Rags

Our latest acquisition (in March 2001) is a delightful 12 month old tricolour Border Collie whom we have named Rags, short for Puddleduck Gladrags. We rescued her via the Border Collie Rescue Trust at Rugeley in Staffordshire. She had originally been found in a dog pound in Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire (good sheep country, that) and was about to be put to sleep the following day. After a short stay with a foster carer she ended up at Rugeley and we saw her two days later and fell instantly in love, despite the fact that she had killed two cats at the foster home and was possibly pregnant! One thing that none of us realised was that she was also in the first stages of kennel cough, which at the time of writing has duly been passed on to the four other dogs in the house.

My intention is to do competitive obedience with Rags. Naomi is already well into this with Zoe, although she's still at the Pre-Beginners level. She's already shown herself very amenable to training and has all the speed and verve normally associated with the breed. She's fairly quiet, though, very affable with people, and not quite as manic as a lot of collies, so hopefully working her will be less like flying a kite than some collie owners' experiences.