Abby of Rose Run 1999 - Dec. 20, 2006 - A Moveable Yard Ornament

The 'postings' on this blog briefly tell the story of the dogs we have in our household, 'members of the family' so to speak, or 'the Pack' in the language of dog behavior. If you click on the photos, you can access a much larger version of the pictures.

Abby in the Pines -- She loved the yard

Baruch, in the hallway at the top of the steps.....

Read Baruch's story down below.

Last perimeter of defense......

Baruch at the top of the steps. Don't come up those steps! This was the old days, before Baron came along.  As noted above, Baruch now has a companion with him at the top of the steps.

Checking the Yard

Baruch - Guarding at the front door

Baruch has been here since May 19th, 2005. He had been around the rescue circuit (3 - 4 different homes) and "it was not working out." My estimate on his age is about 3 1/2 yrs old. He weighs 90 lbs, and he is way too enthusiastic about simple things like going out into the backyard! He came with the name Baruch, which is Hebrew for blessing or blessed. He is often referred to as 'baby Baruch' because he has such a soft temperment. He likes everybody and wants to be liked. Since Abby died, he has taken up the watch in our house. He actually started sleeping near her the last couple of days she was here. His behavior around the time Abby died suggests that dogs are much more aware of the dynamics of life and death than we can imagine.

Christmas Holly

Holly is a 6 year old English Shepherd. The English Shepherd is an American original. Learn more about them at this link: http://www.englishshepherd.org/ and read Holly's story below.

Christmas Quincy

Quincy is a Shetland Sheepdog, 15 years old -estimated- in June of 2007.

Quincy in the Snow

Quincy was our first dog, retrieved from Tri State Collie Rescue in 1996. He was already 5 years old when we got him. He was a troubled kid, separation anxiety, a biter.........and no, not much has changed in 10 years. We have just learned how to manage it. These days he has arthritis, is losing his sight and hearing, and he gets babied a lot. Sometimes we have to carry him up the steps. Truthfully, because of his anxiety, he is the most trouble of all the dogs we've had here, but he is the favorite of my wife Becky and daughter Andrea. So, it's interesting how those things play out. Quincy became very sick with chronic diarrhea over the summer of 2007. After weeks of treatment at Gahanna Animal Hospital and the OSU Vet Hospital, he was put to sleep at OSU on July 20, 2007. That was a very difficult process, very sad, but I have two tributes to make. One is to the vet, vet student and staff at OSU. They were amazing!! I have never received such care and attention as I did there. Of course, it is partly for the vet student which is a great learning experience for them. But, they cover all the bases, are very attentive, caring and provide and extensive amount of information about the different options. Truthfully, speaking as clergy, many pastors could learn from the staff, students and attending vets at the Ohio State University Vet Hospital. The leader of the team was Dr. Robert Sherding, an excellent scientist and a compassionate person! The other tribute to be made is to Holly, the English Shepherd, who helped us care for Quincy during his last week with us. Read more about that under one of her pictures.

Holly in the Snow Dec. 2006

This is Holly in the snow, Christmas time 2006. As noted in other posts, she is a bit self-indulgent, and frankly, does not particularly like other dogs. In fact, she is a bit dog aggressive, and never particularly liked Qunicy. However, a dramatic change came over her the last week of Quincy's life. The Quinc was very sick, had to be taken out often in the midst of the night. He had diarrhea and the last couple of days was throwing up. Holly started waking us up everytime Quincy was in distress. Not once or twice, but repeatedly during the night, and if we did not take action, pick Quince, take him outside, whatever was needed, she would get us back out of bed again. It was pretty amazing. She would wake us, and lead us over to Quincy's bed to make sure he was cared for. Of course, always before, she was basically disdainful of him. What a transformation. The other thing that has happened since then is that she has become more playful toward other dogs, including our new sheltie, Luke. She does not always like him, would prefer to dominate him, but now she also plays with him. Quincy had a big impact on Holly, once again the mystry of dogs and how they understand and perceive the world, and react to mattes of life and death.

Once again.......

What's Up......

Holly is generally pretty trusting, in fact spends a lot of her life making sure she has the number one spot around the people in her house. But, here she is looking a bit quizzical, wondering, no doubt.................what's up?

On the other Hand.....

She does go on alert! She often sees things in the back yard. The other morning she got me up at 5:30 to go out. I assumed it was the usual go to the bathroom. No! Amazingly, she had 'heard' a bunny rabbit in our backyard? So, I opened the door and off she went, along with her fellow conspirator, Baruch the German Shepherd, and they had a big chase across the ice and snow that covers the back yard.

Thankfully, the bunny was much faster than them, as he sprinted under the pine tree and shot under the small space at the bottom of the fence, and he was gone. But, this picture represents another typical Holly posture, spotting-hearing something in the backyard.

Holly Berry - Her favorite position

Holly is a pretty self indulgent little dog. She is happy to lay around looking very content. She also does not like to be bothered by the other dogs when she is at rest. Holly is an English Shepherd, the formal breed line of what we might know as 'the old farm collie.' They have their background in the British Isles, border collie, rough coat collie mixes etc, but were standardized into a breed line in the US in the 1800s. Holly did come from the pound though, as a pup, Dec. 27, 2001.

These photos of Abby are a good representation of her typical demeanor in the yard and the house--always on alert, watching out for trouble! She was an excellent watch dog in that sense, and nothing got by or around the house without her letting us know. Admittedly it sometimes got to be 'a little too much.' On the other hand, we were always alerted when people passed by or someone was approaching the front door.

Abby on Watch