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In memory of all the Collies who shared our lives

and continue to live on in our hearts.

Waiting across the Rainbow Bridge......

Bronte

Bronte came to rescue as a senior gal with some health issues that sadly would never resolve during her time in foster care.  Bronte was allowed to pass over the Rainbow Bridge with her foster mom at her side, knowing she was loved and how much her foster family cared for her.  She was a sweet, special girl who spent her last days knowing she was a very important part of her foster familiy’s lives.  

Happy romping in Rainbow Fields, Bronte!  

Shine

To my dear, sweet, gentle boy, Shine.  I love you and miss you very much.  Your quirky habits and sweetness grew on me and I will be forever grateful that you came into my life, even if it was for a relatively short time.  The home is not the same without you.  

Lily and Amber send their love and woofs and Darwin sends a hiss!

Always,

Sabrina

A note about what shine taught us at Collie Rescue Network:

Shine came to CRN in April 2008, at age 11, when his young owner was moving and could not take him with her.  We see a lot of seniors in rescue and almost all of them do find their fur-ever homes.  In the year and a half that Shine was in foster care someone would occasionally comment on how sad it was that Shine had not found his new family yet and we would nod sadly and agree.  However, near the end of Shine’s life, while his quality of life was slipping daily away from him, we realized something wonderful.  

Shine may not have found his adoptive family but he certainly had found his fur-ever home!

When Shine arrived in foster care he was, well, out of sorts.  He was anxious and whenever his foster mom would leave he would destroy things (literally knocking paintings off the walls and moving furniture around!).  He would howl at the door, even if she was just outside in the garden.  It was almost like a rebellious teenager had moved in with her!  And then, suddenly, Shine just relaxed, settled in and was fine. It was like a switch was flipped - one day he was knocking furniture over in protest and the next he was curled up contentedly on his doggie bed, snoring.  Shine had come to realize that no matter what he was doing, no matter how badly behaved he was acting that something important had happened.  His foster mom loved him unconditionally.

Shine knew he was home long before we did, because dogs are generally just smarter than us that way a lot of the time.  While we were out searching for his adoptive family, Shine must have been snickering away to himself about our lack of insight as he merrily went about his day, barking away those leaves from his yard and nudging his Momma for more butt rubs.

On August 4th, 2009, Shine followed the path across the Rainbow Bridge while his mom spoke to him and let him know he was forever be loved.  She was there for him in the end, just like she’d come to always be there for him - ever since he found his way Home to her.

Was Shine adopted into a fur-ever home?  Not literally I suppose, and yet Shine did find his furever family. He just did it in foster care.  Shine spent his days being loved by someone who was happy to see him each and every day.  He was given Good Boy treats (sometimes just for being so cute!) and he slept soundly each night in a warm, safe house with the family who loved him.  Shine taught us that while adoption is what rescues strive for, what we spend our time working towards with the dogs in our care - sometimes Home really is where the love is and sometimes, once in awhile, adoption doesn’t matter.

And so, with hearts that are saddened by his passing, we are also joyful that Shine spent his days with the family who truly loved him in the end.  We wish him carefree running over the fields of the Rainbow Bridge, chasing those pesky squirrels with a voice that is strong and powerful once again and on legs that are almost sturdy enough to catch one!  Happy romping, Shine!

If you would like to add your beloved Collie (or Collie mix) to the In Memoriam pages, please send us a photo along with your information to rescue@collierescuenetwork.com

hi Jenn......these are the last photos I took of Maggie - she is gone.

The morn of the 13 she lifted her left foot, it hurt. I made an appt with the vet.She had lost more weight...

I almost always had to lift her hind to get her up, she had great appetite, always happy to see Honey, but this day, listless, and sad looking. as you see by these photos.

The vet and I discussed her condition. He checked her over thourougly. He found a huge mass on her right front shoulder that he could hold with 2 hands. No I never felt it, I thought it was extra hair, I had been trying to brush her but it hurt her so I only did a bit at a time.

Dr. Brault was more concerned about the mass than her overall poor condition, and when he got the testing stuff out (lab) I said stop. if you know it’s cancer why prolong a treatment when she has no quality of life. Why put her though any more? I said with tears this is not fair to her, I cannot ask her to go through any more.

My brave, courageous, plunky, fighting, gentle sweetheart is over the rainbow bridge where she can run and play to her heart’s content.

I am left alone and empty, the house is hollow like me.

Gwen

Maggie

Laddie

It is with a broken heart that we have to send Laddie to the Rainbow Bridge on Wednesday, Feb 23 rd early Am. The vet I talked to today , Dr. Morganti was her name and it was the same one that had seen him in October for blood work , saw what difficultly he was having that day with his problem with his back legs.  

They have tile on their floors and they had to use a towel to help him get around while he was there. That was the first trip in our new car  and we did not realize that the seats are higher than our old car. So Laddie had trouble getting out of the car that day, and he actually fell while trying to get down out of the back seat. That did not help, and their tile floors, was horrible for him.

I mentioned to you, about the first week in February he was having trouble getting around. So i increased his meds to try to help him. Last last week he went 16 hrs with out a pee and 32 hrs without a poop, so i cut back his meds, cause i thought they had him bound up,

and this past Saturday, while we were gone out for 3 hrs, he made a poop mess in the living room.  His poop is soft and messy.  I had already bought the carpet cleaning supplies on hand, cause I knew the day was coming when I was going to need them.

So I increased his meds back to where they had been. He is on Metacam 40 KG mark, and 10 ml of the liquid glucosomine for every 2 cups of food. plus 2 gabapentin every 12 hours, plus thyroid meds.

He has no interest in going out to the end of the driveway, 25 feet to the boulevard, for a small walk and he is not able to climb up the stairs, since some time last fall.  His only interest seems to be treats and people food.  He is lying around all the time , except for when he goes outside to lay down , and or do his business.  When he squats to poop, his back legs often give out on him, and he falls down.  We were scared that he is going to break a leg.

And he is barking a lot, day and night. I think he has separation anxeity, for when we are up stairs, and he wakes up he barks and we are not down there with him. He seems to be barking a lot, looking around, when he his in the house but we are not sure what he is barking at. But the vet said that his brain might be affected by his age. I got up one morning at 4.30 am to put him out when he was barking and i lost my footing and fell down the last 3 steps.

So it is with a heavy heart that I had to make the phone call cause I do not know what else to do for Laddie other than have his meds increased or add new ones  and keep him doped up, and have the meds destroy his liver.  We cannot afford to buy him hip and knee replacements, and that will not fix the arthritis in his lower spine. I saw a woman on tv talking about her older dog and she had was giving him acuupuncture therapy, swimming rehab, and massasge rehab. I felt guily that we cannot afford to do that for Laddie.

I only hope that the last 6.5 years he was happy with us, and that he felt loved. Lots of walks , and drives in the old car until he did not want to go anymore. He was wanted and he was taken in the car to the park until he had too much trouble getting in and out of our old car. We gave him Lots of treats and hugs and a warm house in the winter and an air conditioned house in the summer.  We are going to miss him a lot we scheduled our lives around him and always said he was the boss of us.  

Catherine and Richard

Lily

Good morning Jenn

Thank you for the lovely card. We would love our dear Lily (Lily of the Marsh) to be included in the Memorium section.

We miss our beautiful girl very much. Thank you so much for the wonderful work you are doing.

Thanks again

Liz and David Schandlen