Joy's Tale

Rescued. Adopted. Loved.

Category Archives: puppy mills


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As Your Birthday Approaches Joy…

Joy beach day 1

When my husband goes fishing with his buddy Paul, Joy and I always do something together. The other morning we headed to the beach despite the rising temps in the Spring of Southwest Florida, when the heat and humidity swell and make life quite uncomfortable until we head back North.

To get to the part of the beach where dogs are allowed on leash, it takes about 20 mins to get there. After dropping off the boys, we were there by 9:15 and as soon as you hit the beach, you can feel the ocean breeze which makes the heat seem a bit more tolerable. Still, Joy is chocolate brown and white and she is just like me. We get hot quickly and although I put 40 minutes in the meter we only lasted 30. It was a nice 30 minutes though.

joy beach day 8 ocean look

Most Border Collies love to get into the water. Not Joy. She will stick her paws in the ocean with encouragement, but she won’t swim. She loves to get in the shower and be clean but her adversity to getting wet in any other manner is deep rooted, I think, because of being born into a horrific Amish puppy mill situation, where little wire cages, as small as chicken coops, were stacked floor to ceiling, which means getting peed and pooped on was the disgusting norm.Thankfully she was rescued by a small (but mighty) rescue called Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue.

We adopted Joy on May 11th, 2012, which was the day before Mother’s day that year. She was just going to turn 2. A friend, looking at some Facebook pictures I posted of Joy, the other day, commented that I am such a good mother. As a woman whose children have four legs, not two, I have prided myself on being a great mom to the many fur kids that God has put me in charge of in the course of my life.

Joy is exceptional and so easy to love because she is so loving. She is so very grateful for her life, which is pretty exciting. She gets to live in two states and never has to put up with winter.

As her birthday nears, I am equally grateful for the opportunity to be her mom.Not just anyone could have filled this role how Joy needs it to be. I have to credit Victoria Summers, the founder of Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue, with that “thing” that tells her heart and then her head, “yeah this person is the best one for this dog.”

She was right and thanks to that intuition, Joy has the best family for her and she is the greatest girl for us, especially me. Mom. Dog Walker. Adventure Seeker. Playmate. Comfort and Love Giver and everything in between.

 

 

 

 

 


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Days of Joy

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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 on boat 4

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.me and my joy

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.

 

 


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A Tail To Remind Us….

me and my joy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOY 4Joy’s 4th birthday!

 

For those of  you who have followed me on my blog http://www.baileysjournal.com, you know that I am huge lover of Border Collies and it was Bailey that helped me find Joy. No question. There are so many things I think about when I am walking with Joy especially because she always seems to be ahead of me! I know, I know…I don’t want a training lesson and neither does Joy. The one thing that always reminds me of Joy’s terrible situation when she was in an Amish puppy miss is her docked tail. I actually LOVE her little wigglebutt tail which is always wagging. I was told that mills do this “so the tail is not in the way for breeding.” How sick is that? Border Collies happen to have these amazing fan tails and hers was docked to make life convenient for some Amish asshole.

So it is a constant reminder to me about her awful start to life, but I am quickly grounded by her life now and how amazing it is and how she gets to be so spoiled and loved to the nth degree. And when we are walking in Buhl Park, one of the most amazing places on earth, I think about puppy mills and the horror dogs go through. I think about breeders. I am not saying some breeders do not have good intentions, but I, and many people, think that right now on this planet there are enough dogs that need homes without breeding more.  My Joy is a purebred Border Collie. The Amish know these are working dogs and they farm and Borders love farms. But I happen to live fairly close to some Amish areas here in Pennsylvania and I can can tell you that most animals on those farms are NOT living great lives.

Joy got so lucky when that Amish mill was busted and thus Indian Summers Border Collie Rescue was called in to help. Joy was among many dogs that were rescued that cold night. They stole her puppies before they were even weaned and then dumped her off because she would not let them breed her again. I know my Joy. One day at Buhl Park a lady had come out of her car suddenly and Joy saw her and being as protective over me as she so fiercely is, she growled so loud the lady screamed! Later we saw her walking and she told me Joy sounded like a grizzly bear! Funny!

Joy is also small by Border Collie standards. She is petite and beautiful. But oh, is she mighty. She still has fears which we work on daily even after two years. I must kiss her hundreds of times a day. She loves that I work at home and can be with her and our cat, Safari all the time. Her tail will never be like it should but it is exactly what is and I adore her. She is  my beautiful daughter and for that I am grateful.