Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Sad Goodbye to Mary Ann Lindsay and a Hello to Tim's New Buddy, Hank

Goodbye to Mary Ann Lindsay


The world of dog rescue in the Pacific Northwest lost one of its greatest assets this week.  Mary Ann Lindsay single-handedly rescued and found forever homes for nearly 900 dogs over a 20 year period from her home in Hayden Lake, Idaho.  She specialized in helping herding breeds like border collies and Australian Shepherds, but helped many others as well.  I met Mary Ann a couple of years ago when I wanted to learn more about fostering and helping with rescue work.  She welcomed me into her home and kindly spend an hour with me talking about her experiences and giving tips that she had learned over the years.  Even with only that one brief meeting, I knew I had been fortunate to meet her and I truly felt like a had been priviledged to spend time with a saint.  The world is definitely a lesser place without Mary Ann Lindsay.  One can only imagine the great gathering of dogs that were there to welcome her as she crossed the rainbow bridge.

And......

Hello Hank

Hank the Border Collie

Hank

Sometimes you think you know what you are looking for, but you find something or someone else instead.  We had started to think about getting another dog, but were still reeling from the pain of losing Skye and uncertain if we were ready to bond with another canine family member.  We were half-heartedly looking for a female dog, but we weren't feeling a connection with any that we saw.  Then, while on a trip to the Spokane area 2 weeks ago, we learned from one of the Pacific Northwest Border Collie Rescue volunteers that a 2 year old male border collie or border collie mix in the Ellensberg area would be turned into the local shelter if he didn't find a home or foster home by the end of the weekend.  Sight unseen, but with the recommendation that he was a nice dog, we agreed to pick him up on our way home on Sunday afternoon.

We met Tank in Ellensburg and Tim gave him his paws-up endorsement.  We fully intended to foster Tank and find him a good home because we thought we would want to eventually find a female dog to add to our little pack.  It has been 2 weeks and we have failed miserably at fostering again.  We decided we like calling him Hank better than Tank.  Tim and Hank have become great buddies and Hank has wormed his way into our hearts.  For a dog who is only a little over 2 years old, he is an incredibly good boy.  We will soon have some new border collies in the burbs adventures featuring Tim and his new buddy Hank.