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1/8/05 Indy is excelling in agility and we are traveling all over the country, well the parts we can drive to. I refuse to fly her - I guess I'm an over protective mom :-) . She just finished her Masters Agility Dog (MAD) Title in North Carolina the first part of December and she is currently ranked in the top 25 border collies on the East Coast in the United States Dog Agility Association (USDAA). She also finished her AXJ and AX (Excellent Jumpers and Standard) in AKC this year. We are headed to a New Years trial this weekend.

History: On July 3, 2002, a two month old pup, wearing a red collar and leash, was found wallowing in a flower bed, and taken to a shelter. Her owners never called for her, and she wore no tags, so there was no way to determine where she belonged. Considering her fondness for flowers and her birth month, she was named Daisy May.

8/18/02 Daisy May was adopted to a family, who became GLBCR members a few months later.

8/21/02 Our little sweetheart is doing great. Any remaining makeup is washed away upon my return home from work! Daisy and Cait begin obedience classes in September, an 8 week kindergarten course.

8/27/02 I have been officially "walked" now! The little stinker has me trained to hold the end of the leash and if I walk faster to keep up with her, she starts running. She has also developed a liking of feather beds! The other morning I looked in my daughter's room and all I could see was about an inch of Daisy's nose sticking out. She is quite a joy.

9/16/02 She's found a new hobby, chasing crickets through the grass. Caitlin, my daughter, and Daisy are doing fine in kindergarten obedience training. Daisy does obey wonderfully for her mere four and a half months! Chevi (my 12 year BCx) took a bit to warm up to Daisy but sometimes, they even nap together. Daisy has brought a bit of puppy out of Chevi to my delight. However, Daisy gave Katrina (our cat) a face wash much to her dismay! The cat looked at me with a "you let her do that to me" look!?! Daisy also discovered the joy of sliding through the house on the wet floors. She will start cruising on the carpet and intentionally slide through the hallway by the stairs. She is such a little imp!

10/25/02 She is quite a little character. We've been playing soccer and she doesn't like me getting to the ball first so she started "holding" me until she can get to the ball first! Obedience school has progressed extremely well. We start another class, soon. After having Daisy for the last few months I know why some of the GLBCR volunteers had these knowing grins in their voices when I expressed wanting a puppy! She keeps us hopping! I had forgotten puppies consider EVERYTHING is a toy. All my beautiful garden flowers became "remains"! Maybe next year I can have flowers.....

11/14/02 Daisy and Caitlin are doing so well in obedience/agility training that the instructors asked us to enter AKC competitions. Little did I know when I adopted Daisy how my life would change. I'm feeling like a true convert to the Church of the Divine Border Collie!

1/3/03 I'm learning, with Crazy Daisy, nothing is an accident! Daisy quickly learned to unwrap presents. Little did I know the potential to carry a concept further....she tried to unwrap ALL the remaining presents! She LOVES snow, throws snow balls at me by picking them up in her mouth and doing a quick turn of her head, and tries to catch the snowballs I toss to her. My house looks like a war zone with an arm or leg here, tail/head/body part over there, bits of stuffing all over. The imp got into the puppy toys for Christmas, before I could stop her, she had already decapitated one. She absolutely loves agility training! She flies through all the obstacles with the biggest smile on her face. I thought she might grow out of the mohawk down her back but it appears it's here to stay. Adds character....like she needs anymore :o) Her ball drive is UN-believable. I'm looking at flyball as an activity for Daisy. The busier she is, the happier we all are!

5/19/03 Daisy LOVES going for rides on the 4 wheeler. Cait says, "up" and Daisy's ready to ride! Daisy is an absolute dream, as well as nightmare sometimes, but we love her; she ate four pairs of Cait's shoes, 1 pair of my boots, three rugs at the back door, and my stair drapings, all within the past two weeks. I attribute that to our being away and busier than normal with the end of the school year and remodeling three houses. It will get better....

7/10/03 Last night, I let the girls out for bedtime potty. Daisy completed her business and decided to go chase after my tiny 6 lb. black cat, Katrina. Well somewhere along her journeys chasing Trina, she came across another black cat, this one with an attractive white stripe down the center. My, wasn't she surprised to suddenly have two cats to chase! This cat had a surprise for her though. Daisy came to the door smelling quite fragrant although not as fragrant as poor little Trina! So I started searching the web for skunk scent removal recipes and came across the solution of peroxide, baking soda and liquid soap. We live in the country, 1/2 hour from any 24 hour store, and only have the baking soda and liquid soap. Luckily, dish soap works very well on cutting through the skunk oil. Katrina received the brunt of the attack, mostly on her head, but she was thrilled to death to get in the tub (with Daisy of all things! goes to show that a rough dog/cat start can turn out in the end) and receive her scrubbing, actually purring the whole time! All is well now, both girls smell like floral Ultra Palmolive. I don't think they would have looked good as blondes anyway..... If only I can get the smell out of the foyer where the screen door was open at the time.

8/4/03 Just wanted to share a quick feat Daisy just mastered. She trusts Caitlin so much that Cait saddled up her horse and placed Daisy up in the saddle. Daisy just sat there waiting for Cait to get up, then they went walking around the corral. Of course I have to give a hand to Sugar too for being such a gentle, patient horse as to have a dog on her back!

1/28/04 Little Miss May is having a BLAST with the snow! She has taken to crawling up in my lap when I'm petting Chev which is rather tough since she's weighing in at 50 lbs! Not an ounce of fat on the girl, just all leggy and muscles. Also when she sleeps with me on nights Cait is gone or has friends over, as soon as one of my eyes peep open she's crawling on top of me, leg on each side and her on the top licking my face. She is such a sweetheart! If only I could dry out her tongue a little and maybe even keep it in her mouth a little more...... :0)

1/4/05 Daisy has been practicing her "singing" lately. She is quite proud of her howling, although I thought she was dying the first time Cait was able to get her to let loose!

1/3/06 Here is the most candid picture we have of Daisy (mainly because she was snoozing away when Cait got up for school and took a shower, she went back into her bedroom with the camera in hand and flipped on the light ready to take the pic; Daisy really doesn't like to be photographed at all...) She starts agility training at another facility on the 19th. Cait is really hoping to show her in the future, she just LOVES the course. She received her ILP recently too. Daisy is such a card, she can't greet anyone at the door without a baby in her mouth. Last night a friend stopped over and I had just picked up all the toys. When he came in the door, she raced across the floor, realized she didn't have a baby, stopped cold, then ran back and forth until she had one in her mouth before running to the door. She gets along so well with Danny too, definitely looks out for little brother and NOBODY can mess with little brother! She spent 5 days with my brother and his family with a 2 and 4 year old last week; she was in her glory! I had seen her with a baby before, flipping him over with her paws and nibbling at his diaper to make him laugh. She is our pride and joy and I wouldn't trade her for the world! flowers....." 0802

2-22-05 Our doggie update is that Liga is doing wonderfully--and will be moving to Sydney, Australia with us, this summer. We are moving there for at least three years. We have hired a company (International Pet Transportation, Inc.) to assist us with Liga's relocation to hopefully ensure a smooth transition (there are oodles of required forms, blood tests, vaccinations, etc.). We are planning on selling almost everything we own before we move. As such, we have some doggie "stuff" that we would like to donate to GLBCR. I hope all is going well with the rescue. We couldn't be happier with our "love bug" (one of Liga's many other names) and will always be very grateful to GLBCR for bringing her into our lives :o)

Liga has settled in very nicely to our home. Shortly after being adopted, she fortuitously (in her eyes) realized she really enjoys sleeping on air mattresses. Since we had not yet bought her a bed, we decided to buy her a twin size air mattress instead and cover it with a blanket (which was actually much, much cheaper than a traditional dog bed). She absolutely loves the thing, and is quite reluctant to leave it in the mornings :o)

The fate of Liga's left eye (blind either secondary to trauma from a dog fight or congenital retinal atrophy) is still in the air. If we aren't able to keep it free from a mild conjunctivitis, she will have to have it removed. She seems to cope quite well with the limited vision, though. Her health is otherwise excellent.

Beau ... read Beau's Foster Journal . 0802

Hogan As I write this - his head is on my leg...His favorite snuggle position is between me and the back of the couch or the side of the bed and on his back! ...We go to Dog Class 2 sometimes 3 times a month on Wednesday evenings. I think it is good basic practice - but it does drive him crazy a bit. He wants to herd everyone. Speaking of - he is a big herder - of whatever! And boy does he like to run. He is like a bullet out of a gun! We have been jogging - but that in no way compares to an all out, full speed, gallop! ... I have given him so many nicknames - but the one that has stuck is "Bubba Lou" Remember the cartoon character Quick Draw MaGraw and his side kick Bubba Lou? Well, Hogan follows me everywhere!! He is my sidekick - so I could not help but call him Bubba Lou. I even have this crazy little song I sing to him about 'Bubba Lou - I love you!" He is a character. And I truly know that all he ever wanted was love. He wants so bad to please. He knows when he does something wrong - he actually will come and get me!! 0802

Hogan's owner is now a valuedt GLBCR volunteer in Indiana!

Adoption Date: 8/28/02 History: Laddie (Buster) was a stray and placed in a shelter until coming into GLBCR foster care. He was about 18 months old, very puppy playful, yet strong willed from being on the street. During foster care, he completed obedience class and an opportunity to trial on sheep herding. His comedic antics were a daily routine, keeping his foster family laughing....a special boy, always remembered with a smile!

8/30/02 Laddie fell in love with Lizzie, our Border Collie/Newfie mix immediately. My Aussie mix, Jesse, being the second born, is still trying to figure out who this new kid is and how he fits into the mix. Laddie's trying so hard to please me and he has such a sweet disposition. In the house, each dog has a cushioned dog mat for their treats and to sleep and it Laddie two days to adapt to his new mat. It only took him 3 days to realize how many seconds he has to steal a biscuit from one of the other dogs' mats before that dog comes back from the water dish!!! He's really smart.... The larger portion of his day is spent outside with us. My husband built him his own doggie condo inside our shed and it's filled with fresh straw. Again, thanks for bringing him to us. He's a real sweetie and it's hard not to spoil him.

9/19/02 He ran after some wild turkey the other day and couldn't be seen. We started to look for him & wouldn't you know he comes walking out of the woods like to say, "They're gone now. What's wrong?"

10/22/02 Lad and Jesse have become best buds. They roam around, wrestle, race at breakneck speed chasing each other, and get into all kinds of trouble. They seem to be on the same wave-length, just different enough to amuse and challenge each other. Lad and Lizzie play in a completely different way. With Liz, it's two Border Collies outwitting each other...she usually wins. With Jesse, it's two buddies wrestling. We love to watch Lad roll on the grass...his paws flailing in the air, standing up covered with dried grass. He gravitates to my husband, which surprised me, but my husband loves it. Lad does have a tender heart. I'm struggling not to show him favoritism because he speaks so clearly with his face.

2/20/03 I decided to take Laddie to a lady who does agility, obedience, and behavioral training. I've picked up so much in subtle dog body language, how to spot potential problems, and nip them in the bud. She stresses immediate correction followed by positive reinforcement (treats and /or praise. She's working with me to help Laddie be dependent on looking to me for how to respond rather than taking charge of his surroundings alone. He fears things that aren't a threat and needs to let me decide. He's so smart and seems to be really responsive.

07/01/2007 It's been a few years since Laddie came to live with us. He's doing great with his brother and sister and is helping me daily on the farm. Laddie continues to be quite the entertainer. He was jumping around in the living room, trying to leap at flies that had gotten in the front door. It's going to be pretty hot here the next few days, so Laddie, Lizzie, and Jesse will be having a 'pool party' in a plastic pool we bought for such days. Laddie and Jesse lay down in the cold water, then jump out, and start running around wildly.

At night, they're out in their big pen where they bark at the deer and raccoons. All three have regular singing lessons. One will start barking, working into a howl...then another chimes in, then the third. They raise their little faces to the sky and close their eyes and just sing their little doggie songs. If my husband or I happen to look out at them, they immediately stop, as if we've invaded their privacy. It's so funny. I haven't tried joining in on their rendition of 'Three Dog Night', but that's a thought. A few months ago, I saw an Animal Planet special on wolves. They said when wolves howl, they're often just expressing contentment at being in the pack.

Laddie has worked out so well as a farm dog. One of his favorite things is to catch possum. He shakes them until they faint then stands over them until they wake up and shakes them again. Fortunately, my husband always intervenes. Laddie loves anything that moves. When I'm gardening, he's busy nosing under logs by the wood stove looking for mice. My husband spotted a woodchuck near our front porch and he barely got the pen gate open before Laddie was off in a flash. He's way too smart for us and I sometimes feel we're too boring for him, but he doesn't seem affected so long as he's hugged and snuggled.

Hope everything is going well in rescue. Thanks for all your hard work for Border Collies. It's such a great cause. And thanks for one of the most special BC's in the world. Laddie means so much to us.

Pete and Riley are litter mates who had a rough start. They were as inseparable then as they are now. When we first adopted them, they were still shy, skinny, and a little bit uncoordinated (especially Pete). But that was then, now they have both gained ten pounds and so much confidence. There are lots of other dogs in their new neighborhood, and both Pete and Riley do their best to meet and play with all of them. Their pleasant disposition and tendency to lay down for belly rubs as soon as they meet you makes them unfit as watchdogs but the envy of all the other dog owners in our neighborhood.

Even though they are more confident than ever, Pete and Riley are still very loving and affectionate. Pete would rather lay on the wood floor near our feet than on the fancy dog bed we bought for him. Riley is not shy about nudging you with his head to encourage you to start petting him. You can't help but smile when you are around these guys. Their favorite pastime is playing ball at the park, although it would be nice if they brought the ball back once and a while. Pete used to just run and watch Riley get the ball, but now Pete is regularly beating Riley to the ball. They look forward to going to the park almost as much as they look forward to their morning and evening walks. 0802

Mabel 0902