This picture was the day we adopted Joy, the day before Mother’s Day which was May 11, 2012. To this day Joy still barks at strangers, yet when we came for her it was as though she knew she was going to her forever home because she came running over and kissed both my husband and myself. I was so happy about that and I thought of this moment today when we were out for a ride in the car as she was barking at people passing by.
Victoria Summers, her rescue grandma, told me that Joy and I were going to be a perfect match before we ever met her or Joy. With an amazing sense of everything Border Collie, Victoria turned out to be very right and as we approach our 4th year together I know I am as grateful for Joy as she is for us, and especially me. I am the true animal person in this house and always have been. I do not believe in life without cats and dogs because I think that would be no real existence.
Joy has an amazing life. Her paws never see snow because like us, she is a snow bird, or in her case, a snow dog with no snow. FL in the winter and western PA in the summer. Her life is filled with as much sunshine as God bestows upon us. She doesn’t like being in the water (except to get a shower) but she loves being on or by the water. When she came to us our beautiful Cat Safari was 11 years old. My big orange boy crossed over the Rainbow Bridge last year at age 14-1/2. We knew she would want another cat so Sabie the kitten cat was adopted from a local shelter. I always have to say, “Joy quit chasing Sabie” and then I think, Chasing Sabie would be a great name for a book.
There is nothing greater than knowing you have been part of the process of rescue and adoption. It warms my heart everyday to think how lucky Joy was to have been rescued by Victoria out of a horrible puppy mill situation and adopted by us. No work I do gives me a better feeling in my heart than that.
I love this little girl with all my bones and I know the feeling is mutual. If you have never known this kind of love, you need to experience it to make yourself aware of who you really are and who you can truly be.
Aside from my husband, no one loves me like our dog. Yes, our cat loves me too, quite a bit actually, but no one reacts quite the same as Joy after you have been gone for a while.
After returning from a cruise this week, Joy pretty much muddled me to the ground with her happy greeting. She jumped at my face so hard to kiss me I had to be careful she doesn’t knock my teeth out! She also jumped on my husband but he is second to me that is for sure. She is young, powerful and her energy should be bottled since it’s better than any vitamin because it’s simply pure love. There is nothing else that compares to that feeling of complete and unconditional love of a dog. Her rescue Grandma, Victoria Summers, named her Joy and it could not have been more on the mark. Joy is always smiling with that big Border Collie tongue hanging out – I love it.
Adding to my own happiness to seeing my furkids was the still joyousness I felt from reading a book I took on the trip. It’s called Dogtripping by David Rosenfelt and his hilarious experience in transporting 29 dogs across country to move into their new house from Southern California to Maine. He and his wife Debbie rescue mostly senior Goldens, sprinkled in with some others, and the story is just so heartwarming. While reading it, it made me miss Joy and Safari so much more. I always said the first cruise line to initiate a trip where you can take your dog would be sold out in moments.
Joy certainly did not disappoint me with that Jump for Joy greeting she gave me. Safari, our almost 13-year Orange Tabby sauntered in, saying, Oh finally you are back; it’s about time! It’s also unconditional love for after all he is a cat and they just have a different way of showing it and I have had cats my whole life. Joy is only my second dog but oh is she special.
I own my own business. I am always busy and there never seems to be enough time in the day, but furkids tend to make you stop. As much as I needed a break, I am always happy to return to doing those routine things like feeding them and even cleaning up their messes. I love being their mom and home is truly where love flourishes everyday with “Joy.”
It’s been so long since I have written here mainly because Joy keeps me so busy. It’s only our second Christmas and her name is everywhere I go and I just love that. When her rescue grandma, Dr. Victoria Summers rescued her, she named her Joy. When I first saw her adorable face on Petfinder, her name was only a bonus. When I called about her she told that she had named her Joy because she is one. How could you not fall in love with that idea?
When we wake in the morning, Joy is always scratching even though there is no reason to. She is healthy and eats better food than most people as I often cook for her and she is corn/soy/wheat free. I think she does this out of habit from being born into a horrific Amish puppy mill situation in Ohio. When cages are stacked on top of each other and there are no bottoms, feces and urine must be getting all over the dogs – it sickens me and I do work to help stop this abuse. I tell her every morning that she is clean, safe and I kiss her a thousand times a day. I am so happy I have the ability to share our life with Joy & Safari, our gorgeous Orange Tabby boy.
When I think about the end of the year and all the cats and dogs that need forever homes it makes me so sad but then I think of all who are rescued. We do what we can; I only wish more good, loving and caring people would be helpful and kind toward innocent animals either by adoption or by donation to their local rescue. These are my children. I have had many kids over the years and I would not have had it any other way. I love them all and miss terribly the ones who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
Joy stands for love and I stand for her, paw in hand.
Yes, Joy and I both agree, that Purina has the RIGHT idea for people AND Dogs and Cats! With their new program, Pets For 55 Plus, Purina is helping those 55 and over adopt dogs and cats at no cost! What could be better than that? Read the article below and find out all the health benefits that keeping a furry companion offers! As many of you already know, Joy came from a very special place: Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue. www.indiansummers.org. Her first adoption anniversary and birthday all collided this year on Mother’s Day and what a wonderful day it was. Joy not only brings smiles to our cat Safari and to my husband and me, but to all her neighbors and friends around her who she mauls with sweet cuddles and kisses! If that does not keep you young, nothing will! We LOVE Purina for helping shelters and rescues and hope their new program leads to many more good adoptions that lead to happy forever homes with loving people.
Here is some great information about the program!
With Love from Joy and Me!
They Say 60 is the New 40.
Add a Pet, and it Could Feel More Like 25.
It’s no surprise that having a pet in your life can help you feel healthy, happy and more engaged with the community. And they definitely help us feel young at heart.
The impact of pets in the lives of older adults can be exceptionally amazing. In the article For Seniors: Pets Are Just Plain Healthy, written by Ed Kane, PhD, we see some of the benefits to older individuals in particular:
Pets promote social interaction, decrease the feeling of loneliness and isolation, and increase morale and optimism.
Pets encourage playfulness, exercise, and promote laughter.
Pets satisfy the need for touch and to be touched, and give nonjudgmental warmth and affection.
Seniors with dogs go to the doctor less. Dogs are preventative and therapeutic against everyday stress.
For people aged 65-78, dogs are a major factor of conversations with passersby. Companion animals readily elicit friendly responses.
Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels.
Pet owners have fewer minor health problems, lower medical costs, better psychological well being, and higher one-year survival rates following coronary heart disease.
So, what do you say? Are you ready to experience the clear benefits of having a pet in your life?
Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue is part of a special program, created by Purina®, which allows eligible adopters age 55 and older to adopt a pet at no cost. So, what do you have to lose? Come find your next companion today!
Joy, the latest addition to our full and loving life, continues to amaze us with her sweetness and unlimited amount of love and willingness to experience new things. This was certainly a concern for us as we split our time between two states and since she was adopted spent an entire 6 months in Western, Pennsylvania and then she was off on a long road trip adventure to the South. I wondered how she would react. Would she think we are moving from the first forever home she has known? Would she miss it or would she adapt, as my friend Patty says dogs so when they are truly loved, like Joy.
Safari, the cat love of our life, is used to the drill. He has been travelling with us for years and he is a sunshine guy without a doubt. Four day in and so is Joy. She loves it here and I knew one thing for sure. She would love Angel and Zoe, my neighbor Kevin’s and his sister Pat’s dogs. I love their dogs so much and I could not wait for Joy to meet them because I knew she would love them. Angel, a beautiful Golden play so sweetly together. One catches the ball and then gives it to the other, over and over and over. Adorable, if you love dogs like us.
This is Kevin’s golf cart and he lets us use it. Her first ride on it was a few days ago. Today I borrowed it while Kevin was in school for a quick ride, later we all rode on it together before dinner – that will be the next picture.
I do not think a day goes by when I don’t think about Joy’s early life in a horrible puppy mill. Thankfully when she was rescued by Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue, she was loved too, not just rescued. This is an amazing place filled with love, hope and care and as Dr. Summers says, a shelter is not a home; it is a temporary one, but not a real home – but I like to think it was really a great start for Joy. It was akin to a jailbreak, that puppy mill. Some do not survive, some are tortured mentally for the rest of their lives and some are tough like Joy and determined (Yes, that is THE WAY of a Border Collie) to find their way.
Joy is very young, still a puppy herself. She had just turned 3 in May when we adopted her. She is first getting to experience the world. She now has travelled through 7 states! She went to her first doggy park yesterday and met two new boy friends that she loved, Willy and Sandy, a Westie and Sheltie, respectively. Her future days include many fun activities which I will continue to write about as they transpire.
Joy, you are no longer leading a “sheltered life” you have a piece of the world pie and it’s our privilege to give it to you, with love and kisses, everyday.
GrandMommy Victoria is the amazing woman who rescued Joy. She lived at Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue for a year before Dr. Vic determined that I was Joy’s mom. She says she knew this from the first message I left on her phone. She was concerned that Joy was “quirky” as she likes to call her. I would instead call Joy feisty and many have called me the same thing, so perhaps we were a match. She also described Joy as a dog “who is going to expect you to fluff her pillows, literally. She is a real princess.” Without ever meeting me, Dr. Vic thought I was a princess of sorts as well and knew instinctively that I was the right person after having had hundreds of calls about Joy.
There are so many wonderful qualities Joy has and as she cuddles with us intensely, I am always amazed how dogs can go through so much trauma and still wind up on the right side of trust. Joy has so much love to give and she loves that we give her so much attention, time and love right back. Even Safari, her best kitty pal, loved her immediately.
Thankfully, we can help Joy explore a whole new world. She still has a little fear – she does not like large crowds of people yet, but she is dealing with it and has become so friendly with people while walking at the park. Her favorite activity there is to chase the squirrels and I do MEAN chase them! She is strong and fast and she can smell a squirrel a mile away. I praise her each time she finds one and she loves that.
Dr. Vic named Joy so perfectly. I remember her telling me that she named her that because she literally was a joy. She does live up to her name. She has a joyous soul and her nickname has become Joyous, actually. She is so easy to love because of the intensity of her giving ways. I cannot thank Bailey enough for leading me to www.petfinder.com or Victoria and Kernie for rescuing her and taking such great care of her before we came along. Things have a way of happening that we cannot always explain and sometimes you really don’t need to know why. It just is as it should be.
For the first time in the four months since adopting Joy, I went back to Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue (www.indiansummers.org). I went there to help with a benefit auction for the organization from whence Joy came. Since coming home to live with us, Joy is such a happy girl. She knows she is loved and cared for and in only four months together, I think she has received thousands of kisses.
My husband calls her “his girl,” all the time. She plays with him as he tries to do his stretching exercises each morning. She puts one of her 100, soft, bone-shaped toys gently on his chest as if to say, “well, you are on the floor where I live now, so let’s play!” He loves playing with her and she makes him laugh.
She loves Safari, her brother. I think she has kissed HIM a thousand times since arriving. Safari, a cat who only truly shows love towards me, loves he attention that Joy has showered upon him. They lay next to each other all the time.
I have been lax on this journal of Joy’s tale but not because I have not thought about many things to say. Just before sitting down to write this I was watching a video by the Humane Society about the raiding of a puppy mill in South Carolina. Joy was originally in a puppy mill and when I think about the deplorable conditions that dogs can be born into it sparks a fury inside my brain that ultimately leaves you feeling almost helpless because there is such vast animal abuse in these United States..
I work so hard to share, post and spread the word of animal abuse and I hope that my little help-cog in the wheel will help get laws changed to make animal abusers culpable when they commit horrific crimes, such as operating a puppy mill. To me, every single one should be shut down in every state. Puppy mills should be illegal it’s as simple as that.
I think about how lucky Joy got, from the moment she left the puppy mill to the year she spent at Indian Summers and now in her permanent home, in which princess is the perfect word to describe her style of life. She deserves to be a princess and we are happy to give her the real life that she deserves. The unconditional love from one’s animal companion is the truest of all. I am lucky to have that kind of love with my husband, but I know not everyone, even married people, have that. Bailey found us Joy and I knew that she would find us the girl who belonged with us and she could not have done a better job. Joy is better and so are we for having her in our life.
If you can rescue an animal that needs a home, and you have the financial means as well as time to invest, then you should consider helping out a furry one or two. A life lived is fine, but a life lived with animal companions is far better.
On October 28th our Border Collie/Collie Bailey, crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Nothing has ever been harder as we were hyper attached. She promised she would find us the perfect dog when the time was right. We write a blog together on here, www.baileysjournal.com It was January 15, this year when I printed a page from www.petfinder.com. It read:
Joy – Border Collie Age: Adult, Female Pet ID Joy
Notes: My name is Joy and I am a lovely petite Medium rough coat sable and white female Border Collie with a tail dock and from and rear dew claws removed. My weight is 35 pounds. I was dropped off in the night box of the county pound. My family just dropped me in over the high fence. I kept asking them roooowhy roooowhy are rooo leaving me. I watched the headlights until them disappeared. I did not know what would happened to me next. I just had a litter of puppies and I don’t know where they went either. Did they go to a place like this also? I was scared. I could hear barking from inside the building and I was afraid that another dog would come harm me. I stayed very still and waited for the sunrise. It wasn’t too long after the after the light returned that a car pulled up and man got out and looked over at me. He put a leash on me and took me inside. I barked at all the other dogs because they were making so much noise. Then one of them told me that they were barking to be fed so I started to bark for breakfast too. I wondered if my family would come and get me soon so I waited and watched the sunset and sunrise again. They never came back.
A day came when there were a lot of people coming and going and the ringing noise where people go and talk out loud to themselves kept ringing and ringing. I barked at all the people to get their attention but they were busy taking dogs from either side of me and from across the way from me. Where were they all going? I started ot get afraid again because there were a few of us left and the others were all quiet nad not saying anything. The silence I had wanted since I came here was now something that made me more afraid. What was going to happen to me now? The sun was starting to go down and that was the doors closed for the night and all the people left. All of us dogs would sit in the dark and talk to one another but there was no one near me to talk to and the new dogs that had arrived today were hiding in their crates. I was going to be all alone. A sudden fear swept through me. Then, all at once the door opened and in the doorway stood a woman. I barked as loud as I could. She looked at me and turned away. I kept barking. I needed someone to know I was here! The the nice man who had taken me the first day came and opened my cage door. I ran out down the hall and there was the woman standing and holding a leash…my heart jumped. Leashes mean WALKS WITH PEOPLE!!! The woman loaded me into her van where I found a nice man who held me in his arms and made me feel safe. Off we went down the road. I know that my life is about to change. I know that I am going to be OK. I’m safe, someone cared enough to come and rescue me. And one day, someone will love me and I will learn to love again. Joy is desperately in search of a good home. Send application if interested.
It was posted by Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue OAIC, Inc., who had several other dogs listed, but none with a story like that. The first thought I had was how heartbroken the story made me. Next, I showed my husband and finally I called. I was so impressed that anyone would even take the time to write such a long description and write it in such a way that detailed, so beautifully, this dog’s quest for a home.
Let me explain that when I read this in January, Joy was in Ohio and we were in Florida for the winter with our beautiful, 11 year-old cat Safari, who had loved Bailey very much. We would not be returning to Pennsylvania until mid-May and I did not even know if this dog named Joy would like a cat or if my Safari would like her. But, I had hope and as it turns out, hope is just what I needed.
I sent an email to the address listed and never heard back. After a few days I decided to call Indian Summers and I got a voicemail with Dr. Victoria Summers’ voice on it. I loved the last part: “Leave your message after the pause,” which I immediately knew was a play on the word paws and I thought there she goes again with her creativity! I liked her and had not even spoken to her, I just was wishing she would call me back already and got to thinking that perhaps Joy was adopted and that is why she was not getting back to me.
A few days later, she called. I think we talked for an hour or maybe even longer. I thought she was perhaps a vet, but she went on to explain that she was a naturopathic doctor but she had been sick and once practiced in a women’s health office, but not anymore. We talked about Joy and how she was in an Amish puppy mill before she got to the pound. I learned more about Dr. Vic and after the first or second conversation I sent her a big box of oranges because I thought she might need them.
The next message she left on my cell phone was so sweet and I still have it saved. She appreciated that a total stranger would send her oranges. The next time I would send her a check for the dogs, simply to help out and because I wanted to. There was something about this woman who was so special and I could feel it 1500 miles away.
Dr. Vic is a gorgeous American Indian woman, inside and out. Her father was a full- blood and her mother was a beautiful Irish woman. She grew up on “the res” as she likes to say and still believes in the “old Indian ways.” Her grandfather once was on the cover of Life Magazine!
We met when we went to pick up Joy the day before Mother’s Day and this amazingly spiritual woman, who has cancer and was feeling poorly most of the time, greeted me like we had known each other 100 years. “One of the first things she said to me was it seems like I have known you forever.” Easily, it did seem to be fact. Her favorite dog was Hope (pictured here but has since crossed over the Rainbow Bridge) and perhaps Bailey sent me to her and me to her because I need Joy and she needed Hope.
You see, this woman has a big plan for the future and as a person who has rescued more than 2,000 dogs in her life, this time she needed some help getting her message out. How odd is it that I am a writer and publicist? Bailey thought, well, we can help!
Dogs have stories and they can tell stories, and had I not met Joy, I never would have known about Dr. Victoria’s grand plan and I would have never been involved in helping! Since I was starting Joy’s blog today, I thought I would mention this too for all you dog lovers out there. Here is a link to learn more: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs030/1101200403029/archive/1110176592380.html
It’s funny how dogs, whether they be here on earth or over the Rainbow Bridge, can bring us together. I think they are a lot better than the politicians in Washington too!
Who knew that when I would simply go online to look for a dog, all this other stuff would happen? Bailey must have known and that is why I am here to tell the story.
Dr. Victoria Summers and her Hope in a boat, on the water; one of her favorite places to be….
Joy's Tale 