I started this as a place to share stories about my crazy dog Kess.  The story really starts long before Kess and I came to know each other.  I’ve always loved dogs.  If there was a dog around I was instantly drawn to it.  Unfortunately my older sister is quite allergic to animals so for obvious reasons we were unable to have a dog of our own.  When I was 11 my sister moved out on her own, and to my surprise my mother took me to meet some border collie puppies.  I wasn’t enamored, but I think I would have taken just about ANY dog home.  This was to be my first border collie, Coco, and she stayed with me for 16 years.  She went with me to college and saw me through some tough times. 

Coco was extraordinarily intelligent, and could turn doorknobs and push open windows.  She was known for traveling around town visiting friends.  Coco was one of “those” border collies, and was a challenge to put it mildly, but I loved every bit of her good and bad.  As Coco grew older I knew I couldn’t bear to be without a dog so I started checking petfinder and visiting the local shelters often.  I swore up and down I just wanted a big dumb dog. 

I managed a pet store at the time and struck a conversation with a customer wearing a border collie rescue shirt.  She mentioned a dog at the city pound that they didn’t have room for.  Said she was a real sweet dog that would just about wiggle her butt off for some attention.  I couldn’t get off work and asked my mom to swing by and take a look at her.  My mother agreed that she was just a sweetheart of a dog.

So I went to the shelter first thing the next morning.  She was just 6 months old and indeed was a little ball of wiggle.  The only time she quit moving was when someone was petting her, at which point she would begin to melt across any part of you she could reach.  So I proceeded to harass my husband with phone calls extolling the virtues of the shelter dog for the next 8 hours, and finally he agreed to go look at the dog.  As expected he was unimpressed, but he knew that there wasn’t much he could do to prevent me from adopting her.  So he held his ground another night and then offered to pick her up before I got home the following day.

When he went to adopt the dog they said she was no longer available, and that she was to be sent to rescue in Canada.  The dog was still on site and did not have a home in Canada.  We were given the option of adopting her through the Canadian rescue.  This was all good and well, but the Canadian facility wanted $400 when the county pound only cost $60.  I was pretty perturbed about the fact that the rescue in Canada would hold her for 3 days, make me drive up there to get her and then pay them an extra $360 for my troubles.  The shelter staff agreed, and gave me the contact info for the rescue group.  After talking with them they allowed me to adopt her through the local shelter.  While her heart was full of love and enthusiasm, Kess hadn’t had many experiences in her short life.  She was like a little ball of energy, with no release, she didn’t know how to play fetch (criminal for a 6 month old border collie), couldn’t walk on a leash or do much of anything other than wiggle at first.  After a slow start it became apparent that Kess only had 2 settings: go, and go faster!! 

Kess 6 months old