Welcome to my little website celebrating my love of dogs, specifically, my dogs. I currently have two 1/2 Ibizan Hounds, Bear, Kenya and Darby (she's the 1/2), a Basset Hound mix named Barney and Dixie, a Border Collie/Bearded Collie mix.
I cannot explain how I can be in love with three distinctly different breeds but each satisfies a part of me. I love the Border Collies for their intelligence, beauty and willingness to please. Basset hounds are wonderful for their sweet, easygoing personalities even thought they can be stubborn. Ibizan hounds are great with their fun, playful attitudes and athleticism. The Beezers definitely have their own unique style of play that is entertaining to watch!
I have been a volunteer at my local animal shelter since 2001, primarily doing adoption counseling off-site and fostering puppies and dogs that needed extra attention. It wasn't long before I got involved in breed rescue. I fostered for Mid America Basset Rescue in 2002 and was immediately a foster failure, adopting Goofy, an 8 year old basset. I continued volunteering and as things started falling apart in that rescue, I worked with a couple of other former volunteers to found another Basset Rescue in 2005. I lost Goofy to cancer in October of 2005.
After several summer trips to New York for doggy camp at Glen Highland Farm, I fell in love with Border Collies. I later fostered a rescued Border Collie, Foster (whom I renamed Ciaran) for Nebraska Border Collie Rescue. It became obvious to us that he had many issues and would be hard to adopt so guess who adopted him? He was a nervous wreck of a dog and had many issues but he loved Goofy. She was such a calming influence on him, he never seemed to handle it when she died. I had to put him down four months later as his behaviour became more and more erratic.
My latest rescue is Darby, one of the sweetest little dogs you could meet. A close friend convinced me to adopt her in August of 2008 as she was adopting Darby's sister. She looks like Kenya's mini-me, I believe she is an Ibizan Hound/Basenji cross. I didn't know a lot about Basenji's before but after doing extensive research, she definitely has a lot of their traits in both looks and behavior. Whether or not she is a purebred, she is 100% adorable.
Enjoy!
Michelle
To see more photos of my puppies, go to my smugmug page: http://www.herdersandhoundz.smugmug.com/