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Milly (Camilla)

6/12/2005 We took Camilla home yesterday. We've renamed her Milly and our first night went very well. The cats aren't too sure about this yet, but I'm sure they'll get over it with time. But having been 4 months without a dog, it's a big adjustment for them again. Milly's not too sure what to make of the cats yet, but hasn't done more than bark a little at one of them. She's in love with my dad, but follows me around the house. And she's really enjoying cuddle time.

Thank you for helping us get her. I believe she's going to be a wonderful addition to the family and is already helping fill the void in our hearts left by the loss of Precious.

Zuzu (Ladybug)

02/12/2007 I am the happy owner of Zuzu (formerly Lady Bug), a border collie mix we adopted from GLBCR a year and a half ago. I was just on your web site and saw your requests for updates from your alumni, so I thought I'd write and let you know that she is doing great. Her foster mom was Leslie, with whom we thoroughly enjoyed all our dealings.

Zuzu loves life with me, my wife, and our 5 year old son. She gets long daily walks, including some off-leash time in a safe area. Our nickname for her is Screw Loose, not least because of the nutty way she runs when she is free. She'll often turn a tight, clockwise 2-step circle in mid-run and while traveling at full speed. It's quite a funny thing to witness, and suggests the nickname. Zuzu especially loves to run and play in snow, but she does not like water at all. In the summer, I often substitute a bike ride for her walk when it is not too hot. She loves this too. She is an excellent traveler, and enjoys our many camping trips and area day hikes. The mere suggestion of going with us in the car sends her into the back of the Subaru, where she will stay until we have packed and left.

Zuzu is very easy to live with, eating little and staying very trim. When people ask me what she's mixed with, I often say, "something not very bright", since she is a bit of a daffy dog, but I quickly add that what she lacks in smarts she more than makes up for in sweetness. We live near family members that have a husky, and the two dogs are great companions. Zuzu has other neighborhood friends too. Here is a typical evening at home for her: Last night my son and I made a fire in the fireplace and laid on the floor next to it listening to a children's story on CD. Zuzu came over, plunked down next to us, and the three of us lay tangled up together, soaking up the warmth of the fire, Zuzu trading us gentle nips and preens for a neck and belly massage. She is patient with kids and moderates her play appropriately.

Attached are a couple of pictures of Zuzu with my son Parker. They were taken this past summer, when we'd had Zuzu about a year. She never assumes that smart-as-a-whip Border Collie facial expression for the camera, but rest assured she is a beloved family member and has matured into a confident and comfortable adult dog. I often sing the praises of your well-run organization and the fine pet we adopted from you. I simply can't imagine why someone abandoned this dog in the first place.

Chaplin

6/7/05 Chap & I met Kevin Trail at Kelly & Rob Smith's (GLBCR friends). Chap doesn't hold females in high regard & Kelly isn't very dog savvy....but Chaplin turned on the charm ;-) He had her playing Fris & soccer! Rob, who seldom comes out to visit with the foster dogs, tried his best to talk me into leaving Chaplin with him!

Needless to say, Kevin was astonished by Chaplin....in every way - Chap's beauty, ability, intelligence, & understanding of the English language.

I've had to say, "So long" to over 100 foster dogs & it really doesn't get easier. I wanted to hug Chap & love him up one last time, before letting him go, but he's not one for such emotional displays of affection. I knelt beside him, told him how much I enjoyed learning so much from him & that I hoped he would remember me fondly. Chap looked into my eyes with such understanding, then leaned forward & gave me an ever so tender kiss. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Another quirky boy, who stole a piece of my heart.

02/16/2006 I wanted to again thank the fine people at the rescue for providing such an amazing a caring service! I couldn't be happier with my new Border Collie! Chaplin is such a great dog and so smart that it's almost scary. I work from home and take him with me when I leave if possible and we have so much fun! He loves showing off for my friends and their dogs! He is also very considerate of the less fortunate. One of Chap's new friends is a 3 year old Weimeraner that is totally jealous of Chaplin's abilities and intelligence. Chap treats him with great care and even allows him to outrun him, or to have the toy that they both want. It's really neat to watch the way Chaplin helps build his confidence. Chaplin's attitude towards females has changed drastically and he goes crazy when my Mom, or friend Jennifer come to visit. We're both completely spoiled by the friendship we have built with each other and I wouldn't have it any other way! I just can't say enough about Chaplin and how much he means to me.

7/24/2005 Just wanted to give you a quick update on the boy. We are still in love, he is still doing well and life is good. We spent the day yesterday at the lake and he is a very tired boy today - we slept in until 9:30 because we did not get home until very late - he did get up with us, but was very sleepy eyed and ruffled - very cute.

He swam a little bit yesterday. Kitty and I spent probably 2 hours trying to get him out in the water swimming with us of his own volition, but he would go only so far as the drop-off and not further. Finally, Kitty gently picked him up and placed him over his head and let him swim back to shore - he is a very good swimmer, but still would not do it on his own. I think a few more times and he will do so voluntarily - he really is an amazingly good swimmer - I think he just needs a bit more exposure. His first ride in the boat was a bit "intense" - he was way excited - so it will take a lot more exposure before we will be able to introduce fishing rods and hooks to the equation.

At home, Dylan has decided that the run and chase game is far more fun then just retrieve the ball game - so we now have this very elaborate hide-seek-run-like-mad game that he just loves and it gives us lots of exercise too. In fact, I have already lost a few pounds since his arrival. Maybe I should write a book and call it - The Doggie Diet: Shed those unwanted pounds by going to the pound!

02/15/2006 Dylan started agility last week and wow. He is already amazing! He even tries to do the obstacles by himself. His biggest challenge is listening when there are that many other dogs and distractions around, but after the first 15 minutes or so, he begins settling down. He really does have everything needed to become a champion in the sport. He'll go as far as we want to take him.

He has very much settled into our routine and even though the little guy has energy to burn, he knows how to settle right in and do the long couch snooze, too. A couple of weekends past, I had an entire house jam packed with female relatives and he thought he had died and went to heaven! He made a point to visit all 6 through the night and cuddled and licked and nuzzled all. He stole a few hearts along the way, too:) He now has some walking buddies, too: a little pug named Harold, a beautiful and fun, fun, fun Newfoundland/Lab mix named Milan, and a very large, gentle Newfie named Toby. Of course, the Newfies are very fond of water, much to Dylan's dismay. I don't think Dylan is ever going to be a water dog: he just doesn't trust it. That is fine by us as we are starting to appreciate the fact that we don't have to pack up a wet doggie all the time!

Dylan (Scamp)

7/2/05 Just thought we would give you a brief report on our first 24 hours with Dylan - formerly known as Scamp. What an amazing dog!! He seems to intuitively understand that Raz is 19 years old and that nosy beeps are fine, chasing is not. She has no fear of him and has actually sought out his company. He and Casper are trying to work things out. Casper wants to be near him, but not too close - Dylan has learned to keep some distance and not let himself get trapped by the cat. I think they will be fine. The two young cats run and Dylan chases, although a firm No stops him and we are able to redirect his attention.

In regards to the name change, we tend to like old hippy names for dogs and thought Dylan fit him well - although we did consider keeping Scamp as his name since he does have a little wily sneakiness about him. Again, his intelligence is amazing - almost scary - as he already knows his new name.

He was a little crazy boy this morning when I let him out of his crate - totally unable to contain himself. A walk and some backyard ball playing helped burn some energy and since then he has been very calm. For 10 months old, I would even call him sedate. He definitely does not want his people far and is, as I write this, curled up under the desk. He met some of our friends this morning and they and Dylan were mutually enamored. We discovered during their visit that he is quite sensitive to the electric garage door opener - lots of barking and a few growly barks. Any idea what that is about? We have had him off leash in the backyard this morning and his recall has been great - will be a few weeks before I trust him on the perimeter, but I anticipate he will easily perimeter train.

Last night he paced a great deal after you left, but since this morning he has been content to explore his surroundings calmly and sleep, sleep and more sleep. I combed him this morning and he ended up falling asleep during it - very sweet.

While there is still some way to go with the cats, we feel like everything has gone very well thus far and Dylan is amazing us all the time. We feel very lucky to have found him. Thanks again to both of you for taking such good care of him and bringing him to us. Know you are always welcome to come visit.

Tegan

8/28/2005 We just wanted to give everyone an update on Tegan. We have had her for 6 weeks, and she is just an absolute sweetie! We have discovered that she loves to cuddle and she loves kids! Our 5 year old neighbor is positively taken with her. Her favorite thing to do is chew on things, especially pool rafts. We are now buying kongs in bulk :-) She is very curious about the pool, and water in general. I can't wait to get her to the lake to try swimming. She is doing well with her obedience training, and we are off to official puppy class in 2 weeks. Tegan gets along very well with her BC brother, Branch. The two of them play for hours in the yard. Thank you for rescuing our Tegan! She is a great addition to our family!

07/19/2006 Tegan is a wonderful dog! She has the best disposition, and is very friendly. She is a great addition to our family, and we just love her. Tegan has grown from a puppy into a solid 55-pound cuddle machine. She is all muscle, and is so quick and agile.

Tegan can usually be found laying on "her" couch, patrolling the yard for squirrel and rabbit invaders, having wrestle/chase/bitey-face play time with her BC brother, or enjoying a car ride or walk. She loves everyone, especially other dogs and kids. Her very favorite thing to do is sit on our laps and cuddle. We wanted to thank you again for rescuing such a great dog, and we're so happy that she's found her forever home with us.

07/10/07 We just celebrated 2 years of having Tegan in our family. She continues to be the world's sweetest and friendliest dog, especially with kids. Tegan loves to have doggy playdates in our yard with the neighbor dogs. She also loves to play with her BC brother, Branch, go on walks and car rides, and chase off the neighborhood stray cats. Her new best friend is our 8 month old daughter. Tegan follows her around as she crawls, and shows her belly to get gentle baby pets. She is just a wonderful dog! Thanks again for rescuing her!

More Pictures

Ruby (Tina)

7/8/05 The Bergmann Family has renamed Tina to Ruby which goes with their BC Opal to give them 2 gems.

7/12/2005 Wanted to give you an update on Tina/Ruby's one week birthday in her new home. She's doing so well and every day she seems more comfortable, secure and happy. We all adore her and are having such fun watching her personality unfold. There have been no further arguments between Opal and Ruby. They are very relaxed together now. Ruby at first seemed confused by Opal's attempts to play with her, but once she saw her at play with the neighbor dogs, she quickly figured it out. She has also met Isabel and Sierra, two of the dogs next door and done some romping with them. Though she submits to Opal, she quickly established dominance (in a friendly way) over these two younger dogs. She already responds without difficulty to her new name and has been very responsive to commands. She seems to love all people and enjoys any and all kinds of touch. She positively wallows when I brush her and can't seem to get enough! She also is eating her dog food without a problem (right next to Opal) and learning to take treats gently.

Uma

Nelson

8/17/2005 Here is Nelson at almost 6 months old. He still has that soulful expression and boy does he know how to use it!!! hahaha. He has fit into our family so smoothly that one can not question whether it was meant to Nelson listens to anyone that comes into our home. He looks right in your eyes and you swear he knows what the heck they're talking about. All that he has done this to are wrapped around his paw. After learning how to shake in about a half an hour, he now initiates shaking when someone comes up to him. That of course is after he wags himself into a U like his sister Dotty does.

We started taking him to the dog park pretty soon and now go at least once a day. We have 2 favorites and alternate between them. I had no idea there were so many neat dog parks in Madison. Nelson's a social butterfly, but is moody. Not that that's a bad thing. He just has different days. Some days he'll play with any dog, some days he likes to follow around the old timers and of course the crazy tearing around days are for other pups (which by the way, is alot like me minus the crazy tearing around hahah). I really do think his adaptation to fetching was in part watching other dogs do it. He sat and watched so much. Then we got the chuck-it. Wooo hooo, man he loves that thing. Most of the time he's trying to grab the ball before we're in and I have his leash off.

We're working on swimming and the first time in, a lil german shepard his age can take credit for him getting wet as he followed her in. He still only wants to go only up to his chest unless I'm in with him. Swimming's on hold for awhile because he may have picked something up from the water and has been a little sick the last couple days.

We only had him continue with the crate for about a week and a half. he prefers his cushy bed now and flops in it. I think just for fun sometimes to feel the air squish out. It's cute. He picked up a variety words really fast: come, sit, shake, be nice, move over( hahah for the vehicle), it's bedtime, let's go (he shoots up from a dead sleep). He goes insane at "wanna go to the park" and as we drive there he's looking around like he's searching for the ball. He knows the route to the closer one and starts wagging about half way there.

Nelson doesn't bark a whole lot. In super play mode he will along with some gruff noises. He's vocal in goofy ways. kinda refer to him as a little Tim Allen. hahaha. Thank god he likes car rides as I'm always taking or picking up someone. It's doing this that he's gotten to know everyones name. As we're waiting I repeat where's______?, and he looks around until they come out then usually slaps me up with the tail. So at home ,saying,'go get____"has resulted in him running crazy clumsy like to that person and they receive a bunch of kisses (oh ya he's got give me some kisses down too, how the heck could I forget that one!!)

Some things we had to work on were, getting used to a brush (he growled at it), taking a bath (jumps right in now), and getting used to little kids. With the kids it seems to be just ones who "rush" him that freak him out. A "slow down sweetie" to the child usually does the trick. Nelson's very protective at night. Even neighbors with whom he sucks up the lovin' with get some growls at night. It's a low rumble, never barking. A soft "be nice" usually soothes his stature.

As for me.... Nelson's fit a spot in my heart and soul that surely needed filling. I've had a continueing empty nest thing going on for awhile and with the youngest about to able able to drive alone... whew it probably would have kicked into high gear without Nelson. I asked myself (do that alot... hahah) if it was a matter of Nelson taking my boys place. I decided that while that may be the intial reason, Nelson has carved his own space and the paws someone would have to fill in his absence would be huge. As for Nelson, I think he's truely happy. He's showered with lovin', gets to explore all over the darn place. One complaint I know he has is Fred, the teasing cat who, upon Nelson'a arrival, seemed more than willing to play. He has since changed his mind... Little devil... lol

I'm so glad I took my time in finding Nelson and certainly thank the people at GLBCR for what they do. As Nelson's foster mom knows (Peggy), I think very highly of foster parents. Keep up the great work!! I look forward to adopting a buddy for Nelson some time in the future but for now, it's just me and my shadow and we're having fun with that.

02/03/2006 We've had nelson for 7 months now. It seems a lot longer and not in a bad way. It's just a tad hard to image things without him. Nelson is extremely in tune with just about everything. The vocabulary he has learned just by listening is astounding. So much so that quite often we have to watch what we say or he'll think we're doing something we're actually not. For example...saying, "when do you want to go grocery shopping.".. he knows shopping...nuff said...lol

He has not grown into any aggressive behavior thus far and I believe that's due to all the time we spend at the dog parks. He's been exposed to so many dogs, he actually is picky now with choosing playmates. His ball fetish usually outweighs playing with any dog, at least for the first half hour. He started jumping for the ball about a month ago. Because of this I threw a frisbee. He's trying that now.

He has what I feel is a heathly protective nature. He doesn't bark or growl at people randomly at all accept at appropreate times. That meaning late at night and such.

The little children issue he started out with is kind of still there. That really depends on the kids. If he's "rushed" he backs up and may very quietly growl but anyone who walks up slow is greeted with wags.

His nickname in our neighborhood is wiggles, has been since the first week here. He LOVES car rides and man o man , knows the car keys sound. It was thought that Nelson and his siblings were bc/beagle/possibly terrier mix. Nelson does not have any herding instincts to speak of but has all the smarts you'd expect.

He's at 40 pounds now and our vet doesn't think he'll get too much bigger. His head is level with the coffee table, hence...watch what you put on there..lol

Adopting Nelson was one of the best things we've ever done and hope to do it again.