Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 26 March 2001

Latest Update: Saturday, 26 April 2003 08:53
 

Monday, 26 March 2001

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HA! I did not fall asleep during the race. I read several magazine plus the chapter of our book Bob has me reviewing for the second edition. Another excellent race, with another first time winner. Last night I mailed off the completed web review, paid some bills, and read until bedtime. I did go to bed to read but ended up turning off the light at 10:30.

Today

Spring day in the Carolina's. Bright blue sky, birds singing outside my window, sun shinning, Wind blowing 20mph and temperatures in the low to mid 30's. The dogs woke me at 7:00 this morning and I was not ready to wake up. After much pestering and whining they managed to get Bob up at 7:15, so I got up too. However, I am sitting here yawning every two seconds, guess I still need some more sleep.

This morning Nancy and I are driving over to Danbury, VA, about an hour from here, to take pictures and/or pick up a Border Collie for CBCR. If Nancy found foster space for it over the weekend we will bring it back to Winston. If not, we will at least have some pictures for her to put up on the web site to began finding a home.

I see from Bob and Chris's page and my wall calendar that Europe has gone on Daylight Savings Time. Well guys, we are right behind you. We jump ahead one hour next weekend. Maybe that is why I am so sleepy this morning from just reading about you guys loosing your hour of sleep.

Guess I better hit the shower and get ready for Nancy to get here. I hope your Monday gets your day off to a good start.

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Tuesday, 27 March 2001

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Okay, readers. I have done lots of home visits to check out potential dogs that are being put into rescue. I have fostered dogs, visited dogs in rescue, etc and can walk away with no emotion and just get the job done. Find the dog a home, foster until it finds a real home, recommend putting it down if it is vicious or aggressive. 

Yesterday, Dan found this huge hole in my heart and emotions that I have never experienced before. Nancy and I visited Dan at his home. As soon as I walked in the door and this dog came over to me, I said "oh my God, a relative of Duncan." Yep, acted just like my Dunc, same build, same personality, etc. Nancy was still in the car feeding Phoebe, her 10 month old, and had not come in the house yet. I sat on the chair and Dan came over and put his big head in my lap. Nancy came in and saw my reaction and we both looked at each other and said, "Caroline Hemric dog"! That is the breeder where Duncan and Malcolm came from. Sure enough, he had papers and both Malcolm and Duncan's parents are in Dan's line.

Dan was owned by a couple in their late sixties. He had a major heart attack sometime after they got Dan as a puppy. The wife cannot take care of Dan and her husband and run back and forth home when he is in the hospital. They live on thirteen acres of land and Dan has free run. He sleeps outside and was allowed only in the house in the kitchen. He is well cared for. Had all his shots and knows a few commands. When we showed up yesterday, they thought we were taking Dan with us. Nancy had not found foster space, so we had only gone to take pictures for the web site. As Nancy and I sat talking with Dan's mom, the dad left the room. There were lots of tears from both.

We put Phoebe on the floor and Dan immediately walked over and laid down to play with her. We took him outside for pictures and told them we would be in touch this week to come get Dan if they would just hang on for another week. Nancy and I left the house and drove around the corner at a local diner to eat lunch. We talked about what options we had for getting Dan out of the house and into some kind of short term foster care. We know he will adopt very fast with his great personality and classic BC look.

We drove back to the house and I told Bob all about him and we showed him the pictures. Bob said "why don't you just go back and get him". I said, "well, I almost brought him home but I was afraid you would get mad". By now it is 2:30. We settled Lenore and the dogs and off we go (including Bob) to Nancy's house to let her puppies out, get the necessary forms for the release and to call the lady back. Bob played with the pups while Nancy rounded up forms, changed the baby, etc. We headed back to Danbury around 3:30. They were waiting for us with all his toys and food in shopping bags. Nancy took care of paper work while I loaded his stuff in the car. I then took Dan to the car, shook their hands and told them we would be in touch. The man was bawling his eyes out, and his wife had a few tears. Dan was clearly his dog.

Dan rode great in the car. The dogs got all their introductions out of the way when we got home. We settled everyone down, threw some dinner together, and let the dogs gradually get used to each other in the house. Dan is not used to living in the house or sleeping inside, so we had rather a wild night last night. 

Bob finally got him settled and other than waking up crying a few times, we made it through the night.

Now, we just need to find Dan a really great home. It should not take too long. Nancy is getting his picture up on the rescue web site. And, NO, we are not keeping Dan. I don't need another Duncan and Dan needs a home where he will get a lot of one on one love hopefully a home with children. 

I have not idea what I will do today, but with three dogs and a foster, most likely take care of dogs. Bob has another picture of him on his page. I am not sure why his tongue came out blue on the pictures but it is really pink.

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Wednesday, 28 March 2001

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Second, I fixed the broken link from yesterday's page to Bob's page with the other picture of Dan. Thank you Marcia for pointing that out to me.

Dan the Border Collie dog is doing great. He is getting more and more socialized being in the house. He is learning to play, which he does not know how to do and to go lay down.  The dogs all got along pretty well with Malcolm spending a good part of the day tussling and playing with Dan and showing him he is boss dog. Malcolm is so delighted to be boss dog over another dog in the house he just does not know what to do with himself. 

I did get a little work done off and on during the day but spent most of it working with Dan and giving all the dogs some attention. Today with the bright blue sky and beautiful sunshine it looks like it should be about 60 degrees outside instead of 35 and chilly. 

Today 

We  had a pretty good night with Dan. I slept back in the bedroom with our guys and Bob took the couch to be with Dan. We also left the door to Lenore's room open. We noticed last night he would go in there to lie down when my guys were napping. Bob said he did much better last night. I am normally a very light sleeper and hear everything during the night. I guess last night I was so tired I slept all night and did not hear a thing. 

We had a hard freeze over night with temperatures going down into the low twenties.  

I am off to the gym, library, and store this morning. 

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Thursday, 29 March 2001

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Dan is doing fine with the other dogs. He actually ran down the hall and fetched the ball yesterday. I spent most of the day working taking periodic breaks to give the dogs some attention. Dan is attention starved. He is also learning from my dogs when they go flop into a corner to go find a quiet spot and lay down. 

I had a call from Nancy yesterday. She has found foster space for Dan. I will take him along with me to Charlotte on Saturday when I do down to watch some of the fly ball tournament for the hand off. The couple fostering him also run on a fly ball team. This is their first fostering experience and Dan is a good one to break them in on. 

Now, before you get real concerned about Dan being shifted around so much. Dogs, especially young dogs, are very resilient. The four or five days he spent here are to him just a change in routine like going to stay at someone's house while the owners are away. I am fairly certain he will not be in foster care too long before he is adopted to a permanent family. After several months with his permanent family he will realize he will be living with them forever and that life he had before will be a distant memory. 

One of the advantages to having a dog placed after being in foster care is to allow us to see what his habits, personality quirks, training needs etc. are, before being placed in a permanent home. Dogs relax after about 24 to 48 hours and start to show their true colors. I have been doing rescue for two years now and have seen just about every possible situation imaginable. With all the dogs I have placed and seen placed through rescue, we have almost 90% success rate with rehabbing or replacing dogs into families from good and bad situations. We often get pictures and e-mail updates as to how wonderful the dog is becoming a family member. 

I am confident Dan will go to a good home where he can get a lot of attention and love. He is starved for attention and his few days here with us he has learned how to live in the house, play ball, and get along as a pack member with humans and other dogs. He is the kind of Border Collie that places well in a family who has never owned a Border Collie because of his sweet nature.

Today

Rain, rain, and more rain. Cold, windy, and wet. But, we need the rain so I shall not complain. Nancy and I are doing a home visit this afternoon for a lady in Mocksville who is trying to adopt a dog being fostered in Virginia. Believe it or not, we have often turned down homes for adoption based on what we see when we get to a home. Not the condition of the house but situations where we learn where the dog will sleep, or how he will be treated that does not come out on the application. Or talking with the applicant we learn they want a Border Collie because they are pretty and smart. Oh boy! I have done some home visits that when I left I would not put my worst enemy in let alone a poor dog looking for a good home. Sorry if I sound a little arrogant there but these dogs often come from one bad situation and I will not put any dog I am placing back into another one. These guys deserve a second chance at life. Okay, sermon over. Where did that rant come from? I am passionate about my dogs. Sorry.

Bob did not get much sleep last night. Dan kept him awake most of the night wanting attention. So, tonight we shall have to try another tactic. This weekend is Daylight Savings Time for the United States. You do not want to go into the weekend already behind on your sleep. 

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Friday, 30 March 2001

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We stayed about an hour and then headed back to Winston in the still pouring down rain. It was just so nasty I did not feel like going back out for take out so I fixed fried shrimp and fries for dinner. We slogged through the pouring rain after dinner to walk the dogs, who were thoroughly drenched when we came back in. 

I finished the book I was reading from the library, No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. I will not post a full review of this one simply because I doubt very many people will be interested in reading it. It was pretty good, not the best I have ever read. It is set in Cape Breton, Toronto, and other areas of Canada. The story basically chronicles MacDonald family of Scotland from 1779 to present but not in the traditional method. The story is narrated by a modern day MacDonald who recounts the history interspersed with current day events of his brothers and sisters. 

Dan did much better last night. We left the gate down to the bedroom like we do all the time and Bob and I both slept in the bedroom. Dan settled down right outside the door in the hallway and slept all night without bothering either of us. He heard me get up around 5:30 to go to the bathroom and came in for a little attention but when I told him to go lie down he did like a good dog.

I see from reading Shelley's page that she and Dan met the same year Bob and I did, 1983. However, Bob and I had our first date in February, moved in together in May, decided to get married in June and were wed in September. No, I did not have a shotgun wedding, it was just one of those right time, right place things and I knew I had met a "keeper". 

Today, I am off to the gym and Wal-Mart this morning. I have always preferred Wal-Mart to K-Mart but I see in our local paper K-Mart is bringing back the blue light specials so famous in the 60's and 70's. If you are old enough to remember blue light specials, well, need I say more!

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Saturday, 31 March 2001

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I have a small section of yard between two natural areas that I have been wanting to remove the grass and make the entire strip across natural so I will not have to mow between the two. After all the rain on Thursday the ground was nice and soft for removing sod and leveling the area.  I used the dirt and sod to fill in another place in the yard that washes when it rains. I used the edging to make a new flower garden and pine straw to fill out the remaining area. I had an old cedar planter that was rotting away in one corner of the natural area. I moved all the dirt from that planter to the new one and busted that one up for the trash. Then I put out the remaining pine straw bales in the front natural areas. I need to get some more dirt and potting soil to finish filling up the new planter.  I was finished around 2:30 and came in for a shower and to do some work until time to fix dinner.

Today, I head to Charlotte to take Dan to meet his new family and to watch a little of the fly ball tournament. We will miss having Dan around but I am happy for him to move on. Four dogs, two the same age are quite a handful and it will be nice to get the house back on a routine again. Looks like it is to be sunny this morning and then more rain today and tomorrow. 

Have a great weekend.

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Sunday, 1 April 2001

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I ate my snack lunch I took along and enjoyed talking with some of the other people from around the state that I know either from fly ball teams or as rescuers. I met a lot of new CBCR volunteers and some other really nice people. Dan's new foster family also runs on a fly ball team so I got to visit with him off and on during the day.

Late in the afternoon another new volunteer, David, arrived having driven down from Asheville to help with the table and to bring us a cute little twelve to sixteen week old puppy that had been pulled from a shelter from that area that was going under due to loss of funding. She was found as a stray and stunk to high heaven. The damn shelter had not even given her a bath. After he got his Border Collie Jordi settled in, we found some puppy shampoo and proceeded to give the little rescue a bath. I wrapped her in a big blanket I had in the back of the car and dried her off and warmed her back up. One of the TDS fly ball members had a matt cutter and we proceeded to try to remove some of the matted hair from her. Also, she did not even have a collar or leash. I took the little girl across to the lady selling stuff to find her a little collar and leash. After we fitted her out the lady would not even let me pay for them since she was a rescue. Very nice people in the dog world, let me tell you.

At any rate as the teams continued running races, I watched some, played with the puppy, sold some stuff, and helped get the dinner organized. We pay the caterer to sell bar-b-cue, chicken, or veggie lasagna. He charges us so much a plate. We charge a higher fee to sell the dinner plates and we get to keep the money made to benefit CBCR. We sold 80 dinners last night with about five dollars profit per plate, so not too bad.

After dinner, one of the TDS members put up some money and organized a fly ball race for all the dogs who are rescue animals. Each person there with a rescue dog put a name in a bowl. Teams were made up of dogs drawn out of the bowls. It was a lot of fun to watch competing teams runs together as a team and team members running against each other. First, second, and third place won prize money. 

And, the guy from TDS that had the matt cutter decided to adopt the little shelter stray on the spot. Now, we do not adopt dogs to people on site like that except to fellow team members who are usually well known. Because this man runs on Nancy's team and she knows him, we did not have any reservations about letting him take her. This cute, friendly little pup did not even have to go from shelter to foster but straight to a wonderful home. 

I left Charlotte around 8:00 and drove home in intermittent showers and pouring down rain. I got home around 9:45. I greeted my dog fellas and took them out for a quick walk. Then off to bed to lose an hour of sleep.

Today, argggg! This time change. It is already almost 11 o'clock in the morning. I am usually finished cleaning house and have not even gotten started yet. The race begins at 12:30 from Texas. I guess I better get started. Thunderstorms today. When I called Bob yesterday to let him know I was staying for the dinner and rescue race he said they were having thunderstorms here. 

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