and walked them on a leash.

The dogs and I were out for an evening walk the other night and, because it was dark, I was ignoring the city's leash laws and the dogs were running ahead of me. Allie sprinted ahead (as she always does), and sat at the corner waiting for permission to cross the street. I could hear voices and picked up my pace, so that I could get to the corner before the people got there. Usually, at this time of night, the only other people we meet are other folks stealth-walking their own dogs, but I guess these folks were returning from a late evening meal at the local French restaurant. As the people approached I heard them say "Look! There's a stray neighborhood coyote!" I quickly apologized for the dogs being off-lead and they laughed and said that they were hoping that Allie really wasn't a coyote, but that she sure looked like one. (Allie did present her paw at that point to shake hands, so fortunately that dispelled the coyote question.)

We do like to walk at night (for the afore-mentioned reason that we can stealth-walk the dogs off-leash) and last night my son and I took the dogs for a nice evening stroll. We had just reached the corner of the neighborhood park and there was a sudden explosion of colorful fireworks in the sky and Allie went into terror escape mode. Allie is severely noise phobic and fireworks send her over the edge with fear. On the 4th of July we have to give her valium and she sleeps curled behind the commode in the bathroom.

We always avoid taking her out when there is any chance for fireworks because she is absolutely terrified of the noise. These were probably leftover fireworks from New Years Eve (and illegal ones, too). We couldn't get to Allie with the leash quickly enough and she frantically sought to escape the horrible noise by quickly jumping into the front seat of a car in a nearby driveway that had unfortunately just opened the door. (Oops!) Imagine the look of surprise on the face of the woman sitting in the front seat with 30 lbs. of quivering Border Collie on her lap.

I was babbling apologies to the couple and trying, without much success, to releash Allie and get her to leave the safety of car. She kept wrapping her forelegs around the woman's neck and burying her face. It seemed like eternity, but it was probably only a second or two, before Allie responded to her recall and jumped off of the woman's lap. Once the shock wore off, the woman in the car started to laugh, got out and gave Allie a big hug and said what a "sweet little coyote" she was. I was mortified and kept apologizing profusely. Fortunately for us, the couple liked dogs and thought the whole thing was very amusing. They said they'd never had a "coyote" jump in their car before and wanted to take a picture of Allie and give her a dog treat.

It was a big embarassment, but we did finish the walk. However, we finished it with both dogs on lead.

Does this look like a coyote to you?