Petland- a Petstore NOT to support....

Puppy mills are horrible places that treat dogs as if they are just cash machines. They often live in horrid conditions in small cages where they can barely move and often have to sleep in their feces. Their fur becomes so matter that often times they are unable to even walk.

I'm so proud of my mom for sending this email letter to Petland through the ASPCA's website and I hope your parents can do that same! Feel free to copy and paste this letter because Petland has yet to change their policies on selling puppy mill puppies.



Petland Headquarters
250 Riverside Street
Chillicothe, OH 45601

Dear Petland Headquarters,

I just saw an investigation by The Humane Society of the United
States, which revealed that many Petland stores across the
country are marketing puppy mill puppies to unsuspecting
consumers. Petland--adopt a business model that doesn't include
selling puppies.

No dog should have to spend his or her life in a puppy mill.
Please stop selling puppies while homeless dogs and puppies wait
to be adopted. I'll tell my family and friends to stop shopping
at Petland as long as you sell puppies!

Thank you!


Sincerely,
C. Jayne Armstrong
San Jose, CA 95117

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_2008_petland_dogster?qp_source=gabhew

Blue Belle's Boyfriend and more!

My apologies for not updating this blog as much as I should. My mom has been keeping me super duper busy.

Here I am with my new boyfriend Jagger who also happens to be a Blue Merle Sheltie. He was a rescue who came from a family who a had little boy (around 8 years old) who didn't necessarily like Jagger at all and he often would kick him, scream at him and smack him on a daily basis. The little boy did not want a dog like Jagger and instead wanted a chihuahua. I don't understand how some little kids can be so mean at cute dogs like me and Jagger. Most of the time he spent his life in a crate to keep him out of trouble and away from that brat.

Since he has been rescued he is much better around children although he doesn't fully trust them; it took at least a year to get him over wanting to chaise and bite children; I think his dad still has issues with them and that is why Jagger gets so uptight around the kids. If only his new father could move on and just let Jagger live his life with out fear; he might just do better. Instead, he still gets completely frightened of loud noises and I really think it's because his dad loves him so much that he coddles him and practically rewards him for being scared. He's a very hard headed man who you just can't really reason with but I think Jagger would do much better off if only his owner could just let go of his tormented past and just move on. Dogs have that give where they start a new day and just move on from that horrible past. Jagger does have many issues and he is a service dog for his wife who is confined to a sheel chair. This couple really is a power couple just like my mom and dad. .

That's why us dogs are great at moving on and we love to live in the moment. My mommy understands when I get scared and she often has me face my fears and in a calm level. I don't get scared because she's not scrared. I even faced some horses one time and that was scary but the big giants proved they were not going to hurt me.

My mom recently learned that Blue Merles are considered recessive genes and by breeding two Blue Merles, the puppies will end up either blind or deaf or both and even some which are considered double merles which I believe most of the time are blind and deaf too.

It's a good thing we are both fixed and unable to have puppies. All the more reason to adopt and to not try to breed your own puppies; just leave it to professionals who really know what they are doing or just go to the pound to get your baby."

Please feel free to check out local rescues in your area for Shelties, Collies, Border Collies, Aussies, or just any breed. Always remember that life really is too short to experience with out a dog! They really improve your quality of life in more ways than you could even begin to imagine.

Bark in the Park San Jose

My mom and dad took Amanda our neighbor and yours truly to the annual Bark in the Park yesterday which was held at William Street Park at 16th Street in San Jose. It was a blast with all sorts of activities and vendors, competitions, and most of all fun. Here are just a few photos of the pretty dogs we saw and more!

These friendly dogs here are for supporting Proposition 2 which would allow farm animals on corporate farms to be able to stand up, turn around or lay down in their cages. Mom and I voluteered for this very cause getting enough signatures for the ballot. Now she and my dad will be voting to pass this law this November!

Not too much to ask right? Well apparently it is for the greedy corporations who feel that an animals quality of life is only worth pennies on the dollar and it will cost too much for these animals to have any amount of room to move. Moving for these animals costs too much and is therefore too much to ask for. We the voters of California will make sure they are able to move around! How in the world did did it come to this where animals are treated like this? What makes someone else feel they are much better than another being which is sacrificing it's life for food; why can't they at least live a happy life prior to death like the rest of us. They are living and breathing animals?


This little girl sheltie looked so much like myself that my mom just had to photograph her. She is smaller in size than me!.




























Here in this photo, left is Dawna Caldwell: my teacher at Happy Tails to you Dog Training and Canine Corral which helped put this event together this whole event. My tearcher is a wonderful trainer and a wonderful soul. If you live anywhere near San Jose, I highly recommend her as a trainer! I even got stay at the Canine Corral as a puppy just a few times and it is was fun to be here; they made sure no body picked on me when playing and I even got cuddle time and a nap time; they have this web cam thing where mommy got to watch me all day long? She was given a username and password and could somehow log in and just watch me all day long? Wow! I have to be honest; I don't understand that?
This little guy is some sort of Mastiff puppy but he has some cool looking blue eyes. What a fun event for the whole family!

Oakland A's Dog Days of Summer 2008

My mom, dad, neighbor, and friend came with us to the Oakland A's Dog Days of Summer here in August 2008. Here are all the happy dog owners and dogs all having fun at the Pup Rally which began just before the game started with Oakland's vs the Chicago White Socks.

There were all sorts of events here include an Owner /Dog look alike contest, best dressed, best trick and more! Me and Mom were late so we couldn't enter the Dog Owner Pet Contest. I was bummed that we couldn't enter but I did see quite a few who shared quite a few similarities!)

What fun loving time we had here!

What an amazing game. I didn't watch much of the game but I could tell it was exciting because my dad seemed really excited. I heard him say it was an amazing win towards the end with the Oakland A's winner 6 to 4. We literally thought they would loose but what surprise! I wanted to play in the game so bad because I could see the balls going in the air and it excited me. I barked just a little bit but I mostly enjoyed looking at all the dogs with their masters sitting in the seats with all all watching the game and each other!

2 Beautiful Blue Merles....

Now here are two tired Blue Merle Shelties who have been running and playing for a while. This is Blue Belle's boyfriend Jagger. Jagger is almost 1 year younger than Blue Belle.

A friend of mine at work had a neighbor who had been given this cute puppy as a gift. She didn't know anything about Shelties and was about to call Sheltie rescue because she works a lot and the dog requires a lot of exercise; more so than what she could provide him. She had to keep him in a kennel most of the day and just felt this was no life for a beautiful dog to live.

My friend told me about him because she knew that I had a sheltie and because of this, I had more experience with this breed.

My husband has some friends that live close by and they were literally in love with Blue Belle. They were more than willing to pay us what every price we named for our pretty princess.

Once I had found out about the dog needing a new home, my husband told this couple about Jagger. He was just 1 year old and was at the age where most people will generally get rid of a dog. Dogs tend to go through kind of a rebellious teen age phase at one year old where they are just trying to find their place in the pack. They will challenge members of the family to find out who they can dominate or who to get by with, much like a teenager will try to find their limits.

The couple who adopted Jagger couldn't be more different but the important thing is, is that they are completely in love with each other. She has a disorder in her bones which limits her mobility to a wheelchair but she does have one of those motor powered wheel chairs which gets her around quite well. The dog now has a purpose and that is serving as her service dog. He works well with her in her motor powered wheel chair. While she is around 3 foot 8, he stands about 6 foot 3 and had once been in a severe accident in which most of his body was badly burned. The two together are a miracle couple and were quite happy to place Jagger in their home at Christmas time.

Here they are running and playing together. We don't get together often enough, but the two run for practically hours together.





















Check out this frisbee catch! Blue Belle can certainly catch a frisbee!

A Dog Show with a twist....

My husband and I recently took our Blue Merle Sheltie "Blue Belle" to the "Dog Show with a Twist" on August 3rd at Kellie's French Bakery where they had all of the following contests:
Owner/Dog Look-A-Like, Longest Nose, Best Dressed, Best Trick, Best Singer, Oldest Dog, Biggest Dog, Smallest Dog, Best Kisser, Best Underbite, Best Name, and more!





Here we are looking out over the event from the little bar that was just upstairs from the event. We were allowed to sit up here and eat a wonderful organic lunch with microbrewed local Organic Beer. How wonderful is that?



There was quite a crowd here at this event. The contests were goofy but I still thought it was a good event to go to with the dog and husband!



This event was put on by Society Dog which is pretty neat organization which is more like a social organization for dogs and their owners in the Bay Area. They drive around in a Lime Green Bus to dog events all over the Bay Area such as the Dog Days of Summer and to the this event in particular. Its free to join and if you pay for the year you get all kinds of perks in your membersship.

Check out Blue Belle checking out the bus. I think she wants me and my husband to join Society Dog

Let's get the Dog Party Started....

Now I love animals so much and I thought it would be fun to start a herding dog blog and dedicate it to a very special dog who has practically made my life more happy than what I could have ever imagined. Now my husband also makes me happy and so does my family and friends, but she has helped me through some dark tough times. Hope that made sense. She helped save me and no; she isn't a rescue but she is a dream come true.

My whole life, I have always, aways dreamed of having a Blue Merle Sheltie and since getting diagnosed with a terminal advanced Cancer; I figured, you only live once, why not make this dream come true?

I first fell in love with Shelties while I was 14 years old and working in a kennel for an elderly couple. They only paid me like 25 - 35 cents an hour, perhaps less. I didn't have the heart to charge them more in like 1984 or 85. Just didn't have it in me. I would work 8-9 hours pulling up weeds, cleaning kennels; doing back breaking hard work in 90-100 degree temperatures. Then the old man would come outside and tell me what an excellent job I did and then hands me $2.50 for 8 - 9 hours of work. Sometimes I would get $1.75 for the same amount of work and it would bum me out but I would always think that it was pleasure just to be around those beautiful dogs. I fell in love with one of their Blue Merles and my family raised large collies which these were like miniature versions of my dogs at home. I started asking my mom if I could get me a sheltie. I kept hoping that the Halls would perhaps sell me a puppy or better, give me a puppy. I finally got up the nerve to ask them about getting a puppy and they gave me the price of $800. So it would take me many many years to save up $800 to get a puppy so that was out of the question. That was pretty cheap back then for this type of dog. Life went on for another 22 years before I finally got my wish to come true and I paid far less.

Before we had decided on making my dream come true, we had been visiting the animal shelter here in San Jose quite often and unsuccessfully; most of the dogs had been picked through and the remaining were mostly Pit Bulls of which that breed is not allowed in our Complex so we had to pass on those.

I really had my heart set on a Sheltie and I didn't see any that could have even come close. We looked at the Northern California Sheltie Rescue and as our luck had it, there were no rescues available for adoption. I kept checking the site quite often to see if there were any Blue Merles or just beautiful Shelties available.

We researched 2 long years prior to getting our Blue Belle. I researched the internet like crazy trying to find Reputable Breeders. I also researched to see what to expect with this breed and even more so fell even more in love with the breed.

My husband has fallen in love with the Blue Merle color, so we looked high and low for a Blue Merle puppy.

I finally found the cutest Blue Merle puppy ever. She was just what we had dreamed of. I found her late one night at around 2 am while I was researching available puppies. I saved her photo onto the desktop so that my husband could see her and I also emailed the owner and expressed my interest.

She was born on Sheep farm in Pablo Montana.

Unfortunately, the family we got her from has since gone through a bitter, bitter divorce and ended up having to sell everything they owned. We are most fortunate to have our little Blue Belle.

So What is Blue Merle Sheltie Blog?

This Blog can be for any animal lover because I plan to discuss our pet animals and how they are a positive influence in your life. There are so many pets that need homes today and life is too short not to have a great animal in your life. Imagine this, you come home from a totally exhausting, stressful day and someone furry and cute is smiling at you, wagging their tail, while trying to hug with their warm body. Just the funny little things they do can cheer you up in the best possible ways.

I hope to inspire you to make your decision to adopt a herding dog; mostly because I am partial to them. I live with a herding dog now and she is a sheltie named Blue Belle (Blue Merle). Granted, she is not a rescue, however she did rescue me countless times. She has helped me to get through countless numbers of chemo treatments (Avastin) and many painful bouts with Abdominal Blockages and so much more. I couldn't ask for a better dog and I'm sure we all feel the same about our dogs as they love us unconditionally have been proven to make remarkable improvements to our well being.