Jim came in aged 6 months with a heart murmur and the prognosis of a short life. Daily medication was prescribed and he recently celebrated his 17th birthday!
We called him Little Jim when he came to us on the Foot and Mouth farm dog rescue program along with several other older sheepdogs early in 2001.
Although he was young he had to go through all the disinfection and quarantine process that we had agreed with the government in order to be approved and licensed to go onto infected farms and bring dogs off for re-homing elsewhere.
Once he had been through the process he went into a foster home in a clean area to be assessed around sheep.
He showed no real instinct to herd but was
quite easily triggered by movement and stimulated to chase.
His prey drive was high and he was potentially a fiery little
chaser.
Away from these stimulating quick movements
he was a calm and sweet natured little dog and quickly became a
favourite.
It was quickly decided that for his own sake and for the sake of
livestock they were best kept apart.
Unfortunately we have no photo's of him at that time.
During his first veterinary check up our vets found a heart murmur which was confirmed by a second check up a few weeks later.
They issued strong caution against any kind of home with any stress inducing activities and we started to look for a home as a companion dog, away from livestock in a quiet rural location where he would get steady exercise, some stimulation from interacting with his human, but nothing too exciting.
Although in cases of heart murmurs a precise
prognosis is never really possible, we were advised that he may have
a shortened lifespan so we had to find a home where his human
companions were altruistic enough not to be put off by this
possibility.
He had the usual vaccinations, worming and
parasite treatments when he came in and we kept him until he started
to cock his leg before having him neutered.
Once we had taken care of his needs and fulfilled our
obligations we started to look for a suitable home for him.
We were lucky. So was he, and so was someone
else.
We found what we thought would be a perfect match.
He went off to a lovely home in the country with a single man who had a great deal of empathy for Jim's condition as he also had a similar heart condition himself.
Jim and his owner kept in regular contact
with Border Collie Rescue, often staying with us B&B at the York
rehab centre. It was always good to see both of them.
They kept each other fit with regular and gentle exercise and were
very proud of each other, forming a good bond.
Jim was already reaching years well beyond
his originally predicted lifespan.
He was on prescribed medication
which was being tweaked from time to time depending on the results
of regular check ups with the vet who was monitoring his condition.
Due to his condition his medication and check ups were covered by our elderly dog scheme that later became part of the current CollieLaw scheme we run to date.
Little Jim some began to outlive some of
then other dogs that came in with him during foot and mouth and
against all expectations also outlived the gentleman he had been
homed to who's heart condition finally caught up with him.
Jim came back into our care and we started a search for a new home
for him.
We were under no illusions that this would
be an easy task.
By now he was past his prime and re-homing and
older dog without a heart condition is difficult enough.
The fact
that it was perfectly possible that he may suffer heart failure at
any time was not going to help.
Then an altruistic lady from Northumberland came to his rescue.
She had a remote smallholding well off the beaten track with only one close neighbour and plenty of land and surrounding hills and valleys to roam on.
She took the trouble to set up a large fenced area between her house and adjoining outbuildings so he could come and go as he pleased and remain close and secure.
Although he was getting on he was still a bit of a chaser and there were plenty of rabbits so giving him complete, unsupervised freedom would not have done him any good at all.
He was well loved in his new home and
received a lot of love which he returned in spades, living through
his 17th birthday before peacefully
saying goodbye to a long and happy life.
He is greatly missed by
many.
Little Jim had a full life. It had its traumas and it had its moments but it had variety, companionship, peace, much love and a little bit of adventure.
A charming little man with a spirit much larger than the body it was
contained in. We have included him in this calendar out of respect.
He outlived all the dogs he came in with and most of the others that
were rescued during foot and mouth in 2001.
He's a good example of doing what you can for each and every dog, no matter what the odds seem and how they are stacked.
You never know how things are going to turn out!