Happy Gotcha Day, Tori
Yep, we’re celebrating another BIG anniversary here at Champion of My Heart. It is one year today that Tori first came home on a “trial basis” (ha ha). Happy Gotcha Day, Tori!
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Happy Gotcha Day, Clover
Today, we celebrate the second anniversary of Clover’s adoption — Happy Gotcha Day! It’s hard to believe we’ve been Best Friends for 2 whole years. In case you missed the AMAZING story of Clover’s adoption all the way from Virginia to Colorado, revisit that happy story now! Or, if you wonder how Clover got her…
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Where We Are Now in Raising and Training the Puppy-Girls
Everything is a bit of a blur when you’re raising two puppies at the same time, especially two border collie puppies who are just 13 months apart. In the ideal world, I would have had all or most of Clover’s basic training done before we got another puppy, but that’s not how things worked out. So, I’m sitting here with Clover now 2 years old and Tori 1 year old, and I’m taking stock of where we are now on the dog training front. Let’s just say I’ve not reached my goals, and I’m feeling rather bummed about it. Warning — long post ahead.
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Happy Birthday Tribute Video – Tori Turns 1
I’m not sure if I can keep up this tradition of making tribute videos for the puppy-girl’s birthdays for all the years to come, but here is the latest video that celebrates Tori’s first birthday. When we adopted her in September 2015, we counted back 12 weeks (a guess on her age) and picked a date — July 1 — as her birthday. What’s great about that is that we’ll always be able to extend her birthday fuss into the Independence Day holiday. We do the same thing with Clover’s birthday since it always fall close to Memorial Day.
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Happy Gotcha Day to the Best Puppy on the Planet, Clover Lee Hawn
Sunday, September 13, we’ll celebrate the first anniversary of Clover’s adoption from Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue. It took fate and many major feats to get her from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Plans for festivities this weekend remain in the planning stages, but I’ll bake canine cupcakes, probably take her on a hike, and otherwise spend the entire day marking the occasion (as if we aren’t always in constant awe of just how blessed we are to be raising this incredible puppy). Let’s begin the party with this 2-minute video slideshow commemorating our first year together.
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A Newbie’s Guide to Puberty in a Female Dog
Prior to Clover, the female dogs in my life got spayed early — before or after adoption. That means I didn’t really know what I was getting into when we decided to allow Clover to go through one heat cycle, on the advice of our board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist in hopes of solving the issue of back-to-back urinary tract infections (UTIs) in our puppy-girl. Here’s how things went, these last 20-some days. (I promise, this post is NOT gross or graphic.)
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Border Collie Herding Instinct Test — Clover Meets Goats
A couple of weeks ago, I drove Clover out to Valdemar Farm for her herding instinct test with our herding instructor Cathy Balliu. You can see the video highlights (and bloopers) below, but let’s just say Clover did much more harassing than herding. Here is a recap of what we looked for, what we saw, and what comes next.
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Look Before You Leap – Dangers to Enthusiastic Dogs
Now that Clover is a year old and demonstrating more maturity, we’re giving her a bit more SUPERVISED independence — like letting her run around a little bit in our front pastures. This independence nearly landed her in the Emergency Room over the weekend. I’m still astounded she didn’t get hurt. When you see the photos, you’ll understand.
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Clover’s Origin Story
On May 27, Clover will be a year old — if you can believe it. To me, it seems WAY too soon, but we did adopt her at nearly 4 months old in September 2014 from Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue, so that shortened our personal timeline. In advance of her birthday, I figured it was time to tell Clover’s Origin Story, to borrow a phrase from the comic book world (where it’s revealed how any superpowers came about).
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8 Great Photos of Border Collie Puppy Clover
So far, the New Year is wild with writing deadlines. Obviously, many elements of Clover’s story await. Since I’m short on time, I pulled 8 of my favorite photos of Clover from her first couple of weeks home in September 2014. She is basically 4 months old in these pix. Enjoy!
