Despite looking online, at breeders' pages, at rescues with supposed border collie pups, and considering year-old border collies, I couldn't find anything that was exactly what I wanted close to Denver or Cheyenne. There were some possibilities in the mid-west, but I really didn't want to drive that far. I eventually found Rizzo at the Good Dog Rescue in Westminster, but despite being high energy and intelligent, she's still not "border collie smart" or "border collie intense". I adore her, and she's working out really well here, but she definitely has terrier independence, and she tends to only really be obedient to me. She'll humor other people if it suits her. I did have quite a moment with her last week, though. Miles somehow did teach her everything she needed to know to be my right hand before he passed.
I often need to move a big round bale with the tractor into the large gelding paddock. Historically these geldings like to squeeze out the open gate and go for a romp in the pasture before I can get the tractor through with the hay. Miles would always keep them from escaping while I latched the gate open, went back to the tractor, pushed the bale through, and then returned to close the gate behind myself. Rizzo had never helped with this before, though she'd watched Miles do it several times.
Friday afternoon I needed to quickly move two bales into that paddock as I was trying to get out of town for a show. I could scarcely believe it when I opened the gate, looked Dewey in the eye and told him to get out of the way, and Rizzo took over from there. She expertly moved all the geldings out of my way, kept them away from the gate as I pushed the bale through with the tractor, and made sure no one doubled back to leave while I closed the gate. I nearly cried when I realized she was doing the exact complex job to help me that Miles used to do so regularly. I'm so lucky to have such great dogs.
Finally, just over a week ago, I came across a border collie/aussie online who was the last of his litter. The breeder had the mom who was a regular black and white border collie, and dad was a blue merle australian shepherd. They had already found homes for all his siblings (there were eight puppies in the litter), and I thought this last male was a regular black border collie with the white stripe on his face and chest.
When Sara and I got to their place, we discovered that not only was the puppy a tricolor, he looked almost exactly like Miles had at that age. Miles had a little more white on his front paws and face, but otherwise he could be a doppelganger.
Here is Miles as a puppy:
and here is the new kid:
There was no way I could not take him after looking at that face and giving him a snuggle. Rizzo went with me and Sara to meet him and she was more interested in playing with the other adult dogs who would wrestle and roughhouse with her. I'll settle for polite indifference with dogs first meeting each other, and Rizzo was at least nice to him even if she somewhat ignored him because he wasn't big enough to really tussle.
The ride home in the truck with an eight week old pup was cause for many "awwww"s and "oh my goodness"s from me and Sara.
When I got him home, we began discussing names. To honor Miles, we decided to keep with a unit of measurement for this little guy. Owen, my husband, came up with Pascal. It's a unit of fluid pressure measurement, and it suits the little guy.
He's already helping in the arena with working horses. He tries to keep up but gets a little frustrated with his short legs by the end of the second ride. He's very content to snuggle with me or my clients, and loves to curl up on people's feet and cuddle. I feel like this is a sign he's part Australian Shepherd, because especially as a puppy Miles never slowed down until the day was over.
Pascal idolizes Rizzo. She is his hero, and he tries to do whatever she does. Even if I'm teaching a lesson and Rizzo knows I don't need her to demonstrate anything, Pascal will curl up in an identical ball and take a nap just like she does.
So far the cutest video I've gotten was of him playing with his new rope squeaky toy, which I picked up at the feed store when we went to town to get grain and shavings this morning. If you turn up the volume you can hear him talking to the toy, and at one point in the video he starts pawing and yipping at the part of the toy that will squeak if you squeeze it, though he doesn't have the jaw strength yet to make it happen.
Stay tuned for many puppy updates. Rizzo is coaching him in the ways of being a good barn dog, and I'm so pleased to have another border collie again.
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