Have you ever heard this sentence “that dog changed my life?” Well I say that almost daily about my pup Taylor. This is her story and how she not only changed my life but my wife Mary’s and the thousands and thousands that have seen this little rescued Border Collie.
I’m sitting here in my media room, typing along on my Mac Pro, in a small little town in Missouri. Living in a 3,000 square foot log cabin, 10 acres, a stocked pond, very little bills, and I get to play with dogs for a living, I have the means and opportunity to fulfill my true calling in life and that is to adopt allot of unwanted dogs and best of all the ability to spread the word to the public about the need to adopt the dog that has no home. Life is grrreat!. All of this is because of a little dog my wife adopted about 12 years ago she named Taylor, here is her story.
The purpose for this blog is to celebrate Taylor now, while she is still with us.
My wife Mary and I adopted Taylor in the late 90’s, I should say that Mary adopted her as I had little say in the matter (come to think of it, I still dont have anything to say in these matters!). Mary worked as an office manager for a vet in Hemet California and I a Deputy Sheriff. Mary was extremely active in the dog sport of Agility, recently heartbroken that her champion dog Callie was forced to retired way too early because of joint issues, she told herself that if another Border Collie became available for adoption she would consider adopting another. We do not have kids and at that time had some property. We both come from animal loving families so it just made sense to start adopting unwanted dogs. Let me backtrack just a bit here, we had no intentions at first when we started adopting dogs of getting involved in dog sports and actually didn’t know there was such a thing. One of our first rescues was a dog that was part Border Collie and decided to enroll Rocky in obedience classes, it was there where Mary was introduced to very basic Agility, she was forever hooked!
One morning Mary was working behind the front desk of the vets office as usual and a lady came in with a very small black and white Border Collie. Mary asked her what she could do for her and the lady said she wanted the dog “cleaned up and shaved down”. Mary, knowing that it is unusual to shave down a Border Collie asked the lady why she would want to do that. She mentioned that she was taking her to the pound and wanted her to look good. She asked the lady why and was given what we have found out since, is a very common “excuse” for people who are not prepared for a hyper Border Collies antics a reason to give away the pup, “she nips my kids” Feeling sorry for the little pup Mary asked if she could take her and she said she could.
Mary brought home that pup and gave her the name of Taylor, I wasn’t a fan of the name but after all she was not my pup, so “whateverrrrr!”. Mary spent the next few weeks training her in hopes she would be as good as her Callie. Taylor was quick to learn but just didn’t have that “spark” you want for a potential champion. I purposely didn’t try to bond with Taylor as I knew it was important for Mary to bond as it helps in the training.
Mary continued her training and I, who also competed in Agility part time decided to start building Agility equipment for sale on the side. I wasnt a huge fan of Agility but rather competed in it so Mary and I could have the same interest in common. Mary was the true competitor and was turning out to be one heck of a trainer. We were asked one day to participate in a local Pet Expo, me showing off my equipment for sale and Mary doing demonstrations on the equipment, introducing the fans to the sport of Agility. The Expo had allot of activities scheduled that day, one of which was a “Disc Dog Demo” by a local disc dog club. I was born and raised in Southern California, I lived for years on the North Shore of Hawaii, I was real familiar with throwing Frisbees and playing fetch with dogs but had no idea there was a sport for it so of course I had to watch this demo. When the time came I dropped everything and planted my butt down to watch what was soon to become my obsession, my life. For the next 30 minutes I watched dogs and owners mesh in a choreograph dance of fur, fun and flying plastic all backed up with very cool music. I was like a kid in a candy shop and instantly hooked!
At this demo I had brought one of my Agility dogs named Scout. For fun I would throw a Frisbee for him, nothing fancy, just a boy and his dog playing fetch on a beach as it should be (when my head gets big and it does, I try to remember this). I was so excited about the show I just saw that I approached one of the performers/club member. I mentioned that I had a Frisbee dog and asked if they wanted to see him in action. So I took Scout out in our Agility area and threw a few tosses for him, we did fair and the club member was basically unimpressed. While I was throwing the disc for Scout, there was a commotion coming from the area where we had our Agility dogs staged for our demos, the club member asked me what that noise was, I told her that it was a new dog Taylor that my wife just adopted. We brought Taylor to start getting use to people and all the activities at these Expos which would be the same at an Agility contest. Taylor was going nuts in her crate, I mean the crate was basically bouncing off the ground when I threw for Scout. The club member asked if Taylor knew how to play frisbee. I had no idea but with some coaxing we took her out to give her a try. I had Taylor sit down near me and gave the command “go”, she started running, I quickly threw the frisbee down field, it was about a 30 yard toss, Taylor tracked it like a flying steak, the frisbee now floating about 5 feet in the air, Taylor launches for it, fur flying, slobber spraying, she grabs it and gracefully lands. She then turns back and runs up to me at top speed, drops the disc and asks for more! I along with the club member just stood there (okay I was slobbering too) in shock, I had goose bumps all over my body knowing I had just witnessed something special. I was immediately asked to join the club, HELLO!!!.
The rest as they say is history. In the next blog I will continue the Taylor story and fill you all in on the history of this very special rescue.
Until then “Adopt one until there are none!”
