Abbie, Maggie, and Patches' Stories
by Abby and Maggie's Mom and Dad, Catherine Carter & John Stiles
From left: Abby, Maggie, and Patches
Abby, Maggie and Patches battled for a tennis ball yesterday.
The three sisters dashed into a Tennessee Lake in pursuit of a Frisbee.
They were a family again.
All this is due to the East Tennessee Border Collie Rescue group.
Abby and Maggie live with Catherine and John. Patches lives within walking distance with her mom, Cindy.
After a rough beginning, the sisters were brought to the rescue group from outside the area.
We (John and Catherine) had never "owned" a Border Collie, but our Blue Heeler, Millie, had introduced us to the worlds of Frisbee, obedience and agility. We knew Border Collies are tops in all three.
Millie had been dumped on the roadside along with her sister. The sister was hit by a car and killed. At the time we had two old Dachshunds that have since passed away. Millie now has an ILP registration with AKC.
However, we now also have Mollie, a Dachshund, from an animal shelter, and Megan, a Retriever mix, who showed up on the back lawn starving and suffering from mange.
Abby's foster mom, Carolyn, "mentioned" we might want to come by "and just see this dog."
After Catherine and John spent 15 minutes in the "What do you think?" zone they decided to adopt Abby.
Abby's foster dad, Skip, later said he had picked Abby as the perfect dog for us.
On Abby's first exposure to sheep, she made us proud. Then she discovered Frisbee. And sheep were out to pasture.
We met Maggie at a sheep event. She was being fostered by Suzanne, who had more dogs than she could say grace over, but clearly had a special place in her heart for Maggie. To make a long story short, Suzanne, with a tear in her eye, allowed us to adopt Maggie. It is a heartbreaking rule of rescue work, if you keep too many dogs you can't help another.
Abby (left) and Maggie
Patches also was being fostered by Skip and Carolyn. Thatâs where she met Cindy. Cindy and Patches were permitted to skip basic obedience and go straight to advanced class. Not bad for a teenager and a rescue dog!
All three sisters are in advanced obedience class together. Abby and Patches are Frisbee crazy. Maggie thinks they make great chews.
Maggie is serious about sheep. Suzanne says as a pup Maggie would sneak under the fence to have a "go" at sheep. An aggressive ram once found a young Border Collie hanging from his nose.
There is no better word to describe all three dogs than "sweet."
Now we are fostering Tristan, a year old male.
Tristan is beautiful, scared to death of men, but "sweet." Through lots of love we hope to convince him not all men are a threat.
A sticker on our van asks: "Can one ever have enough Border Collies?"
Maybe we are about to find the answer to that question.
Congratulations are in
order!
Rescue dog Abby, and her dad, John Stiles, won first place in the
obstacle course and first place in the Frisbee competition at Bark in the Park
in Knoxville, TN on April 26, 2003.