A weekend at Border Collie Rescue and the Pet Expo

[furtech]

Here's the link to the entire Flickr set!

I had intended to spend a little time Saturday helping to pimp dogs at the Pet Expo in Orange County this past weekend. I ended up spending twelve hours on both Saturday and Sunday working (not including the hour drive and horrendous traffic control and parking!). The Pet Expo discourages people bringing their pets (for very good reason), so on Saturday I got home at almost midnight, fed both dogs and promptly fell asleep. Sunday I was there at 9am to walk dogs, get them to the booth and extol the virtues of border collies. I got home at nine on Sunday and took the dogs for a lively walk.

Sounds like a lot of work, but the core group put in many times that amount of work! They start the previous weekend washing dogs, cleaning crates and packing. They camp out at the OC Fairgrounds for the duration, from set-up on Thursday through pack-out on Sunday. By rough calculation, it took well-over 100 man-hours of work on each dog that got adopted (eight got placed). And it's all seems worth it. There is great validation in knowing you helped match dogs up with their perfect people. There's so much bad and depressing news in the world today: watching a family adopt a great dog goes a long way to help mitigate that negativity. Plus, the group has a good camaraderie: they feed and thank their volunteers profusely.

Here are my favorite rescues:



Clockwise from upper left: Wolfie is a retriever-border cross (AFAIK); he's is a fantastic dog-- good with everyone (plus he's a real looker!). • Cody is an Aussie-throwback: born with a half-tail (natural dock) and the broad, triangular head of an Aussie, he's none-the-less a *wonderful* border collie-- he was the first dog I pimped and the first adoption of Saturday! • Max: such a mysterious look-- he should be named "Rasputin" or something more exotic; he's another even-keeled bc who is good with everyone. • Cooper! He's a perfect example of why attending these events is so critical: his picture on the website is awful (they try, but they're dog-people, not artists), but seeing him in person is a wonderful thing: Coop is mellow and good-natured-- more Aussie in looks and temperament. When people can actually -see- the dog, that makes a huge difference (I was iffy on R0ndo based on his pic and totally sold on him when I met him in person!). I know that Wolfie, Cody and Cooper got adopted and I -think- Max is also adopted (pending seeing if he gets along with their other pets).

People in BCR asked if I could bring Apache on Sunday: several of them were key in getting her adopted to me and wanted to see her again. She would spend the day at the breed booth horrifying mothers as she licked infants and toddlers in their mouths. She was pretty stressed at first, but as the day went on and she got treats and tons of attention she relaxed quite a bit. I'm hoping that taking her to these events will help to give her confidence: R0ndo hates these things and I would like to have Apache be able to attend pet festivals and, possibly, become a therapy dog in the future. The picture shows two of the BCR kids gussifying my little border.



The second picture (clockwise from upper left) is of Chaos, a female border collie currently being fostered by one of the BCR folks. I had to do a double-take: she looks a LOT like R0ndo! A little smaller and more slender, she's got a lot of his looks and a bit of his goofiness.

The last two pics are of Skeeter: again, I did another double-take: she is a Tay doppleganger! Not just her looks, but her mannerisms as well. I expressed a wonder to her owner that she might be from Tay's breeder. I'm sending her pictures to see what both she and iisaw think.



Guess the breed! Roz, can you guess what the big black dog is?
Here's another hint. I tried and failed! Answer is at the end of the flicker set. I love seeing the saluki booth: they really deck it out like a sheik's tent and the dogs look so indolent and superior. And that skateboarding bulldog showed up on Saturday doing his thing (and I admit, I'm impressed).

The crowds were a bit smaller than last year, but I hardly noticed. Hot days and densely packed with even denser people. At least at the BCR booth we tended to get lucid attendees. I can imagine certain other breed groups getting the less enlightened. Also, nothing really stood out product-wise this year. There are some excellent US-grown/made chicken treats, but nothing that stood out. If it weren't for the rescue group, I would have stayed home and not regretted it. Turkey leg was really good, though.

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

WOW! THIS dog, Max, looks almost exactly like my dad's border collie. Lucy (my dad's dog) is either a BC or an Aussie. She has no tail (but I assume that's because some idiot docked her as a puppy, considering she was found living feral and terrified of people at first.) I think she leans more toward BC myself, because she doesn't have that "squareish" look Aussies have.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Neat! Max is a cool dog: definitely prefers women to men, but he's certainly quick to warm to a person (even a guy).

I was told by the main person at BCR that borders can be born with half-tails, called a "natural dock". Looks just like a docked Aussie tail, but maybe a half-inch longer-- Cody had one of those.

Can you dig up a pic of Lucy?

And you would love the Saluki booth! The people look kind of dorky in their faux-Arabian costumes, but the dogs are so sweet!

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

See my latest post!

I have seen the saluki booth! I went with you and Roz and Tracy in 2004 to the pet expo. I guess the saluki people have been doing that booth for years. :D

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I was telling someone that the breed groups look tells you a lot about the dogs: the labs wear LLBean and expensive hunting garb; the saluki people are dressed in fancy costumes; the yap-dog people are just over-dressed. "What about the border collie people? What do they look like?" "Dirty. Mussed hair. But usually smiling (when we're not screaming death threats to our dogs)."

[celedraug.livejournal.com]

Is that a Beauvias des Flandres? I can't tell on my screen. :P

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing before I read the comments ;)

Portugese Water Dog?

[lordgloria.livejournal.com]

Bouvier des Flandres. Bouvies are plenty cool. :)

[oats-a-plenty.livejournal.com]

(without looking) The big dog is a Bovier Des Flanders. There were a fair amount of breeders back in Ohio.

[dogteam.livejournal.com]

Bless you...eight more dogs have homes, and eight more people have best friends! Well done.

Man, I would swear that was Tay. You don't see ears like that very often on a BC, at least I haven't!