Dune the Border Collie

Birfday, Adoption, FBSam2??!!?

2009-11-10T09:07:00.006-05:00

Dune (fna: Winter Storm) born Nov. 10th, 10:43 pm, male, 268 grams.

Yep, today's my birfday! I'm a whole 3 now, and Daddy says that even though I'm 3, I'm still his baby boy. This morning for my birfday, I got a big breakfast of stinky chicken frames and an extra long fizbee session!

Here's some pictures from when I was just a wee thing. They were taken by my LitterMom Amy. I was born at her house. I feel pretty lucky that I get to see her very often, as well as all my brudders and sisters: Bz, Gael, ArthurGood, Flirt and Tek. Even Flicka, my mom!

(dreaming of water. i LUV water!!)

------

In other news, Blaze got a doptid last week! He was one of my favorite foster brudders. I had lots of fun playing bitey-face and wrestlin with him while he was here. I normally don't play with my foster brudders and sisters, because they need me to teach them the rules. (rule #1: stay away from my fizbee. rule #2: stay away from me when i'm playin fizbee. rule #3: do not talk about fight club.)

Blaze went to go live with a very nice family down in CT someplace. They have sent daddy updates already and it sounds like Blaze is very happy and being spoiled like he deserves.

------

So on Sunday I was chilling in my crate (daddy went to go watch football) and the lady who adopted my old foster sister Breck (who is now Missy) comes in to say hello! I wasn't expecting her so it was a good surprise... maybe she came because it's my birfday? Anyway, she brought a new dog to the house, and put him in a crate in the room next to the room that Pip and I share. His name is FosterBrudderSam2. I've already had a FBSam, and this is at least the 3rd Sam dog i know, so i callz him FBSam2. He doesn't know the rules yet. Daddy had been bringing him outside alone until this morning when i met him. He is 2 years older than me, but he's really fat and slow... so daddy is working on getting him in shape.

FBSam2 doesn't really like that i run 'round so fast, and he didn't like the way Pip introduced himself. Pip is deaf and doesn't really know how to meet dogs very well... he just stands right next to them and stares his big blue eyes at them... if a dog did that to me, i'd show him my toofs too! But daddy seemed to think he was ok, and after a few minutes, he was playing ball while i was playing fizbee.

Daddy told me today that for my birfday he's gonna try to bring me to see sheepz this weekend! i'll try to remind him to bring the camera!

til next time...

-dune, the birfdayboy

Meet Blaze

2009-09-05T10:16:00.003-04:00

(blaze likes to talk, so i'm letting him have control of the blog just this once... -dune)

herro. my name is blaze. I'm 1 yearz old and i got rescued by my foster dad a couple weeks ago. when i first met him, i was VERY scared of him. i tried to tell him to go away (repeatedly) and leave me alone but he stayed where he was sitting, didn't look at me and kept tossing stinky treats at me! i was too worked up to eat, but i figured it was a nice gesture.

i rode inside a crate to foster dad's house and when we got there, it was dark and i was very scared still! so i slept in the crate inside the car that night. he left the windows down a little bit so i could smell stuff and hear all the nighttime noises.

in the morning, foster dad came out and opened the crate. i didn't even bark at him this time! he took my leash and let me out to potty and walk around a little bit. i was still kinda scared, so i didn't potty, but i let him walk me around the back of the house (through a big scary fence door!) and into the backyard, which is the biggest yard i've ever been in! i walked around a little bit looking at all the big scary stuff...

"i don't like the look of that scary door!"

I even tried to play a little bit of fetch with foster dad, but i had too many other things to think about. then i went inside and into a nice comfy crate in a room with two other doggies! one of them is a big polkadotted thing who doesn't hear very well (i think, because foster dad always has to poke him, and wave him around to get him to do stuff), and the other is a border collie like me, except red-haired. his name is Dune and i want to be his friend SOOOO bad. he's kinda like a big brother to me, because he isn't scared of anything and i can learn what is dangerous and what isn't just by watching him.

after that first day in the crate with dune and the polkadotted dog, foster dad came home and Dune got *really* excited and told me "woo hoo! it's time to play!!"

so this time, foster dad let me outside and i watched for a minute as Dune went ZOOMING around after a round, flat flying thing (scary!)... but then i remembered that i LOVE to play fetch, and went to go find a ball. Dune and I kept foster dad busy for quite a while taking turns fetching and chasing the ball (and flat-round thing that dune calls "fiz").

I got tired really fast though, because i didn't really get much exercise in my old home. So I took a quick break... but then, i kept getting the sense that Dune was watching me to make sure i was doing things right...

"um... is there somebudy bak there?"

"i'z afraid to look!"

"where'd he go?"

"iz he on dis side?"

"oh man...he's right behind me, isn't he..."

I think this was dune's way of telling me that stopping for breaks is totally NOT a border collie thing, so i just went back to...

--- zooooooomin ---

and --- jjjjjjumpin! ---

In short. So far I like it in my foster home! I've gone on one adventure and got to stay in foster dad's big camper on wheelz! I was with Dune and PolkadottedDog, so i felt safe, and even though i had to meet a couple new people (i am not a fan of strangers!)... i told them to go away, but it only took me a few minutes until i was able to give the ball to a stranger! Foster dad praised me a lot when i did that, so that felt really good!

next time, i'll let Dune type... he's much better than me, and my pozz hurts now!

New foster brudder!

2009-09-03T10:49:00.002-04:00

it's been a while!

i know i promised to write about Dog Dayz and other stuffs that's

been going on but it's summer and i'm very busy runnin' round with

daddy and pip and stuff that i haven't made daddy take any pictars

so i can write to my fanz.

here's the rundown from the summer:

• i went to stay at auntie nicole and uncle eric's house over the 4th

of july weekend. so i got to play with my buddy Mirk and guess

who else showed up? my sister Blizzard and Brady and FormerFosterSister

Lyn with auntie Monique and uncle Brian! Pip wanted to stay and

live with nicole&eric.

• daddy got me a camper!

• we took the camper to dog dayz and then back to the farm a couple

weeks later to play.

• i like the camper! pip LOVES the camper and even prefers to stay in there

over going out to play at the farm. weirdo!

• auntie nicole is my dog sitter and she comes over every day to play

with me and pip. sometimes uncle eric comes, but i don't like to play

with him as much.

so that was my summer!

---------

last night, daddy came home from work and had a foster brudder

with him! his name is Blaze (for now) and he is a very scaredy dog.

I didn't meet him yet, but i was very upset this morning when daddy

brought HIM outside to play before I got to go outside to play fizbee!

I yelled at daddy from my crate to let him know i wasn't vary happy

with this predicament!

daddy told me i'm going to have to be a good boy and teach Blaze

that the world isn't so scary. i think i can do that!

i'll make sure daddy takes some pictures of me teaching Blaze 'bout

stuff soon. 'til then!

oh, hai! i'z blaze

Herdin Trial

2009-07-12T17:49:00.003-04:00

a couple weeks ago daddy and I packed up his new truck (no more orange washing machine on wheelz!) and went out to upstate new york to work at a NEBCA herding trial for NEBCR. confused already? me too!

NEBCA is the NorthEast Border Collie Association. they put on sheep herding trials and stuff. Daddy's a member but this was his first time at a trial.

I thought we were going to The Farm, but we drove right by the exit! I wasn't very happy with that, but I ended up going back to sleep... and when I woke up, we were pulling into a really pretty farm with a big 20 acre sheep pasture. there were lots of campers and border collies running around EVERYWHERE! I think Pip was the only non-border collie in the whole place, poor guy.

We borrowed Auntie Nicole & Uncle Eric's camper, which was great since i didn't like sleeping in the car last time we camped out. Dad set it up while Pip and I were leashed to the bumper of the truck like real workin dogs.

Dad was cookin food for NEBCR fundraising all weekend, and he was there with Kerry (dublin and limerick's owner) and Roxanne, who owns Tillie and Other Red Dog Bodie who is one of the only dogs I know that can keep up with me when we're running around at The Farm. But we didn't get to do a lot of running around, because the herding dogs were working sheep and we didn't want to distract them.

I got to meet lots and lots of nice people, and daddy said that they raised lots of money for NEBCR, which is great.

I even got to see Carol, my herding instructor! I was hoping that meant I got to work sheep too, but she had lots of other dogs to work instead. Daddy says I'm not quite ready for trialing (um, not even close buddy! -d), but i definitely could have taught some sheepz a lesson or two!

So here's some pictures of the trial!

in the next installment, i'll tell some stories of my week at Nicole & Eric's house, while daddy was up in Nova Scotia looking for a sheep farm for me :)

-dune

Reunion!

2009-05-31T13:41:00.014-04:00

What a weekend!

On Friday, right in the middle of my mid-day nap, I got woked up by Daddy! I was fully expecting auntie Nicole, who comes to play fizbee with me every day, but Daddy was home and asked me if i wanted to go to the Farm!

We jumped in the car, which was packed to the gills, which usually means that we are going for a few days, so i was very excited. Though, at first my crate was really stinky because i left an uneaten duck nex in there, ew. Daddy got rid of it for me, but told me i had to ride in the stinky crate anyway, as punishment for not eating that particular dinner!

Anyway, when we got to the farm some of my friends were already there, but not too many, which usually means it's prime fizbee time! Daddy was helping set up some stuff, but me and pip went swimmin and played with everybody.

Daddy slept in a tent and pip and me slept in our crates, and I was really cold. So, i figured as payback for making me sleep in a cold, stinky crate, i'd wake him up before the sunrise. It worked, because daddy didn't seem very happy about that, and only let me pee and not play fizbee like i hoped. oh well.

Saturday was CRAZY!

The reason we came to the farm this weekend was for the NEBCR Reunion. Once i heard what was going on, I figured i'd try to catch up with some of my former foster brudders and sisters, to see how they are doing. Here's who I got to see:

1. Bek! (fka Lune - sorry no pics, she didn't get to hang around all weekend grr.) - Lune like totally haz crushes on me. so much even that she begged her mom Kim to put pictures of me in a way-cool quilt she made for a big Raffle (dog dayz in august). Check it out, I got on there twice!!! (daddy says it's because i am the cutest dog in history, but i thinkz it's because i haz sekret love affare with LunaBek!!)

hey, my sister Bz is on there, and FFB (former foster brudder) Speck too! And Lizzie (more on her in a bit).

While we're talking about cool raffle stuff, foster cuzzin Zoey got this cool birch bark painting done of her! Daddy says he's gonna get one done of me too!

2. Lizzie:

Lizzie spent the weekend doing one of two things: following MY daddy around like a shadow or chomping on this crazy squeaky toy that goes "SQUONKA SQUONKA SQUONKA" reeeeeally loud.

She is a failed foster, like her brother Didge. I get to see them all the time, still, which is nice.

3. CaseyRedDog:

.o0("oh hai, can't talk, gotta go swim")

He is still in his foster home with auntie Suzanne. I bet he gets a doptid soon!

4. Missy (fka Breck)

(ok, so it's an old photo... she wasn't out a lot and i didn't have my camera with me when she was. she's still just as stunning as ever! -ed)

Missy is doing great at agility, and her owner Lori (also an NEBCR Volunteer, but not until after she adopted Missy) is doing great working with her "issues". I don't think there's anything wrong with her... she's purdy.

5. Colin

(bad pic, sorry)

Colin is just as mellow and cool as ever. He only lived here for a little while, but we got along great.

6. Barley

Ok, so Barley only spent one night here when he was a wee pup, but still! He's a hound dog mixed with Border Collie, and i get to see him and his mommy Althea at agility trials a lot.

7. Ella

FFS Ella and her owners showed up and she did nothing but swim and dock dive the whole time! She's no stranger to the Farm, so she knew just where she was when she got there, and didn't even bother to stop and say hi to me (until later) or daddy! She looks fantastic and seemed to have lots of fun.

8. My Mommy! (Flicka)

I got to hang out with my mommy for a while. Daddy says my siblings and I all act a lot alike, and same goes with Flicka. She taught us all how to use our toofs to get our way!!

Here's me and my mom, don't we look alike?

9. Lyn

Lyn got a doptid by auntie Monique and uncle Brian, who own my sister Bz! Daddy fostered her for a while and she had a very broked leg, so i never got to play with her. but she is now all healed up and boy she sure can run! makin up for lost time she sez.

This is Lyn (foreground) with her big brudder Brady.

10. Phoenix

Phoenix only was at my house for a day or so. He got a doptid by NEBCR Volunteer Trisha and he's a very nice, sweet pup who loves to launch himself up onto people. Daddy thinks he's very cute and that he should steal him the next time he sees him.

---

Also at the reunion was my brudder ArthurGood and of course my sister Bz and of course my other sister Flirt and uncle Bodie who both live at the Farm (lucky!)... and i might haz forgotted some others too, but i was very busy with herdin and playing ball and fizbee to stop and talk to everybody.

OH! speaking of fizbees. My EZ Glider collection growed this weekend! Daddy bought me a new purple one, so now i haz BlooFiz, Yellow and Purple! I'm gonna go and drop all 3 of them at daddy's feet while he tries to work once i'm off the computer!

-dune

delays, auntie-doptions, udder red dogs, farm!

2009-05-03T18:21:00.006-04:00

daddy is calling me a "slacker". he sez that i don't blog enough and to that i sayz i'm too busy herding and fetching stuffs to keep up with it all!

so i figured i should probably catch you up with all the stuff i've been up to... last time i wrote, auntie meg just came back. i spent the last month going over potential homes for auntie meg with daddy. i wasn't about to let her get a doptid by some people that don't like to throw balls!

so yesterday, auntie meg got a doptid by a very nice family only 2 whole towns away from home. she's practically a neighbor! the family has two little kids who she will train to throw tennis balls and to do her bidding. daddy says she's going to be very happy there, and she doesn't have to deal with any other dogs, just her people, so that sounds great. I'll miss you auntie Meg.

speaking of other dogs, a few days ago, daddy came home with, get this... another. red. border. collie. his name is Casey Red Dog and he's a nice enough chap. here he is.

he's kind of a big lunkhead, but he listens to me and listens to daddy. also, he likes to smoosh his fetched toy right into the lap of whoever throwed it for him, therefore making their pants dirty, so he's got that going for him. (getting people dirty is a fun habit of minez!)

daddy says casey red dog is going to live with auntie suzanne, which is just as well, because i'm enough red border collie for this house, thankz you very much!

----

Then today, i got to go TO THE FARM!!!! I guess the weather is getting warm again, so hopefully that means i'll be going out to the farm a lot.

there were a few reasons we went out there. firstly it was because daddy had to pick up a bunch of foodz for me and the pip. also, there was an agility trial and daddy was working the grill. but mostly it was for this:

a bunch of the NEBCR and agility peoples chipped in to get auntie kathy and uncle craig a new golf cart because they are always having people at the farm and it's a really big property and it's no fair for them to have to walk up and down the hill all the time with bad knees and stuff.

(note: thanks for everything Kaig! hopefully this will help minimize the wear and tear. enjoy!!! -d)

til next time!

Auntie Meg is back!

2009-04-04T07:30:00.004-04:00

This is my auntie Meg. She used to live with me as a foster auntie, but then she got a doptid, like most of my foster sisters and brudders do. I thought maybe she'd be different because she's a foster auntie, but nope. Anywayz, she came back about 4 months after she got her doptid. Daddy says it's because she wants to be the queen, and she got mad at another queen-ish dog in her former home.

Meg sez "i'n border collie. all must obey."

"do my bidding!"

I sez all Meg wants is to fetch. Runs in the family, I guess...but i'm just glad she doesn't want to play with my bloo Fizbee!

"no... dis ball does just fine."

When Auntie Meg was here before, she had just whelped a litter of puppinz, and her coat was kind of ratty and thin. She was starting to look better when she got her doptid, but still it was thin. But now, it's very thick and she looks great! here's a before shot:

And now...

I'm glad Auntie Meg is back home, because it means I don't have to teach all the foster dogs manners myself. She is much better at that than me. Must be those eyes:

"don't mess with me."

Road Trip!

2009-03-27T09:34:00.006-04:00

i haz a bone to pick with daddy.

whenever daddy asks me "wanna go for a ride?", it usually means i get to go herd sheeps with carol or go to the Farm or something fun. sometimes it means i need to go meet a new dog at somebody's house to see if that dog can be a foster brudder or sister or cuzzin.

just a couple days ago, daddy asked me "wanna go for a ride?" and it meant we got to go see my real sister Bz!!! we romped around her back yard for a while as daddy was talking to auntie Monique and uncle Brian, and got to say hello to Lyn my Former Foster Sister with the broked leg. so that wasn't so bad.

dis Bz and uncle brian. haz she no shame? i'd *never* let daddy hold me like that. (yah, right. -ed.)

but then yesterday, daddy seemed all excited and then asked me if i wanted to go for a ride, so i figured it was something extra fun! he loaded pip and i into the car and off we went.

... and went.

we stopped someplace for a potty break after a couple hours and we were way up in the mountains. the air smelled very clean and it was very chilly. daddy said we were in vermont, but still had a way to go.

after another hour or so, he pointed out a camel! (actually, dune, that was Camel's Hump mountain. -ed.)

Then we finally got to where we were going. Burlington VT. all i know is that it smelled like dirt, patchoulli and body odor to me and pip (ok, sorry couldn't resist a hippie joke. -ed).

daddy found a dog park as soon as we got into town, so that we could potty and i could play a game of fetch. this park was right on a big lake and i'm pretty sure i saw a giant prehistoric monster pop out of the water for a second out of the corner of my eye. but i had more important things to think about.

a big fat yellow lab named Hamilton came over and stoled my ball at one point, but i herded him into a stop (this actually happened! -ed.) and he dropped it for me. daddy said his camera doesn't take wide angle shots so he couldn't get a pic of Hamilton. Hamilton's owner was a nice lady who knowed that i was a border collie and was asking daddy if i was a real workin' dog. daddy said i was getting there!

after i got good and tired out at the park (i wasn't allowed to swim in the big lake) we went to hang out in the car for a couple hours. Daddy went to go watch a concert by some guy named tweety. (Jeff Tweedy, of Wilco actually... -ed.)

when daddy got back, he said we were gonna go to auntie melissa's house, which is in the bottom of vermont. but when i woked up a few hours later, we were home! it was really late at night but daddy still played fizbee with me for a while before we went to bed.

all in all, it wasn't such a bad trip, even if i didn't get to herd sheepz or go to the farm.

-dune

mud season math!

2009-03-08T17:35:00.008-04:00

Here's a math prollem for you:

PLUS (+)

EQUALS (=)

(hint.. the answer is PUDDALZ!)

the predator. (lying in a puddalz! hah!)

the prey. the ever elusive 'bloo fiz' (Frisbicus ezgliderus)

dis must be why they call us border collies stock dogs. this is me stocking my prey.

the approach!

!! (look at that tiny yellow dog in the foreground! hahaha!)

!!! SCRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!

gotcha fizbee!

all that runnin and slidin in the mud gives my mouth that crunchy feelin.

And the winner is...

2009-02-25T20:23:00.002-05:00

Well, nobody really. But it turns out the broken foster sister is now going to be called Lyn.

It was a tossup between Lyn and Lark, but Lyn won out.

that's all for now... thanks for the suggestions!

Name help!

2009-02-20T22:53:00.002-05:00

Daddy asked me to write a blog asking for help naming my new foster sister. Her current name is Sadie, and she just had surgery on her badly broken leg. She is a little thing, even smaller than me, but is very pretty if i do say so myself. I told her she can haz the yellow fizbee all for herself when she gets healed up.

The rules for doggie names:

1. must be of irish / gaelic origin
1a. unless you can think of a good Elvish name (tolkien nerds only)
2. must be able to have a single syllable shorthand (like dune - me!)
3. should have some sort of meaning from her story

That's pretty much it. So if you have any suggestions, leave them in comments, and i'll make sure daddy reads them.

.o0("ow.. dees legz brokeded.")

Ice Ice Fizbee

2009-02-16T18:57:00.006-05:00

so dis is what happens when you haz many feets of snow all winter and trample it down with fizbee jumps...

it turns into an icy yard!

The yard's been a slippy slidey course for over a week, and it doesn't make for very comfortable fizbeeing.

slipz!

if daddy gets the throw right, i will still jump a little bit, but i usually end up sliding until i can get my grip!

but i am still always ready to go, even if it's only half speed...

and i sure can look cute, right?

--------

Speck had a big weekend! We went out to The Farm on Saturday night and stayed over. Auntie Kathy wasn't there, though. She took sister Flirt and uncle Bodie to an agility trial. Sunday there was a big Valentine's Meet & Greet for NEBCR! They had all the foster dogs and potential adopters all in the agility building at the farm. Daddy had me wait outside in the car... i was very mad! but then after the event we all went out into the yard and i gots lots of jollyballz time with the whole crew there.

Anyway, Speck met a potential adopter who is used to dogs like him (meaning just a little bit tweaked...) and his dogs. They all got along and daddy said they'll hopefully move on to the next step.

So when we got home, Speck was all excited and decided to do lots of jumpz for teh camera!

Back to the farm & finding a long lost friend!

2009-02-07T18:07:00.008-05:00

OMG surprise trip to the farm today! at least i didn't know until this morning, when daddy laid it on me! I was vary excited and ran right to the leash rack by the front door and stared at it as hard as i could until daddy came and put a leash on me.

the whole gang came too! Speck went to agility class that aunties Barb (my buddy roo's mom) and Kathy (my sister flirt's mom) teach. Mommy said that Speck did good in class, and Dad even took some pictures and video.

doing some unsolicited short jumps for auntie barb.

tunnel! the ham is starin right at the camera!

speck's first time thru the tunnel fully extended!

----

Meanwhile, I was up in the yard playing ball. The farm always has big old broken jolly balls that are very fun to play with. I took this one from Tristan!

and sayz, "daddy kikkit!"

but i get bored with jollyballs after a while and really need some good fizbee time. daddy didn't bring a fizbee (!) for me, so i took matters into my own pawz. i remembered that last time i was here at the farm, disney the golden took my spare yellow fizbee and lost it in the snow. so i recruited Samwise the ZenMasta™ to do some telepathic majiks and locate the lost yellow fizbee.

.o0("ohhmmmm.... ohhhhmmmmmmm...")

but then Samwise says "I thinkz i feel the fizbee over that way!"

WOOT! I FINDED IT! Thanks Sam!

----

when we were at the farm, we got a big new bag of toys. I don't really like toys unless they're fizbees (though sometimes i'll get zoomies and play with a little squeaky toy or something... i'm glad that no video evidence of this exists)...

Pippin got a big giant yellow Cuz. It squeaks funny. But Pip is deaf so it's not like he can hear it squeaking, but he sure thinks the vibrations are fun!

new toy!

2009-02-01T17:40:00.004-05:00

mommy got a new toy today. it's a little portable agility tunnel. i think it's made for human kids, so it's a little small, but it's just for fun inside. she says it's for samwise and speck to start learning agility, but i already know some of that stuff, so i had to show them how it's done.

i needed a couple times with a treat tossed in there, but then i remembered my first agility class that i took, and before you know it i was zooming through there!

Then samwise got a turn. he'll go anywhere if there's a treat involved.

Pip wasn't fitting in that little tunnel.

.o0("um is this some kinda treat dispenser?")

Look closely. is that ...?

oh boy. it's smudgeman!

.o0("oh hai, tanks for teh new hideyspotz!")

FBSam

2009-01-31T20:46:00.004-05:00

FBSam, or should I call him FFBSam (Former Foster Brudder Sam) got a dop tid today. I still don't know what a dop tid is, but most of my foster brudders and sisters end up with them. maybe they're some kind of special fizbee?

Today I went to grandma's house! the whole car was packed up with all the pups and we drove for a little while to maine. i played some ball in the driveway with dad, because the snow was very tall and crusty and i couldn't walk on it without falling through. so i did zooming slides on the icy driveway, which was fun. then another car i never saw before came and a couple went into the house to meet FFBSam. They came out a little while later with Sam and he jumped into a brand new soft crate like mine in their car and they drove off! Daddy said he is going to live on 25 acres in maine. Sounds great to me, especially if he's got one of those 'dop tid' fizbees up there!

Here's FFBSam with his new family!

contortionist and dogz in the way!!

2009-01-24T15:22:00.008-05:00

Today I was outside with everybody (and a new special guest!) and daddy wanted to get some pictures of Speck a-runnin and a-catchin the ball. But what he got was a whole lot of Speck a-twistin for the ball. He's not nearly as practiced at this stuff as me.

Here's how he made out...

The ball always ends up in his mouth, but he sure makes it look ugly sometimes.

notice how he's almost always off-frame? it's because he runs too darn fast at balls that aren't kicked/thrown very fast...

you'll notice a theme of 'in-the-way' dogs today. i guess we needz a bigger yard!!

See dummy? if you didn't run so fast, you wouldn't have to twist back around for the ball!

Look OUT Sam!

gotta give it to Speck though... he can turn on a dime... (agility dog!)

and he sure can zoom!

Outta my way FBSAM!

oh.. i think he's got one lined up!

aha! (finally!)

This is Auntie Abby. Abby is daddy's mommy's dog, and is staying with us for a week. She's a yellow lab / golden retriever mix. Daddy said he got her way back in 1997 as a puppy.

She's almost 12 but she can still romp!

And certainly can get in the way! Thankz for ruinin' a great shot of me jumpin!

Darnit Sam!

More snow & fizbee failz!

2009-01-19T13:13:00.004-05:00

i must be out of practice with fizbee. because i was told i had to "take it easy" and "let my toofs heal", i didn't get to play fizbee for a few days.

so when i got to go out today in the new snow (a whole new foot of very light and fluffys!), it wasn't exactly pretty.

That's Foster Brudder Sam laffin at me!

then when i tried to jump for it, i went right out the top of the frame!

hey that's my bum! how'd that get in here??

I'm normally much more graceful than this, you know...

(hiding my face from embarrassment)

finally i getz it!

Foster Brudder Speck looking on from across the yard.

You should adopt Speck!

Real Brudder Sam looking like a showdog beegle (except he's a mutt)

"pleez don't be mad at me... i can haz dis fizbee?" -FBSam

"see how cute i is?" (up for adoption soon!)

Dis Pip. he got scared at some falling snow today and was actually barking hahaha! Pip never barks, except when he's really freaked out, or sometimes in his crate when there are new dogs around.

OW! My Toofs!

2009-01-16T09:16:00.002-05:00

yesterday i went to the dentist :(

i had two root canals on my canine toofs because they're all worn down. I'm only 2 so let that be a lesson to all you ball-lovin freaks out there... don't use regular tennis balls when you're a puppy!

and i also had a regular toof cleanin too! i eat raw food so my toofs are pretty clean, but since they were in there, they figured they'd floss and brush and make me all pearly white!

back home... with pix!

2009-01-14T22:26:00.010-05:00

phew, that was a hectic few days. first, daddy telled me that we were going to the farm. he telled me this on thursday nite. i said to him "we can goez now?", and he said "no, we're going tomorrow"... so i opened my eyez really big, and says "WE CAN GOEZ TO THE FARM NOW??!" and he laughed at me and said "No, Goose, we're going tomorrow!".. so I grabbed a ball, and dropped in onto his lap and sayz "here's a ball, we can goez now?"... but it didn't work! so i had to wait a whole day to go! it was vary unfair!!

then on friday daddy got to the farm very late because he had to work and then drive all the way there from the eastest place in massachoochoos. the farm is all the way westest in massachoochoos til you cross into new york, then it's in the mountains there. all i know is when the long part of the highway is over, there's about 20 more minutes, then i can smells all the cowses and sheepses, so i wakez up reddy to GO!

usually when we go to the farm, it's not winter time, so we camp out. uncle craig and auntie kathy let us stay in their camper, which is always fun. one time this summer, real brudder samwise fell out of the camper at night and went snuffin around other campers and tents scaring people!! then he came back whining at the camper door like "i felled out and didn't find any food anywhere within 300 meters of dis place, i can comez inside again?"

but this time it was winter so we stayed upstairs in the guest room. i like it up there because it's away from all of uncle and auntie's dogs. they haz 10 of their own (including my sister flirt and uncle bodie!) and 2 NEBCR fosters... it was hectic, so when i was done outside playing with everybody, i liked to go run upstairs and into my crate. the best part of the farm is that i usually get to go swimming in the pond and run like crazy (dad can really throw far with the chuckit!). this time it was mostly romping in the new 6" of snow and trying to make daddy throw me the ball while he was trying to keep all the other dogs occupied. but tennis balls don't do too well in the snow... and as it was, we had already lost Foster Brudder Sam's yellow fizbee and the backup purple fizbee, so daddy thankfully put away my #1 most favoritest bloo fizbee so we wouldn't lose that too!

now onto the pictures from this weekend...

OH WAIT! i forgotted to mention that we have a new, temporary foster dog in the house! his name is Tucker and he's only a puppy. he's 7 months old, and already weighs 50 pounds! he's very furry and has lots of funny spots and colors. he is going to go live with dublin and limerick because their foster brudder Finnegan is being adopted this weekend! So he's just here for a few days...

here's temporary foster brudder Tuck:

Ok pictures, here goes:

Uncle Bodie + tongue

Tristan + tongue (montaaage)

herro, my name is twistan an i liekz jollyballz. doy.

Real Brudder Sam + tongue

Foster Brudder Sam + tongue

=== Fenn Archaeological Dig Interlude ===

i seem to have found an ancient tennis ball relic from the Penn era.

(that thing never came out! then it got snowed on and won't be seen again til spring!)

wtf pip

This is pistol pete. Haz you seen pistol pete? cuz he's awesome.

RBSam thinks he has the chair to himself, but he didn't realize that the two-clawed sloth, pistol pete (National DOCNA Agility Champ, btw) was ready to pounce...

ok, not much of a pounce... they slept together on this chair for a while.

Uncle Bodie doing his best at pissing Keegan right the hell off. For any of you out there in intarnetz land who might look at this and say "OMG AGGRESSIVE", you should come to the farm sometime and learn about doggie body language. These guys (and Tristan) antagonize eachother all the time, and it sounds like WWIII, but there's never any contact and it's all posturing and trash talk. Scares the newbies to be sure though :) --- me? i don't even hesitate to steal a toy right out from in front of Tristan or Keegan anymore!

Disney. Personally responsible for the unknown whereabouts of two of MY FIZBEES! hopefully they'll surface in the spring.

this (for a whole 4 seconds) ...

leads to this (for like 32 hours)...

but

This (for about 5 hours straight)....

...

...

...

leads to this (for like 22 minutes.)

Tela (NEBCR foster dog)

Speck (NEBCR foster dog)

farm time!!

2009-01-10T12:31:00.007-05:00

yes!! my most favoritest place in the world!

i'm at my sister Flirt's house (aka The Farm. aka Sugar Bush. aka Doggie Heaven. aka NEBCR HQ) for a loooong weekend. there's so much to do here that i can't do at home. like....

FIZBEE!

and... uh... MORE FIZBEE!!

ok so it's pretty much what i do every day but here i get to see all my bestest friends.

but mostly I like the farm so much because i get to runrunrunrunrun in this HUUUGE fenced in field tilz i cant run nennymore. then 30 minutes later i does it all over again! Usually there are sheepses here but they're all up in the barn for the winter, so no herding for me. Oh well, i'm fine just playing ball and fizbee.

there are a few other NEBCR foster dogs here this weekend too...

My favorite is definitely Lizzie. She's very nice and used to live with us til she decided she wanted to constantly herd our cats. So now she lives with Caitlin and Didge.

OMG sidewayz!

Also there's Keebler. Keebler got her jolly ball stuck in the tree (dad says he had NOTHING to do with it! and I believes him!!)... Keebler is very sweet but doesn't like when other dogs try to take her toys away. I don't blame her.

I think I overheard Caitlin say there were 19 dogs here this weekend. Wow! here's a bunch of them:

daddy says the "intarnets" here are slow so he can't put lots of pictures online. so i'll write lots when i get home in a couple dayz!!

New Year, Same Fizbee!

2009-01-01T11:38:00.010-05:00

today i woked up and realized it was supposed to be a work day, but daddy was still home! o yah, it's new yearz! looooong weekend!

so me, speck and new foster brudder Sam conspired to wake him up as early as possible to go outside and work in the snow. there are no pictures of this conspiracy because daddy thinks it's highly embarrassing to be subjected to 3 psycho border collies jumping all over you that early in the morning (i liek to sit on his head and then growl and show my toofs when the other dogs come near, personally).

lest you be confused with real brudder Sam the beagle (below) ...

.o0("omg so cold. my pozz si freezed!")

foster brudder Sam (aka FBSam) is one heck of a fizbee dog!

FBSam now uses the new yellow fizbee auntie Barb sent to us:

and i get to keep using my alltime favorite blue one! i likes it specially cuz it's got lots of my toofs marks on it and dirt too. and daddy knows how to throw it perfectly.

(usually)

I even smilez at it in the air, i lieks it so much!

FBSam is more of a jumper:

snowbow!!

and i'm more of a speedster!

.o0("HERE I COME")

--whooosh.

though, i can do jumpz when i want, i try not to jumpz too much cuz daddy says i got bad rists and if i jumpz a lot i get gimpy. but i like to jumpz in the snow because it's soft for landin!

i usually leave my back legs down so they can land first and it's not so bad on my front rissts.

we even had an audience! that's my big brudder PIP and foster brudder Speck hanging out and watching the show. i like to perform, especially for other people....

----- STORYBRAKE!

This summer the whole family went up to grammy gail's house in kennebunk maine. i luvs me some water (drinkin and swimmin and sometimez to pee in!) and we all went to the ocean! it was my first time at the ocean and daddy had me off leash at the beach (with my ruffwear float coat on!) to fetch balls thrown into the waves! i was such a good boy and wasn't even scared of teh big wavez even when they came a crashin all round me! then i noticed a small crowd started to form to watch me work!

so i did lots of big runs around daddy (he says "go around" and i run a big circle around him) and went CRASH SPLASH into the water as people watched. and i even showed off by crouching near daddy and rolling the ball to him on the hard sand. daddy calls me a ham, which is weird becuz he calls me a goose too.

------ END STORYBRAEK!

time for a nap, then back out for more fizbee times! happy new year everybody!!!

luv, dune & the crew

puppinz!

2008-12-30T17:57:00.004-05:00

daddy is at work and sented me this pictar of Jasper. Jasper is auntie Elyse's new puppy. he's only 9 weeks old, but daddy sends the good news that he is interested in tennis balls. So there's hope for him yet.

more Samz??

2008-12-29T20:51:00.005-05:00

ok, so my whole life, i've knowed a sam.

.o0("who awakens me from teh slumbar?")

samwise, the beagledog is my big brudder. i liek to pick on him a lot with my teefs...

here i'm not happy about sumtin! (prolly speck, but these are the same teefs i use to keep samwise the beagle in check too!)

but yesterday i went and met another sam, and he came home with us.

.o0("oh hai, i'm sam too!")

this sam at least is a border collie like me. he's an nebcr foster dog and will be here til he gets a doptid. whatever that is. we always have foster dogs here and then they go away to nice homes in different places. sometimes i get to see them again at the farm. i like seeing my foster brudders and sisters at the farm. maybe someday i'll zoom down memory lane and talk about all my foster brudders and sisters i ever had. but not today.

daddy told me he's got 1/2 of this week off and that means lots of fizbee. and sheep herding! auntie Barb sented me a shiney new yellow fizbee, but i don't like it because it's too clean. i prefer dirt on my fizbee.

anyway, sam (new sam, ok i hope he gets a new name, because this is confyoooozing) will probably make appearances from time to time so i wanted to introduce him.

Holiday visitors part 2

2008-12-26T16:27:00.007-05:00

Today, auntie Amy came by to visit with my littermate/brudder Arthur Good Dog and my 3 cuzzin dogs and we played fizbee in the backyard for a little while. Amy and Arthur GD left but totally forgotted to take my 3 other cuzzin dogs!

So now we has 3 cuzzin dogs staying. Daddy says it's gonna be for a weekaso. I don't know what a weekaso is. I wonder if a weekaso can throw a fizbee!

Ok here's my cuzzins:

Saga.

Saga is deaf and partially blind.

Look at them crazy eyez! even though he can't really see or hear, he still manages to chase us all around the backyard, yapping away the whole time. He's a sillymin.

I get along with deaf dogz because my brudder PIP is a deaf dog.
dis Pip!

look at them crazy eyes!

Then there's Caper. Caper is from Portugal. Or, at least her parents were, maybe? Daddy says she's a water dog from portugal. I like water too! Daddy also says that Caper is hard to take piktars of because she's all black and silly. Lots of people at the farm say she's a Poodle.

.o0("who you callin a poodle, punk?")

And lastly, here's Lacy. She's an older (with blue hair, even!) border collie who my older brudder Samwise gets all gaga over. Lacy is very little and very sweet. She can come visit whenever she wants.

Holiday visitors part 1

2008-12-26T16:19:00.002-05:00

This is Lizzie. Well, actually it's Lizzie's bum. Lizzie is an NEBCR foster dog who is being fostered by auntie Caitlin. Caitlin, her dog Didge and Lizzie came by for a little while today. Lizzie used to be my foster sister, but I was always having to split her off from herding the kiddens that live here. She likes to herd and eat kiddens.

.o0("must... get... kitteh!")

.o0("i can sees you kitteh!")

.o0("what evs.")

xmas pezzints!

2008-12-25T09:06:00.009-05:00

omg pezzints under the tree!

(daddy says it's ridiculous that ALL the stuff under the tree is for dogs.)

i don't think any of these pezzints haz balls or fizbees in them, but i'z open them anyway...

is der ballz in here!?

fizbee? is dat you?

what do we haz here?

i might wanna chomp on that

yup. i like dis.

yellow santadog! red gooseydog!

even foster brudder Speck gets pezzints

.o0("i so hart this toy")

Samwise, the dog that never plays, even likes opening pezzints!

.o0("this better be edible.")

---

to Pippin, everything is destructible. witness:

.o0("hello, pezzint.")

.o0("i should like to destruct you.")

gnawgnawgnaw (for like 3 - 7 seconds)

equals

.o0("i swear i'm innocent! oh, disregard that blatant evidence at my feets.")

--- STOCKINZ ---

deaf dog = good noze = jackpot

beagle nose = finz treets anywhere

course i know what to do. i'n smart border collie!

.o0( "foster home rulez. all i got in my last home was a basement.")

--- KIDDEN XMAS ---

tandem taunt. "hey banana, check out our new toyz, you can't has...uh oh!"

JAILBRAKEZ

THEEF'D!

Smudge murder spree

Carnage:

Merry Xmas to all my puppy, kidden and human friends.

luv Dune

more Puppeez

2008-12-23T15:23:00.004-05:00

this is my friend Mollie. she isn't a border collie, but all her friends are, and she hangs out with us at the farm a lot. Mollie's mom works for the border collie rescue and they just adopted Murphy from NEBCR so now Molly can say "i haz bordar colie brudder!".

whenever i see Mollie, i get the feeling she doesn't like me much. she avoids me and acts like i'm crazy for liking sheeps and fizbees so much. i think she must have the hots for me!

More puppy pics!

2008-12-20T20:21:00.005-05:00

My buddy Dublin sent me pictures of his little brother Limerick from when he was a little pup. My daddy says Limerick was an incredibly cute puppy (but not as cute as me, right??), but i'll let you judge for yourselves:

Ok, I admit he was cute, but he was also a little pest!

Limerick is what we other border collies call "special", but i don't hold it against him. i've had to 'talk' with him a couple times, and i think that made him respect me, even though he's twice my size! we get along now, as long as he's got something in his mouth when we play.

This is my granddad Copper and my brother Tek.

I don't get to see Tek very often, except sometimes at the farm when we have birthday parties.

hey Tek, what happened to your left ear? it's gon'd flat! hahaha

Copper is a very cool 'ol dog. i wonder if he's where i get my red parts from! he was also an NEBCR rescue and still stays in touch with dublin and limerick's mom, and i see him sometimes! he's very handsome, like me.

red babies.

2008-12-20T12:24:00.005-05:00

my good buddy Dash's mom sent me a picture of Dash when he was a little baby:

and here's another one of me as a youngster:

Notice our blazes are both shaped like devil horns. i wonder what that means, because we're both angels!

I like Dash because he's red like me, is fast like me, loves to swim like me and has a 4 letter name that starts with D. In fact, I've always looked up to Dash.

Here's Dash all growed up in the snow:

If you've got any pictures of yourselves when you were teeny, send them along in your comments or to nebcr.dan@gmail - my daddy will give them to me to post.

As it turns out... a foot is kinda deep!

2008-12-20T09:00:00.008-05:00

i guess the snowz didn't stop coming down all night. i woke daddy up early to go outside. he didn't seem too happy about it. he has to put on pants and a sweatshirt and a jacket gloves hat and big bootses, and i can go outside naked, so i was waiting by the door nicely for a little while, with stupid Speck bouncing next to me like a superball. in fact, Speck is very much like a superball. he's small, definitely made of rubber and bounces around willy nilly creating havoc wherever he goes!

"who, meeee???"

just look at all that havoc!

my big brother Samwise said "i no like dis snow"

big brother Pippin says "mmm icey stix! CHOMP!"

and i says, please get this Speck off my a$$ and throw the fizbee already!!

w00t! snowz!

2008-12-19T15:48:00.006-05:00

Daddy thinks we can't go to herding class tomorrow because of the snow. so i guess i have to drown my sorrows in a whole bunch of snowz!!

here's me playin in the snow! it's already getting dark so i probably won't get to play again til tomorrow when the snow is deeep! i will definitely make sure i'm photographed!

daddy sayz we're getting a whole foot of snow. i don't know how much that is, but it doesn't sound like a lot cuz my feets are kinda small.

Speck doesn't mind the snow either:

Storm's a brewin!

2008-12-18T21:38:00.005-05:00

My first foster mommy called me Winter Storm. I was borned in the late fall (November 2006) but all my siblings were named after winter stuff too. Now my name is Dune but i always like when there are storms comin because i hear my old name a lot!

This is me when i was very little:

Tomorrow we're supposed to get a bunch of snow (whee!), so i'm hanging out and resting up:

I like the bed. And I only usually let my family members on there. Sammy and Pippin can come up most of the time, but i do NOT like foster brother Speck on the bed, so i gives him the mad teef and he goes runnin away!

This is Speck:

Speck is a border collie like me, but he's still a pup. I think he's like half my age, or something. Speck is my foster brother which means he's available through new england border collie rescue. (nebcr.org). He's nearly as fast as me (i'm wicked fast) and all the girls we meet say he's very handsome. I think he's ok, but i don't like when he bugs me outside while i'm doing my important frizbee work. So he's learning how to play fetch like a real border collie. But he brings it back too close to the person throwing it. what fun is that? i like to make daddy work by dropping the frizbeee like 14 feet away from him!

i'll be busy playing in the snow tomorrow ( i think daddy's staying home again!) but i'll try to write!

-dune

an very speshul winter storee by dune

2008-12-17T18:41:00.000-05:00

today i woked up and there was snow outside! I liek snow cuz it is made from water, and i reeelly like water! then i found out daddy was stayin hoem from work which means that i can hang out with him all day long. daddy took me outside to playy frizbee in the morning and the snow was very soft and fresssh. even though he's anoying i played with speck:

then he took me on a ride to town to go to the store for some grown up smelly drink calld koffeee. i liek riding in the car with dad!

then daddy had to work at his dessk all day, but we got to go outside a few times to go peee (ps eating lots o snow makes lotss of pees). here's a pictar of me peeing when i was young once!:

but then it was getting dark outside and we went to go play but i had to lie down wehn daddy saw that one of my paws was hurting form runnning too hard and sliding when the snow got all cruzty! This si me in "lie down" :

Butt then daddy remememberrd that i haz some b00teez!!! he carreid me inside and i layd down liek a good boy so he can puts my sockz on and then my bootiez too. i knew we were goin bak outsides becuz spek and my burther PIP was still out there! but i sat liek a good boy bye the door with my bootz on and waz like "dad I can go outsidez agin?? i gotz me booteez on so my footses wont hurt!"

he totally caved and i went out for a big play seshun wif SPekc and PIP! and then big bruther sammy and our new friend Laddie came out too. Even tho the snow was hard and icy and crustee, i got to run and play friszebbee!

daddy says he likes theez RUFFWAER bootz cuz they never come flying off when i go RUNRUNRUNSLIDDDDEEE

And that they have glowz brites on tehm!

Then i came inside and was tired for a minnute. daddy took off my wet sox and sh00z and his wet glubs and putted them on the warm black box in teh othar room for to dry.

well i hoep you injoyed my storee today. itz almotst dinner time and then i bet i can go bak outsidez1!!

-dune g. age 2