Welcome to Andy's Home Page

"I'm like a six year old with his first pup! Andy took to us like he had been waiting for us for a long time. During the twenty or thirty minutes we were with Jack and Brenda, Andy kinda wandered around (like dogs are wont to do) but he kept coming back to one of us. We did take him for a short walk in the grass before we left, and good thing... When we had signed the papers and were ready to say our good byes, my wife (also a Brenda) said, "Andy, You want to go for a ride?" He jumped in the back seat and didn't even look back. He looked out the window for a brief while and I guess he got bored, because he lay down and snoozed. Brenda made the comment that she was sure sorry that he was so upset. He slept furiously most of the way home. When we got home, he had to investigate his new home, and made himself quite at home. Later we were having a snack in the living room, to which Andy was invited, and he just sort of wandered off to explore again. That's when we found out he is really a "Butter Collie." It's been awhile since we had an inquisitive dog in the house, so we were just a little unprepared. We had stick of butter up on the kitchen counter. (We had intended to make some top shelf dog biscuits using it.) That's when we heard PLOP! coming from the kitchen. I said, "What do you reckon that was?" and went to see. Mind you only a very few seconds had elapsed before I got in there. But it was too late. About a third of the stick of butter was gone! A lesson well learned...leave nothing on the counter that you don't want tasted by our new family member. We decided not to crate him over night, but did shut the bedroom door. He lay down on the floor next to me and in a matter of minutes he was snoring. Literally. At about 6:00 this morning he nuzzled my arm to wake me up, and then went to the bedroom door. He and I headed downstairs, grabbed his lead, and out the door we went. Although he was somewhat anxious to get out, he was pretty well behaved and didn't try to yank my arm off to run. He is a cuddler and like you said, a funny, smiling boy. We are glad that he is a part of the family. I see the hand of Providence at work here. Friday a week ago we weren't even considering seriously getting a dog, although we had talked about it at some length. Today, eight days later, we have a dog! It's wonderful. Thank you for all you do, and thanks to all the people that foster dogs like Andy. I promise to stay in touch to give you updates, but the future emails probably won't be this long." Best Regards, Mike McRae

Click on any picture to enlarge

We have a 4 year old granddaughter that loves dogs in general and Andy in particular. Her first stuffed animal, a gift before she was even born, was a Border Collie from Brenda and me. (His name is Sarge, and she goes absolutely nowhere without him..) Now, all that having been said, we decided that today would be a good day to see how he would do in a public situation as I was going to exhibit some of my work at a local Art In The Park event here in Mint Hill. We weren't expecting but about a thousand people, but a lot of them bring their dogs. Well, as it turned out there were something like 2500 in attendance and like I said, a lot of them brought their dogs. Andy was a GEM! He barked only one time, and that's because he thought another dog was ignoring his greeting. He was petted by countless kids, and almost as many adults. He was the perfect representative of the breed - alert, attentive, and friendly. He goes to work with me every day, and is mostly content to be with me all day. We walk along the road my shop is on (it's a dead end) and he is always friendly to the neighborhood kids. He is having to learn how to play, but Brenda and I are persistent. He has a very "soft" mouth and never plays too rough. He knows his nighttime "potty routine" now, and on that score I could not ask for better. He sits on command when we are getting ready to go out, but has some difficulty with that command otherwise. That's OK. I've got time and I've got patience. He will heel pretty well, but if he gets ahead of me, all I have to say is, "Andy, stay with me" and he falls right back in. This may have something to do with his velcro-ness, I don't know. It's hard for me say just how much he has come to mean to us in the short time he has been with us. Dogs come and dogs go, but this one is one in a million. Best Regards," Mike McRae
Andy's First Trip!
"On the way to Virginia, naturally, we had to make pitstops. At a rest area just before the VA line we got out with Andy, and instead of just walking him in the designated grassy area, Brenda took him down to the treeline at the back of the property. He had to leave his "calling card" on every bush and blade of grass, so she said. And then he flushed a rabbit...Brenda said he got REALLY excited about that, to the point that he practically jerked her off her feet. She had a good grip, so he did not actually get to say "hello" to the rabbit, but he was really, really excited. When we got to the grounds where the highland games were to be held, about seven ours into the trip, there were pipers tuning and warming up out in the parking lot for a concert on Friday night. Andy did NOT know what to make of them. He only whined a little at first, and then he started to sing along with those pipers! They must have made quite an impression on him. However, before the end of the day on Saturday it was like he had grown up to the sound of bagpipes. He met LOTS of dogs, and LOTS of people and got along famously with all of them. We kept him inside the tent with us for most of the day, and he was content with that, as long as one of us was close by. He had several long walks around the grounds, and met a lot more dogs, but he did not seem to be all that impressed with sheep or with the dogs that worked those sheep. That's OK. We did not get him for a stock-dog, we got him as a pet and family member. As accomodations for the weekend we stayed with Brenda's sister in Fredricksburg. They have two dogs: one is an English Mastiff, and the other is mostly dog. We think. There was a little back and forth between Andy and Sam, but he got on well with Julie. Brenda's sister has a really nice house, and we were kind of concerned about how Andy would do in such new surroundings, whether he would feel the need to mark his territory or not, what with this being Sam's house. We needn't have worried. He was the perfect house guest for the entire weekend. "
	"I know it has only been about six weeks since Andy came into our lives, but once again let me say that I feel the hand of providence at work here. It is hard to even imagine what life without him would be like. Nor would I want to. Thanks for bringing us together."