Aja the Angel Collie (I think) :)

A few weeks ago, a stray 4-year-old collie was picked up in the country and taken to an animal shelter in WV. He was very thin and very scared, but it was obvious to everyone that he was as sweet-tempered as they come. You can't tell from the pic, but he had a lot of mats in his fur too. But, the worst was how skinny he was. You could feel every rib. I could pick him up effortlessly and he's a big dog.

While he was at the shelter, puppies gnawed on his leg a little too much and Aja started limping. The shelter was nice enough to work with collie rescue and I went to pick him up so that he could be fostered in our home.

As much as his leg obviously hurt him, Aja never once growled or showed any aggression at all... even when my golden retriever got her nose all bent out of shape and snarled at him (she gets jealous of new fosters but calms down pretty quickly).

In some trepidation, I took him to the vet. They diagnosed a torn ACL in his leg and recommended a $1000 surgery to fix it. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. The rescue I work with does everything they can to help... especially when the dog is as terrific as Aja, so they decided to go ahead with surgery.

While we waited for the surgery date, Aja seemed to be getting much better every day until we couldn't figure out which leg even hurt him! There was NO limping. He went in to the vet and they discovered through an x-ray that his leg was completely okay now! This was a huge relief to the rescue because they had just taken in 3 puppies with parvo that were on the verge of dying until they were treated... to the tune of several thousands of dollars.

So, Mr. Aja has been snuggling into our hearts for the last few weeks. He's such a charmer! This morning I woke up to my toes being licked (NOT the most pleasant of feelings since I have very ticklish feet!) and chewed upon.... and just as I was about to make him get off of the bed that he's not really allowed on anyway, he SNEEZED. TWICE. All over my legs and the clean sheets. Formerly clean sheets.

As I was distracted by all that, well, SNOT, I felt my OTHER collie, Harley, plop down next to me (efficiently pinning me to the bed... I should have escaped when I had the chance) and start licking my face.

I generally shower at night, but trust me, I felt the need for another this morning! :)

Here are the two culprits:



But, don't let that oh-so-innocent picture fool you. Aja has calmed down QUITE a bit over the last week. At first, he was very destructive. I pretty much kept him with me at all times and kept my ears on high alert for the sounds of teeth on wood (like chair legs). See how the floor is clean in the picture above? Well, aside from the big hairy dogs, that is. :)

Well, for 2 weeks, THIS is more like what it looked like. He chewed up EVERYTHING he could get his teeth into! Seriously, he did all this in about an hour! He's killing that tissue box in the pic.



Here he is up at the soccer fields. Isn't he beautiful?




He's one of those dogs who has never met a stranger.



I have a feeling that he's going to be very hard to give up when he gets matched up to a new family. He's really sweet and has learned so much! As much as he hated a crate at first, now all I have to do is say, "crate" and he hops right into it. He takes treats from your hand as gentle as can be. He's learned to come and sit down next to me when he wants attention (instead of landing in my lap). :)

Yeah, I'm gonna miss this guy.