New Beginnings

The humans tell me I'm a English Shepherd. I guess they call me Blue because I have "blue" ticking on my chest and collar with freckles on my face and legs. I look like a little lady all dressed up with a fur stole and long gloves.

I was born about 2 years ago in Yellowstone County, Montana. My first home was not a nice place. There was never enough food and too many dogs. Lots of dogs were very sick and died. I am very small for my breed because my mom and I never got the good food we needed when I was a pup. On a cold December day last year, a bunch of humans came to where I lived and put 180 of us in crates and took us away. It was really scary. We went to a big building and more humans looked at us. They were nice, but I was still scared. I wasn't used to humans. I'd never been petted or held before, so it was really scary to have humans touching me. The one man said I was very thin and my skin was very dry but I wasn't going to have any puppies.

Other humans took us to another place where there were wooden walls and lots of straw on the ground to sleep on. They called it the Metra. It was cold, but there was no wind, the ground was dry, there was roof over my head and it smelled nice. Some other humans gave us food and water. They would do that every day! Wow! It was a lot of changes for me, most of the time I was scared. But, I liked to eat every day, so I figured I could learn to live with it. One day two really nice ladies came to talk to me and they spent a lot of time with me. It took a really long time, but I finally let Dorita and Jane touch me. I don't know how long I was there, but it was cold for a long time, then it got nice, and then it was hot. But still, the nice ladies came and so did their friends. And every day I got to eat. I like to eat, but I don't like people to watch me. They put a thing around my pretty blue neck and taught me to walk with a rope, they called it a leash. I had to learn to "sit" and "down".

Some of the other girls had puppies and they went to live at another place with their babies. Some of the puppies were very sick. But, others were okay. In the end there were over 220 of us.

One day there was lots of excitement with the humans. They said we could go to our new homes. Oh no! I don't want to leave this place. It's noisy and scary with all the dogs here, but a new place is really scary. Some new people came. They made us walk up and down stairs and took us for walks. It was all so new again. One day they took me for an operation so I won't have any puppies. The other dogs started leaving the Metra. There was so much going on.

Then, they put me in a crate - I didn't like going in those things, bad things always happen when I go in one. Well, things sure did happen! My crate was in a big yellow school bus. Two humans were with us: Rick (I'd seen him around) and one of the new ladies named Jan. The bus started moving and just kept moving. Long after it got dark we stopped and met some new humans. We took long walks. I wasn't interested in investigating too much. Some of the dogs got off the bus and didn't get back on. We started moving again when we stopped, a new lady, Nancy, got on the bus with us. The humans were nice to us, they gave us food and water. I was a real good girl, I didn't mess or chew anything in my crate. When it got dark, we stopped at another farm, it was getting a little interesting so I checked out the new place a bit. Some more dogs stayed at the new place. The next day we moved again. It was a long day. We stopped a couple times. Every time more dogs got off the bus. We spent another night at another new farm. The lady, Heather was there. I saw her before at Metra. The next morning we took really long walks and most of us got back on the bus. We stopped once and some dogs went away with a new lady. It was just starting to get dark and raining when the bus stopped again. This time, I was the only dog who got to take a walk with Jan. I like Jan.

This new lady came up to Jan and me. I don't like new humans. I'm always scared. She talked to Jan. She didn't seem too bad. I even walked between her and Jan over to the man Nancy was talking to. Rick brought out one of the crates, not mine - but just like mine. They put me in the crate and lifted me up into a truck. I got scared. But, the new man kept talking really nice to me. After a while, we drove away. I was really, really scared. Where am I going? Are any other English Shepherds there?