Great stories! Sadie looks like maybe a Schnauzer/Lab mix to me, and Bailey is adorable, too. She looks like she might have some Cattle Dog in her, I adore Cattle Dogs.
My parents have a rescue ACD, Sydney, who has kind of a funny story. They had just moved with my two teenage brothers into a house in the country, and they boys had wanted a dog, like, forever. They had been discussing it for weeks. I was home from college, and we were in town having lunch with my dad, who happened to work down the street from the animal shelter. After lunch my stepmom decided, why not stop by the shelter and check out the dogs - not seriously thinking we'd find one, but "just looking." My brothers described to me the family's ideal dog - an Australian Cattle Dog, female, adult, and the 'red heeler' type, not the blue one like my aunt has.
"You mean, like that one?" The EXACT dog they described was out on a walk in front of the shelter! It was downright spooky! Shelby, as she was called, had lived on a farm and been turned in by her owner with another young, male ACD. Not sure why. We had cats, so they took her into the cat room to test her reaction, and she acted like she didn't care about the cats at all. So, after some conferring with my dad, we brought her home and they renamed her Sydney.
Well, Sid was apparently on her best behaviour at the shelter, because as soon as she came home she made it her personal mission to rid the house of cats! My folks wouldn't take her back though, they'd fallen in love with her by then. So they are still working on training her around the cats, and the house remains divided into "dog" and "cat" sections! We joke that Sydney doesn't hate cats, actually she loves them - they're delicious.
I'm now a complete fan of ACD's and want to get involved in ACD rescue, someday when I have room. They are the most amazingly intelligent dogs - though very willful!
My own doggy, I've told the story but I'll do a brief version here. (Ok, sorry, I don't think there IS a brief version...) I was volunteering with a rescue group, at a mobile adoption event. I couldn't have a dog at the time, and I knew this, which was why I was volunteering.
So at this event, the county shelter had brought a handful of dogs, which our rescue founder kept directing people towards, in a hushed voice, as our county shelter is very high-kill here. One of the county dogs was this little fluffy red thing, and when I first saw her she was passed out on her side in the middle of the event. I asked her handler "what's wrong with that dog?" LOL. She had been spayed 2 days prior for the event, and being underweight and tiny, was still groggy from the surgery, poor thing.
For some reason, something about this dog just grabbed hold of me, and I knew I wasn't allowed to let her die. It wasn't my idea either, it was literally as if God told me this was now my mission. (That doesn't happen to me a lot...really.
) So I kept an eye on her, and at the end of the day when she went back to the shelter I got her info. I put up ads all over the internet for someone to please adopt this dog. I called the shelter every other day to check up on her. A week went by, no takers, and she was scheduled for euth on a Monday. A generous friend offered to foster her if I wanted to find her a home, so I took her up on it and pulled the dog on Saturday.
Oddly enough, the dog seemed to recognize me when I went to the shelter to see her. I had only met her briefly, a week ago, so I thought that was kind of strange. She was so afraid to come out of the kennel that the shelter worker had to carry her to my car. After about five minutes of driving, the little dog sighed with relief and I could actually see the tension leaving her body as she was finally someplace quiet!
I kep trying to find a family for this sweet, perfectly behaved dog. Unfortunately (or fortunately in the end!) she decided she was my dog. Every family that we met felt compelled to tell me that "that dog sure does love you!" I took her to the office with me a few times, and one of my coworkers mentioned that "Yeah, once in a lifetime you get a dog like that. If you're lucky."
You can guess where this is going...I moved into another apartment, and the dog moved in with me. She follows me everywhere, and is the sweetest, best behaved dog I've every met. She acts like a therapy dog, without my having trained her at all - we go into say, the rental car office, and she lays down calmly at my feet to wait for me. She ignores other dogs when walking with me, and is 100% reliable off-leash. Without my having trained her. Now, with my roommate, she's a normal dog, and does normal dog stuff - running away, not listening to commands, has to greet all the other dogs, etc. It's a great mystery.
She was an owner surrender, and I have no idea why or how anyone could give up a dog like this. I've had her for a little over a year, and can't remember life without her. I may very well be ruined for dogs now.
Her name was Mimi, and currently it's Sienna, but it doesn't really fit her, so I'll take suggestions! I call her Pup when I call her, but that's not really a proper name, so...I'm thinking of Zora (fox), Kiely, Tokala (fox - Kala for short), Sachi, Misko, Harper, Sadzi, or Kilka. I know it's horrible to have a dog for a year and decide the name doesn't fit! And usually I'm really good at naming things, so it's really bothering me!
Anyway sorry for the novel!!! Here's Sydney the cat lover:
And here's Pup in her shelter impound photo:
And today:
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