Sofie

This is Sofie our dog.  Sofie is 3/4 border collie and 1/4 black lab.  She is 6 years old - her birthday is January 2.  But, we got her in May (when she was 5 months old) 6 years ago. 

Before we had Sofie, we had too golden retrievers.  Buddy was getting really old - he went after a few people and bit one of my friends really bad.  After he bit my friend and she needed to get stitches, we had to put him down.  We also had Molly, who was also a golden retriever.  We got her at the county fair when my sister was really little.  Molly was a wild one.  She and my sister were at the same height and so she would nip at her.  She also went after some people and then bit my dad badly.  After that we decided we needed to put her down.

We went about a year without a dog.  I begged for one.  Then, one day, my mom found a add in the newspaper for puppies.  We just had to go check them out!  We made arrangements with the owners to come visit them.  But, as a family, we said that if the house was a dump we wouldn't stop to see the puppies and we would just keep on driving by like any one else would.  We didn't want to get a hard puppy to take care of.

Sure enough, the house was a dump.  But, we decided to still go.  When we pulled up all the puppies went running to hide.  Except... the one we brought home.  Sofie chose us.  The people definitely cared more about their dogs than they did their home.


On the way home, Sofie slept curled up under the back seat.  For the first couple days she didn't move much... she was shy and probably scared.

Now, Sofie is the sweetest, gentlest, friendliest dog.  She is the best!  One thing that is great about her is that she only goes to the bathroom in the woods or the long grass.  So, we never have to pick up after her or watch where we are stepping.

I have two stories about Sofie...

On Sofie's 2nd birthday, her golden birthday, it was the coldest day of the winter - 30 degrees below zero.  There were some hunters out hunting by our house with dogs. We don't know if was scared by the guns or wanted to go running with the other dogs, but she ran away.  We called lots of neighbors and we went looking for her.

The next day was Sunday.  At church they had a time when people in the congregation can stand up and make announcements.  So, my dad decided to stand up and say that our dog was missing.  After church, someone in the congregation went home.  They had a message on their answering machine asking if there dog was missing - they had a dog that was like ours.  They called them back and said that their dog wasn't missing but someone mentioned at church that their dog was missing.  Well, we were still at church, so someone got the word to us that they think someone has our dog.  So, we headed out to this place.  It was a house and land that someone had to buy to get the farm land around it, so no one lived there.  The owner had gone to check up on the place (or plow the driveway) and he found our dog.  He only gave her water... no food because he didn't want to reward her for coming (smart).  And, we got our dog back.  She slept outside, under a camper the night of her golden birthday on the coldest night of the year.

Second story.  It happed later the same winter.

Since Sofie is mostly border collie, she has some herding blood in her.  Well, we don't animals for her to heard, besides cats.  So, she would chase cars... but like she was trying to heard them.  She would try to get in front of them and nip at the tires, like they do to sheep's legs.

It was a snowy day.  I think it might have been a snow day.  The Fed Ex truck had just come to our house... and, Sofie decided to chase it.  We watched her, from out the window, chase the truck down our gravel road.  She was getting really close.  It was kind of scary.  Finally, Sofie came running up to the house. 

Sofie had no tail.  It was just a tail bone... everything had been torn off.  My dad called the vet and emailed him some pictures of it.  The vet said that we should bring her in.

It was right when they were closing, so they just gave her some drugs for the night and then operated on her the next day.  Sofie had to have her tail amputated.  Also, there was a five inch gash in her leg.  So she need stitches.  Luckily, there weren't any broken bone.  For weeks she had to wear a cone on her head.  But, everything healed well and she is all well.  And, I think she may have learned her lesson on chasing cars.  Every-now-and-then she may give in to the temptation.

For the last couple days I have been trying to get some pictures of Sofie, but she has refused to have her picture taken... she must not have been in the picture taking mood.  So here is the best one I got of her.

This is what Sofie does for fun.  She tries to get at our chickens.  The chickens have this indoor cop with a door to the outside.  The big to door in front of Sofie is the people door from the inside of the barn to the outside cop.  There are some small openings where Sofie can see the chickens... and she finds it very entertaining.