I will never again meet a Border Collie that I don’t think about this terrific dog.  Jack Parker was the quintessential Border Collie.  He was mischievous and funny and his tail was always wagging.  Even on the day I found him romping across a busy intersection, he was having a ball.  Of course, I almost died because he was very nearly hit by several cars but he got across unscathed.  I pulled over where I saw him go down into a creek bed with lots of high grass.  I got out and whistled.  I couldn’t see him but the all of a sudden, this black and white head popped up.  I kept calling and pretty soon, here he came, bolting out of the high grass and jumped right into the truck.  No dummy he.  That had to be the easiest rescue I’ve ever done.

We didn’t have Jack Parker very long but I knew he was special.  There was no fence that could keep him in which is obviously the reason I found him.  He even scaled the six-foot chain link fence at the sanctuary.  I don’t guess he had been here two weeks when I got up one morning and found him gone.  He was nowhere to be found.  Two days later, I got a call from a lady that lived further down our road saying this beautiful black and white dog had taken up residence at their place and would we like to have him.  Needless to say, it was Jack Parker.  I thought he had been broken of going over the fence when one day I was working in one of the back pens when I heard this awful carrying on.  I ran around the side of the building and there, hanging by his back foot from the top of the chain link fence was Jack Parker.  The other dogs were going nuts and Jack was trying to chew his foot off to free himself.  Happily, he didn’t have to do that because I came to his rescue.  Thank God I was there.  Living with Jack Parker was indeed a challenge. 

His propensity for escape presented us with a problem because for all practical purposes, this made him un-adoptable.  I wasn’t even sure how we could keep him in but here at least, he was safer than in town.  We did put him on our website and Petfinder.  One day I got an email inquiring about Jack Parker.  It was from April Hardy, a young lady who lived not far from us.  She wanted a Border Collie to train for obedience, etc. in 4-H.  She was only 15 but as we emailed back and forth, I came to appreciate April and her mother, Teresa.  She was home schooled and loved training and working with dogs.  They came out to meet him, as well as some other dogs I thought she might be interested in but it was love at first sight for Jack Parker and April.   Ideally, we would love for all our animals to live like the special animals they are but sometimes you have to consider what they were bred to do.  The Border Collie is a working dog.  He wasn’t happy being with a lot of other dogs although he got along with them.  In this case, his quality of life and purpose had to be taken into consideration.  Off he went to his new home.  This was in March of this year.  I got progress reports regularly and went to watch he and April compete in obedience trials in June.  He didn’t win first but he was clearly the best out there.  In July, just four months after April started Jacks training, they went to the State trials in Austin and Jack Parker won high points in his division, a Blue Ribbon and a beautiful clock for his family.  This says a lot for April and Jack Parker.  April and her talent for training and perseverance and Jack for his uncanny ability and willingness to learn.  Of course, the love they had for each other played the biggest part.