Soon after I got Kess I started to look for things for her to do.  She was competing in flyball and disc, and taking herding lessons.  Every once in a while she would come up lame on her right hind leg.  There was never any associated swelling and x-rays showed nothing.  It always seemed to clear up with a few days rest, so I never thought much of it.

Well one day the week before a tournament Kess came up lame.  It seemed like such a simple thing at the time.  I remember e-mailing the team and telling them Kess had to take a week off, I figured she’d torn a muscle or something.  This decision put into motion a series of events that would forever change Kess’slife.  While I was out doing who knows what that weekendmy husband took Kessoutside to wander around while he did yard work.  Apparently he was throwing the ball without paying much attention to where it.  This is all good an well for a normal dog, but Kess collided full speed (approx 20mph) with the wall of our shed while chasing down the ball. 

When I got home Kessdidn’t greet me at the door so I knew something was up.  My husband mentioned she yealpedwhen she was playing ball, but didn’t describe the incident.  I found her hiding the the garage and obviously in pain.  I gave her a 1/2 aspirin and set her up a nice place to rest.  By the next day she was doing much better and was up and about.  Day 3 she seemed fine, allthough still limping a little on her leg.  I assumed the pain was associated with her leg and after a couple more days she seemed back to herself.  I took her out to play and she quickly crumpled.  My heart sank and I rushed her to the vet.  The x-rays showed a ruptured disc over her hips.  The continued activity had only made the situation worse.  I came home andgot the full story from my husband, and I was not pleased.

Kess was never paralyzed as a result of the disc rupture, and we didn’t have the money for an mri or surgery so I just waited and waited.  I read online that these things can sometimes heal on their own with enough rest so Kess was put on crate confinement and steroids for almost 3 months.  I watched her beautiful muscles waste away.  I watched her suffer and become frustrated and depressed about her confinement.   Of course during this time we pretty much completely forgot about her leg.

After months of waiting Kess was allowed out of the crate and could walk on leash or go for short romps, but no directed play (ball, disc, etc).  One year later I decided it was safe to let her run again.  After just a couple of weeks of fun we noticed the swelling in Kess’s ankle.  So it was back to the vet.  They extracted some cells from the growth and determined that it was not cancer.  We scheduled a surgery to have the mass removed, and after surgery the vet called to say she was pretty sure it was this really agressive horrible cancer and Kess was going to die, and that we should get it tested again.  They tested part of the tumor, which to everyone’s surprise, also came back negative.  Kess was patched up and sent home with painkillers and steriods.  The leg just never healed,  it was always swollen and  just a mess.  Six months later after numerous rounds of antibiotics and steroids the best excuse the vet had was autoimmune disorder attacking the joint.  I knew that wasn’t right, so I took her for a 2nd opinion. 

Vet number 2 also tested cells from the growth which came back negative, at this point I was convinced it wasn’t cancer and was getting pretty tired of shelling out more money for cancer tests.  This vet thought that maybe Kess was just to crazy to heal right.  Even in her crate she sits tense and at attention, keeping an eye on everything that’s going on so I thought that he might be on to something.  So Kess got a great big compression wrap put on her leg to see if they could keep it stable long enough for it to heal.  This went on for 4 weeks and required weekly visits.  I had drive 40 min to drop her off and come back later in the day to pick her up (no easy task with 2 kids under 4, which are both on different school schedules).  When we took off the wrap the leg looked worse than ever.  Vet number 2 said he had no idea what it was and suggested a specialist. 

here's Kess stealing blue berries while sporting her compression wrap

By the time I made it toVet number 3 I was pretty sure I just wanted the leg removed.  The vet looked at all the history and listened to me and started to go over all of the options.  I stopped her mid sentence and said “what about removing the leg?”  A look of relief washed over her face, and she said, “I’m so glad you brought that up.”  Apparently she’d been building up to it.  Within moments the surgery was scheduled.  They still didn’t know what was wrong, but it was clear from the condition of the leg that it would never heal and be a constant source of pain.  I declined further cancer tests on the leg prior to surgery. 

 The surgeon was curious about the root cause of Kess’s problem and decied to do an autopsy on the leg after the amputation.  She called me and asked me to please test for cancer one last time with bone and tissue samples.  She said after looking at the tumor it couldn’t be anything else.  Still convinced it wasn’t cancer I agreed to the tests. 

Well two weeks later when the Dr called to say it was cancer I was pretty stunned, we had after all already tested the thing 3 times, and done numerous x-rays.  Of course I hopped on the computer and googled synovial cell sarcoma.  Everything on the web says your dog will be dead between 6-36 months.  I was a mess, sleeping on the floor of the living room with my wounded dog, feeling like I just put Kess through more misery only to have to watch her die slowly from cancer.  A  few days later I’d formulated all of my questions and concerns and was able to talk with the surgeon in person, who actually felt that Kess had a pretty good chance of a long and normal life.  Since the cancer hadn’t spread, despite having years to do so, the surgeon felt that it was likely that we’d seen the last of it (can you say relieved).  They have recommended annual x-rays to keep an eye on things.

So how do I feel about things looking back.  Vet num 1 = schmuck, you’re a scientist you’re supposed to dig for answers, if you’re to burned out to do that get a new job! 

Vet number 2 tried his best, admitted he didn’t know the answer and recommened a specialist.  I’m very happy he was a big enough man to admit that he didn’t know rather that just come up with something to shut me up.  He also asked me to please update him since it was turning out to be such a curious case. 

Specialist and vet number 3 thank you so much, you’re our hero! 

I also encouraged all of the Drs I worked with to look into which tumor testing facilities they use and if there is any third party system for publishing how often their results are wrong.  I followed up with a letter about my experience to all of the vets involved.  Even though I was pretty angry with vet number one, what I really wanted was for everyone to learn from the experience.  Every vet we saw was sure it was cancer and let the test results guide their decisions.   Hopefully this experience will teach all of the Drs involved to trust their instincts andto be willing to dig a little deeper to find an answer in the future. 

In the end the first diagnosis we got turned out to be right.  So with all this in mind I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s not much you can do about the past or the future so Kess and I will dwell in the present andtake each day as they come.  The final price tag was somewhere around $6k, andeven my husband agrees that it was worth it in the end.  Our family just wouldn’t be the same without crazy Kess.

ho hum

One of the things that stays in my mind throughout this whole process is, will I still have the same dog that I started out with? Part of what makes Kess, Kess is her large and in charge attitude. Her confidence is a defining characteristic of her personality. Will she feel weak or intimidated about her leg?

Lately the pergo in the house has been a big problem. True to Kess’s border collie nature she likes to keep things orderly, and rough housing inside is strictly against Kess’s rules. If she hears a commotion in the other room she’s up like a shot, and comes charging in to put a stop to all the shenanigans. Now however, when she comes charging into the room she usually ends up splayed out and scrambling on the pergo. She always immediately gets very meek and then skulks off after such an incident. It has come to the point now, that she does not like to walk on the pergo and is very tentative, and in some cases refuses to walk on it.

At 7 years old I don’t have much hope of eliminating this sort of behavior. I thought at least if she had some traction she wouldn’t fall down, so I put several throw rugs out. Now the problem is that she’s usually going so fast that the rugs slip out of place (and really you can only have so many throw rugs out). I got her a ruff wear bootie for her back leg, the skyliner in xxs. The width is right, but the bootie isn’t long enough to fit her foot properly.  I did e-mail them to see if they had any suggestions. I just want to do everything possible to make Kess feel confident and strong and back to her old self.

Since the amputation many things have changed for the better. Several people at thanksgiving remarked that she seemed much happier, and were impressed with her enthusiastic greetings at the door. Kess has also started to wrestle with Suki again. She hasn’t done this for years and I just thought she’d outgrown it. Kess also hangs out with us a lot more. For the last 2 years, while the vets tried to properly diagnose Kess, she spent most of her time hanging out in our rarely used front room.

Each day continues to bring challenges, but also brings to light just how much poor Kess has suffered the last few years. I’m so glad she’s feeling happy, safe, and strong again.

Took the dogs down to the park to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day and fresh snow. Kess had a blast charging around with Suki.

snow dogs 2011

Kess is an amazing athlete and has always excelled at any sport I tried with her. In just her first year competing she placed 1st in the regional disc championship in the novice toss and catch division. If I’d been braver and entered the expert division her score would have been high enough for an invite to the world championships. Not long after this Kess had a pretty serious accident. As dogs go, Kess isn’t generally concerned with self preservation and injured her back after colliding with a wall while playing fetch (I wasn’t home when it happened so I don’t know the full story). We couldn’t afford an MRI at the time, and x-rays pointed to a ruptured disc. We also couldn’t afford back surgery so after lots of research I decided to keep Kess on limited activity, leash walks only for 6 months to one year. The good news is that her back healed up great. The bad news was that as soon as we got over that hurdle we noticed the lump in her ankle joint. Despite numerous tests, surgeries, and vet visits Kess’s cancer went undiagnosed (we’ll tell that story another day). Anyway long story short I’ve been helping kess work back up to a full speed run, and decided she was ready to try for her first catch post-op. Here she is 27 days after surgery. I’m so proud of her, and excited for all the possibilities in the years to come.

I grew up in TX and my highschool like many others had all the regular clicks.  I was an athlete, but in TX soccer doesn’t really count as a sport.  The football players roamed the halls with the confidence and bravado of youth.  I needed to exercise Kess and you just can’t walk far enough to tire out a border collie, and she wasn’t safe off-leash, so it was off to the dog park.  As I watched Kess interact with other the dogs I began to notice that she really wasn’t all that different from those highscool guys.  Kess was really competitive and while she didn’t start any fights, she wasn’t necessarily polite.  She’d race onto the scene zip by some unsuspecting dog and give them a big body check on the way by, just daring them to try and catch her.  Kess was sassy and obnoxious, her favorite toy was a kong on a rope which she would flail about so it would beat her on either side of her chest, making a loud wumping noise.  If a dog was too slow she’d let them keep pace for a bit and then turn on the juice and leave them like they were standing still.  Kess eventually discovered chuck-its and we would play for hours at the park.

I loved to watch Kess run.  She’s tall and lanky for a BC.  Her build is reminiscent of a greyhound, and she was FAST.  She could just run and run, and you just had to smile at this neurotic little puppy racing around the dog park without a care in the world.   So we became regulars at the park and knew everyone there as well as you can know a group of people you stand around with while your dogs cavort.  After a while people started asking me if Kess ever worked livestock.  So my mind became filled with daydreams of watching my loyal dog streak down the hillside to gather up the flock and bring them home.  I found a place for lessons and was introduced to the world of sheep herding.

Prior to this I had basically no dog training experience.  We’d always had dogs as pets, but we never really did anything with them other then play and pal around.  The herding world is still full of some very old school trainers, and I had the misfortune to encounter just such a trainer.  Our first day out seemed really promising.  Kess took to it like a duck to water and was circling and following nicely.  At only 8 months old everyone in attendance agreed that she would be a lovely working dog.  Lesson two went a little differently.  The herding instructor thought Kess was to pushy and the way to fix that apparently was to smack her in the head with a plastic rake if she tried to dart in at the sheep.  I think Kess took this as a personal challenge to see who could get to the sheep first, and the rake on her head was no deterrent when she had sheep on the brain.  It went on like this for many months and soon I had a dog that lunged at the sheep any chance she got, and was actually conditioned to charge the sheep at the phrase “that’l do”.  I didn’t know there was another way.  Then I decided to take a clinic.  I wasn’t used to quitting on things and I really wanted to make my daydream a reality.  The instructor at the clinic took one look at Kess, walked her and I out to the middle of the field and told me to stand on her leash until she relaxed and layed down.  He proceeded to have everyone work around us that day and several hours later Kess did kind of settle down and look away from the action occasionally.  Day two I struggled through the exercises, got mad at my dog and basically felt like I’d gotten zero for my hard earned money (remember I’m a college student at this point).  Around 5pm on the last day everyone was working in a medium sized pen just getting their dogs to work nicely and thoughtfully.  Kess true to form was racing around building up the perfect storm of sheep which she would soon explode all over the pen.  The instructor came over and asked if I’d like him to show me how to do it.  He walked in with Kess, whispered some things in her ear and proceeded to demonstrate the magic of soft handling and positive reinforcement.  He worked with just his arms and hands, moved thoughtfully and slowly, and kept his voice low and calm, and Kess worked.  She worked like she’s never worked and everyone in the clinic stood completely still and quiet and watched as the sun went down.  Afterwards the instructor could see my utter frustration at the fact that I couldn’t accomplish what he had in moments.  He patted me on the shoulder and said “well I have done this a time or two”  This gentle man has since passed away, but he taught me that there’s another way:

Lesson number 2:  You can catch more flies with honey.  I began to learn all I could about positive training.

Well I don’t want to leave you all hanging.  Kess continued to herd sheep and we found another instructor, who after several years was able to undo the damage done by the rake.  I did finally get to stand out in a field and send my dog on a 50 yard gather and pen the sheep.  Then I had kids and finding a sitter and driving an hour to herd sheep just wasn’t easy, or economical so we said goodbye to the herding world and started our journey into canine sports.

Sadly I have no pictures or video to share from all of our years of herding, but here’s Kess showing off her favorite squeaky ball.  The entire family would actually go insane if we let Kess have her squeaky all of the time as she will squeak for HOURS.  So the compromise is that a couple of times a week I let her have about 30min of squeaking.  As a side note she doesn’t like to squeak in the same room as us,  so I had to be extra sneaky to get this footage.

Shelter dogs can have a lot of baggage. Kess was pretty young, and as far as I can tell she wasn’t mistreated beyond simply being ignored. Her cage tag said she spent most her time in an outdoor kennel and that the previous owners had a toddler. I would have to guess that Kess’s unbridled exuberance was a bit to much for them to handle. So when she came to me she was timid, but loving and sweet.

One of the nicest memories I have of those early days is the night I fell in love with Kess. She didn’t like to approach people and was most comfortable if you were sitting or laying down. So I laid down on the floor and called her over. She promptly flopped down next to me and began to wiggle around and dart her nose in for quick kisses. As I started to laugh her enthusiasm increased tenfold and soon she was leaping back and forth over me and jabbing me with her nose and covering me in kisses. This is the moment when Kess knew this place was going to be OK and I knew she was going to be just fine too.

I think with puppies it’s just easy to fall in love right away, I mean you just have to look at a puppy face and you’re in love. Shelter dogs are just kind of vacant for a bit. Getting to watch an adult or adolescent dog go through all the discoveries that normal puppies experience is a joy, and watching them grow strong and confident gives me a great feeling of pride and accomplishment. Kess proved early on that she was an elite athlete, extremely competitive and high drive. I knew what to expect with a border collie, but it had been a Loooong time since I’d shared my house with a young border collie.

One of the worst memories I have from those early days is the day I decided to teach Kess to play fetch. At the time we lived in a somewhat rural area and had an empty field across the street from the house. I decided to take her over for her first lesson, and of crucial importance is the fact that I decided to do so off-leash (bad idea). Soon after we walked into the field Kess spied a minivan headed our way about a 1/2 mile down the road. She ran right into the middle of the street slinking and eyeing that van with all her might, and I was right behind her screaming my fool head off. For whatever reason the minivan driver took this all in stride, and despite the fact that they now had both a dog and a human running straight at them down the middle of the road, they kept driving right at us. I myself (and every other person on the planet with more than 2 brain cells) would stop at the site of such a spectacle, but to each his own I guess.  The minivan kept coming and Kess held her ground giving it her best border collie eye, right up to the moment it smacked into her. Kess let out a loud yelp and was knocked to the ground, the front tire went over her leg. I scooped her up and tried to get back across the street to the house, the minivan impatient as ever, tried to go again with me standing in front of them holding the dog. At this point I decided to make some time to deliver a few choice words to the driver and then ran to the house with Kess in my arms. My husband called the vet to let them know we were on our way and 10 minutes later Kess was getting x-rays. We were very very lucky and all the Dr could find was a possible small fracture in her toe.  To top it all off Kess was scheduled for her spay a few days later.  Lucky me one of the folks from the BC rescue we argued with to get Kess worked at the vet, so red faced and ashamed I had to explain the whole incedent to them. Every dog teaches us many lessons . . . lesson 1. keep you dog on a leash you freakin’ hippie.

Who me? I could never do anything that naughty

When we finally got Kess home she blasted into the room room like an unruly beast and within mere moments was assaulted by our cats.  Being very dog savvy they decided to put this puppy in its place before it got any grandiose ideas about it’s status in the household.  Both cats promptly chased her right out the door, and that is where Kess stayed.  She sat outside and looked in at as for some time.  I gave her the chance to size us up, and went outside several times to try to coax her in, but she wasn’t having any part of it.  Cats were scary . . . very scary.

Chaos the instigator

Eventually my husband carried her in the house and into the bedroom for the night. Kess quickly discovered that even though kitties can hurt you, they are lazy, and can only reach about 3 feet.   So if your quick it’s really fun to sit just out of reach and stare at them.  If Kess could herd sheep as well as she manages cats we’d be champions.

Loki the enforcer

 Here’s kess demonstrating her staring prowess

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