Rocky (A success story)
On 12 June 2006 my Border Collie, Tetley, passed away whilst out for a walk with her litter sister Dee. At first Dee seemed to enjoy the extra attention she was getting without her sister around, but after a few weeks she appeared to be starting to get lonely and I considered the possibility of getting another dog. I decided that due to Dee’s age (10) it would not be fair to her to get a puppy and thought about re-homing an adult dog. A colleague of mine had told me about ‘The Retreat’ and I decided to give them a call. I explained the situation to Billy and made an appointment for me and my husband to go to the Retreat on the following day, 19 August, to take Dee to have a look and see if she could find a new friend.
I had my heart set on another Border Collie but Billy said he thought Rocky would probably be the most suitable. When I first saw Rocky he was nothing like I had expected, he was black and tan with a dull coat and no tail, but he seemed gentle and had kind eyes, we took him to our car to meet Dee. At first Dee was a bit nervous, as Rocky is bigger than her, but Billy suggested we take them for a walk together to see how they got along. We walked with them together and let Dee off the lead so she would feel more confident and by the time we got back to the car, an hour later, she was trotting along next to him wagging her tail. We returned Rocky to Billy and arranged to go back to take him for another walk on the Monday after work. This went well and, although Rocky didn’t have much lead sense, he started to realise that if he didn’t pull me and responded when I called him, he would get a treat. We repeated this on the Wednesday and arranged to do the same on the Thursday. Thursday night came and I asked Billy if I could take Rocky home to see how he got on with Dee in her territory and he agreed, we took him home, and although he was very car sick he was well behaved throughout the journey.
On Friday I took the day off as I was babysitting my neighbours 17 month old daughter, and had arranged to take her to the park with my daughter. Initially I took Rocky and Dee to a quiet local field with no distractions armed with a pocket full of treats and decided to see what he would behave like off the lead, he came back on command, although sometimes a bit slowly when there was lots to sniff, and when it was time to go home he let me put his lead back on straight away. Afterwards we took Rocky and Dee with us to the park, my neighbours daughter had always loved Tetley and Dee and wanted to pet Rocky, I let him slowly get closer to her and he licked her hand and wagged his bottom (remember he has no tail) by the end of the trip he was trotting around the field after her. She ran around carrying Rocky's ragger toy and laughing. He only attempted to get the ragger if she had tried to throw it and it had landed at her feet, he then ran off with it a short distance, ran back and dropped it back at her feet. It was wonderful to see them all having so much fun. On the Sunday I telephoned Billy and explained that as Rocky had settled in and Dee had accepted him so well I wanted to keep him and would be reluctant to bring him back as I didn’t feel it would be fair to him to go back to the Retreat in case the thought he was going back for good.
Rocky is now part of the family and very happy, the fact that he is feeling better and more confident is evident in the way he bounces around with a big grin on his face and his coat shining like he’s been polished. He is getting better on car journeys and we hope to be able to take him on camping trips with us when he can travel with no problems. When they go to sleep they curl up together and Rocky lays his head across Dee’s neck as if he is protecting her and at the end of each walk before they have their leads put back on they lick each others faces as if they are kissing. All our friends and neighbours love him and he is welcomed into our local pub when we take him with us. My neighbours daughter comes round to see him every day and when I ask her “What does Rocky say?” she says WUFF. I cannot understand why anyone would want to abandon such a loving dog.
Thanks to Rocky’s new mum for the above article and to her and her husband for giving Rocky a loving and safe home.