Don't Call my Border Collie a Dog!

I've always loved dogs growing up. The one problem I had when I was little was our dog was never allowed in the house though. So on Thursday nights when my mom went to bingo and her car turned the corner, my dad and I used to sneak my dog in the house. It was short but sweet, nice being able to have her in the house if only but for a few hours.

My mother would cringe if she could see me now. Not only do I allow dogs in my house but they even SLEEP on my bed, in my car, go to work with me, and generally participate in my life as another member of the family.

I think in part it not only has to do with my love of dogs, but also the type of breed I have now residing in my bed.

Simon, one of my bed-mates, is an 8 year old black and white Border Collie that my husband adamantly says "Is not a Dog!". When friends call him a dog my husband says in mock horror "What did you call him?!!". I have to laugh because I feel the same way. Although technically Simon looks like a dog, he sure doesn't act like one, and neither does Karma, my new caramel and white Border Collie pup.

Oh yeah, you might say, she just loves her dogs, that's obvious, but what makes HER dogs so SPECIAL?

Well to begin with, let me say I'd never owned a Border Collie until we got Simon. That all changed one day when I went to our shop to go to work. Our neighbor Mickey caught me getting out of the car and had me walk over to his car to "show me something". Unaware of what was about to happen, he opened his car door and staring at me was this gangly looking black and white dog of unknown origin with the most beautiful warm chocolate eyes I'd ever seen. Slyly my neighbor looked at me and said, "Cute huh - I have to find a new home for him. I got him a few days ago but I can't keep him". Mickey then looked knowingly at me and said "Have Joe come take a look at him when he gets to work".(Joe is my partner/husband/other dog loving half)

Uh-huh.

Immediately my devious wheels started spinning. We had lost our beautiful Queensland heeler mix a few months before that and my husband was dead set against getting another dog. But I just knew he NEEDED one so when he came into work I said, "Hey Joe, Mickey wants to show you something. Go take a look in his car". My husband walked over to Mickeys car, opened it and there waiting patiently was the funny looking pup.

Gleefully I retreated into the shop to await the outcome.

Sure enough, about 10 minutes later in walks my husband with the gangly little puppy. He looks sheepishly at me and says- "He's only staying for the day.I felt bad cause Mickey has to give him up so I'm going to let him hang out for just today".......

RIIGGHHTTTTTTTTT......

The determined little pup didn't leave my husbands side that day, nor that night, and the deal was sealed. The stuck-to-my-husbands-side-Velcro-pup became known as Simon and we later found out that Simon was a breed called a Border Collie. Bruce,the owner of the pet shop who identified Simon's heritage, just laughed when he saw Simon, and said, "That dog is going to keep you on our toes and run circles around you".

We just looked at Bruce and said "Yeah right, what do you mean by that?", and he just said with knowing eyes, "You'll see".

That statement Bruce made was the understatement of the year. As Simon grew out of his gangliness and into handsomeness, my husband and I realized we had a very special canine on our hands. No regular dog.....(oops I mean canine) was this one!! At first I thought Simon had ADHD because he was always on the alert, and his eyes never stopped roving. I thought he had some type of paranoia problem. As he got older though, I realized Simon was always watching because he was always processing information, a strange thing to watch in an animal. He would also pick up commands extremely quick. We also found out that Simon had very selective hearing. When he knew we weren't really serious about a command he would take advantage of us and not listen ( kinda like a kid, huh?)

Simon went on to do amazing things in our life, things that we'd never seen an animal do. He could sense when someone was ill and he would deliberately hide things that he had chewed on and knew he wasn't suppose to . He even once bailed me out when I locked the keys in my room. He brought the keys to the door and dropped them close to the threshold in so I could get back in !

He turned out to have an extraordinary intelligence that still amazes my husband and I to this day. So call him a (dog)?!

I think not.

His nationality is Canine, his ethnicity "Border Collie"!

(In upcoming articles read about the amazing story of Simon's rescue and how he alerted us to a life and death night)