Announcing Mahzi's New Job

When Mahzi arrived here over three years ago from Mountain Pet Rescue, she looked like a border collie mix and acted like a full border collie.  She was hyper, athletic, super smart, and BUSY.  I was told that she was approximately a year old, since she had all her adult teeth and was so tall and leggy.  She had been a stray in Arkansas that animal control picked up, but because she was so intense they had no luck adopting her out from the high-kill shelter where she was held. Mountain Pet Rescue brought her to Colorado to find an active mountain home for her.

I adopted her from the rescue and brought her home to learn the ways of being a horse-training border collie.  She definitely had the border collie brain.  She caught on fast and loved to run with me and the thoroughbreds in the back forty.  She would jump the jumps, climb on the logs, and was always right next to me ready to work.

Time passed, and Mahzi began to change.  I suspect that when I got her she was actually closer to six months old, to have had all her adult teeth but to still have so much maturing ahead of her. She gained 30 lbs, putting her at a solid and fit 85 lbs now.  She filled out tremendously, then slowed down and became a lab.  She preferred to lie around and watch me and the horses work rather than participate.  Most of the time you could see her lying in the arena, giving me a look that clearly said, "I can see you from here, have a good ride."  She also didn't like being out working in the cold in the winters, and had to wear a coat to get through barn chores. 

This fall we decided to bring Mahzi in the house and see how she liked the slower pace of house dog life.  She took to it incredibly quickly.  The lying around in the heated living room is just the thing for her, and when she has to go outside to do business she hurries right back to the front door and gives us a woof to let us know she's ready to come back into the warm.  She also enjoys using her deep bark to terrify delivery people, who no longer ring the doorbell but just toss packages at the front door and bolt.

Mahzi loves to lie next to Jasi when she's doing homework at the dinner table, and Mahzi adores the "cookie in a Kong toy" routine in the evening.  She'll often fall asleep on the carpet, snoring away, and if you happen to wake her up she looks at you blurry-eyed with the tip of her tongue sticking out (she sleeps with her tongue out.)

We are getting into the windy season here at the ranch in Colorado, and I have a hard time with so much wind.  It gives me wicked vertigo, a leftover from the head injury.  I spend my time hiding in my office on days like this, and today Mahzi and I took a nap in my comfy chair.

The old saying, "Its a dog's life" doesn't sound so bad when you're a lazy lab living in the house!

I seem to have collected a fair number of animals that mature late, from late blooming horses, to Mahzi, my now 85 lb lap dog.  Her before and after photos are impressive.  Hard to tell it's the same dog!