You Know Spring is Around the Corner When . . .

You see squirrels on morning walkies!!!! 

This morning my Dear Hubby (it was his turn for the a.m. run) was walking the pooches and to their great excitement (the dogs, not my spouse) came across a wonderous sight -- a neighborhood cat in hot pursuit of a SQUIRREL!  The cat was just a hair's breadth away from pouncing on the little mammal, when she spotted the dogs and came to a screeching halt.  The dogs went crazy with joy!

The squirrel said a prayer of thanks and bolted up the nearest tree, and the cat took off running the other way.  Rusty stared longingly up into the bare branches hoping for another glimpse of the furry critter and Allie -- well, she tried to climb that tree because she wanted her some sqwer-rell.  Hubby finally had to peel her off so they could finish the walk, but both dogs kept stopping and peering over their shoulders for the rest of the way home.

It was a grand day for walkies at our house.  (Sorry, no pictures of this exciting event, Hubby didn't think to use his camera phone as he was trying to keep hold of the dogs' leashes.)  :D

Puppies!

Meet the "M" Puppies and Tigger, too!  These pups are Western Border Collie Rescue's newest litter of puppies! 

Max, Marble, Marshall, Mimi and May are 5 adorable little 10-12 week old BC/BCx puppies that were rescued after being dumped outside in the freezing cold inside a box.  (Sometime people really suck.)  Some kind soul took them to the shelter and WBCR got involved.

Tigger was picked up as a stray and is probably about 4 months old.  He is KEEUUUUTE!!!! 

These lucky pups are living in Gracie's Fris-Barn with 3 other resident canines and some really cool horses.

I went out to meet them and give them some puppy toys.  They are soooooo cute!  Unfortunately, the weather was crappy -- snowy and muddy -- and we had to hang out in the barn, which is dark.  So, the pictures aren't that great and certainly don't do these puppies justice. 

Anybody need a dose of puppy breath? :D

Farewell 2009!

2009 was a very busy year for us and I didn't get the chance to post much.  Oh well, I will hopefully do a better job in 2010.  Here's just a little "walk" through some of the fun times in 2009.

Great Walkies!

We went on lots and lots of fun walks, hikes and camping trips in 2009.  However, as the dogs say, you can never have too many.  Here are just a few pics.

Volunteer Work

I did a ton of reference checks, home visits and shelter pulls for Western Border Collie Rescue, and even had a couple of guests for a few days.

This is Trina, a 4 yr. old female BC that we pulled from the Tooele County Shelter (she looks a lot like Rusty!).  She stayed with us for about 4 days until we could ship her to her regular foster home in Colorado.  Poor girl had recently had puppies (but there was no sign of them when she was picked up as a stray).  She is a great dog and now has a wonderful forever home.

Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trial

This year, WBCR was invited to have a booth at the Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trials in Heber City, Utah.  What an experience!  I go to the trials every year for at least a day or two, but this year was incredible as the dogs and I camped at the venue with the WBCR volunteers and manned a booth.  Attendance was a record breaking 25,000+ spectators over the course of the four days.  WBCR gained some much needed exposure, lots of applications on our dogs, some new volunteers and foster homes and got to instinct test some of our dogs on sheep.  We even did 2 or 3 home visits and a shelter pull of four dogs from the Spanish Fork shelter during that four days  :D

Our booth was located in the IFA Tent Pavillion (so we got some protection from the crazy Labor Day weather - cold, wind, rain and intense sun and heat - all in just four days).

WBCR volunteers from Colorado (Krissy, Mike and Lori).

This is the WBCR Adoption Board - now that they're up to well over 500 successful adoptions, they might need a second board.

Relaxing around the camp.

Our fearless leader, Tonya Cain, as she and Max demonstrate the right way to work those sheep!

And here's Allie -- who really, really just wanted to eat those sheepies. 

Foster dogs wanting to join the action.

Walks with WBCR Foster and Adoptive Families!

We did a couple of WBCR walks with WBCR foster and adoptive families.  It was fun to get together with our dogs and we hope to do quite a few more activities in the upcoming year.  We even had a friend and WBCR supporter from San Diego join the fun (hope you'll come again soon, Jan).

Western Border Collie Rescue Barn Bash

In 2009 WBCR grew it's Utah contingent of volunteers by leaps and bounds!  (Hurray!)  Some of us were able to get together in December in one of the volunteer's large barn (thanks, Karen!) and share some fundraising ideas, get to know each other and snack on bagels and dog biscuits.  It was great to be out of the cold and snow and still be able to let the dogs play. 

Ever wonder what happens when you have 14 Border Collies, their 4 "siblings" and only one frisbee???  :D

As you can see, we were pretty busy, but we are looking forward to many more great "Walkies" in 2010!

Happy New Year!!

(Gratuitous picture of Spike - who couldn't care less about going on walks but wanted to be included in this post.)

Winter Walkies

Today we joined some friends and went for a walk up to Memory Grove Park, which abuts the Capitol Building in Salt Lake City.  It was a balmy 18 degrees, so we dressed up warmly and I did my best to keep the dogs out of the stream and ponds (they just cannot stay out of the water and I didn't want to drag along frozen pupsicles).

Allie really had a great time.  (Although she had a bit of a collision with Zephyr, one of her friends, and got knocked into the air as he ran by -- she's limping around a bit tonight.)

Zephyr said he was sorry.

We met some new friends along the way.

The dogs [mostly] stayed out of the water -- so they only had a few icicles hanging from their fur.

This is Zip -- he's a gorgeous little split-face BC who is looking for a forever home.  He's a great dog and is very friendly and loving.  Check out Zip's Webpage on Western Border Collie Rescue's website.

Rusty says "Ya'll come along with us on the next walk, ok?"

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