Flyer Joins us from Texas-Adopted!
Flyer, an active Border Collie Basenji mix is here to find the perfect home! I will be publishing her owner’s story regarding her two year battle to re-home her. Flyer is on a Continental Airlines flight as we speak, heading to sunny Florida to start a new life.
This is Andrea’s save. She saw the posting of Flyer on a disc forum, and jumped up and down screaming for me to take her!
How does anyone say no to Andrea (shown left)? Flyer will come to me for a few days, and then she will be fostered by our Andrea, who will be evaluating her as a potential disc dog and helping us find the perfect home for her. Flyer couldn’t be at a better place!
It appears that Flyer adores young children, and judging from this photo, I guess we’ll have to find her some!
Flyer’s previous owner Jaime sends this information:
Flyer came into my life in January of 2007. My roommate at the time adopted her from a local Border Collie “rescue”. She was full of spit and vinegar from the moment she arrived and has yet to stop and smell the roses. Flyer’s the kind of dog that if you blink, you miss her.
My roomate was a dog trainer and wanted to try her out in some dog sports, mainly try and make a disc dog out of her. She started out spending quality time with her, then it soon started to filter out when she brought home a dog-agressive dog that she was going to try and rehome. We eventually ended up having 6 dogs in the house; 3 of them mine, along with my two cats that I already had before she moved in. It was slowly starting to turn into a zoo and we were soon going to have to go our separate ways. I understand her intentions were good, but it caused problems in the balance of the household and Flyer slowly got put on the back burner because of it.
I then stepped in and started spending more time with her as if she were my own dog: feeding her, taking her to the vet and the doggie daycare that I work at so that she could run and play and get out of her crate. She was becoming my dog more and more each day. In the meanwhile, there was complete chaos in my house with all of the animals, one being dog-aggressive and Flyer’s new obsession with trying to go after my cats. She was becoming very frustrated because even with the doggie daycare during the day, she was spending a lot of time in her crate and wasn’t getting much attention and structured exercise…she needed a job. When it came time for my roommate to move out, she still had not rehomed the dog-agressive dog that she took in and it had only made progress with her other two little dogs, but not with Flyer.
She then contacted the “rescue” that she originally got Flyer from and she would not take her back. They had a signed contract stating that if she were ever unable keep Flyer, then she would take her back into her possession. My roommate did the right thing in trying to contact this woman with the “rescue” and following the adoption agreement, but it was not reciprocated on the other end. I thought to myself, how many other “rescues” do this and how many dogs end up in shelters because of it because people have nowhere else to turn? Come to find out, not many at all…not a good rescue anyway. Life throws us some pretty wicked fastballs sometimes and things happen. People pass away, lose their jobs and sometimes people just simply make quick decisions in adopting dogs and end up not keeping them or it’s not the right fit. Or unfortunately, in this case another dog takes it’s place. 🙁 When things like this happen, they should be able to turn to the rescue for help in rehoming the dog.
It was becoming a very unsettling, emotional situation. My roomate and I discussed it and I agreed that I would keep Flyer at the house when she moved out and try to make it work. I wasn’t sure about how it was going to go, due to the cat situation and Border Collies requiring so much exercise. Things were going alright, then the cat obsession returned and I just couldn’t provide the amount of exercise and stimulation she needed. I continued in trying to make it work because the thought of trying to find her a new home killed me. Me and my family both had become so attached to her and her to us. Men have always frightened her and she had developed a strong trust with my husband as well. She adored my son…followed him everywhere and just LOVES children in general. She turns into pile of mush when a child, especially a toddler approaches her. It was becoming harder and harder to let go, but I would soon have to put my feelings aside and take the plunge in finding her the perfect home. I tried contacting the “rescue” again that my roomate had gotten her from and was declined again. She offered to put her on Petfinder for me and that was that.
In the meantime, I was contacting other groups for help and Protective Animal League stepped in and let me go to adoption events and posted her up on Petfinder for me. Three days after PAL’s posting on Petfinder they received an email from the original “rescue” woman telling them that they needed to take their posting down and that Flyer didn’t belong to their rescue and it would just confuse people. That if they were going to leave it up then they needed to state that it was a courtesy listing for her group so that she would get the adoption fee, not PAL. PAL, of course not wanting any trouble and just wanting to help, wrote at the bottom of their posting that it was a courtesy listing for said “rescue” and attached the original “rescue’s” email and took mine off. After about 3 or 4 months of not receiving any emails about Flyer I asked the woman with PAL to take the original “rescue’s” info off of the posting and put mine on there. I received 2 emails in a months time. Both being cat owners, it wasn’t the right fit, but I was finally being contacted. It could have been a coincidence, but I just found it strange that I was getting nothing from the posting when the original “rescue’s” info was on there.
I then started posting her on Craigslist stating her bio/pix and that a donation be made in PAL’s name (that was something I wanted to do for them for all of their help. they were so helpful and never asked for one red cent). All I got from CL was spam and psychos and to be honest, I was fearful of her ending up in some dog fighting ring by the emails I was receiving. I didn’t want to take her to a shelter or just give her away to the 1st Tom, Dick, or Harry either. She deserved way more than that and to go to the best home possible.
I was starting to lose hope and then things finally started happening. We had just hired this new guy up at work that knew some people in the disc dog community and competed his own dogs in it as well. I showed him Flyer’s photos and he immediately said he would post pix and get the word out. It was then when I came in contact with Andrea. She had seen his posting and was the only one to respond to it. I was thrilled that someone…a sane someone at that was interested. Then she told me she was in Florida and the roller coaster car went back down again. But that didn’t stop us. Andrea then contacted Gisele from The Dog Liberator and was determined to make this happen. And she did…Gisele said that Flyer was more than welcome to come to Florida and that she would have no problems finding her a forever home. Now it was time for the roller coaster car to make it’s way back up again, but this time all the way to Florida. Sheesh! How the heck was that going to happen?
Andrea didn’t know me from Adam and offered for me and my husband to come stay out there with her and her family and transport Flyer out there by car, but Florida is about 23 hours from us and we just couldn’t get the time from work to do it. She has been my rock throughout this whole thing…it’s been so emotional for our whole family and she’s been just amazing. We wanted to initially try and avoid transporting her by plane since she can be such a nervous Nelly when she’s outside of her Border Collie bubble. Andrea and Gisele put postings up on Facebook to try and find someone to do a possible rescue trolly/train, but nothin. Still didn’t stop us…we were still determined to get her there one way or another.
So I went and bought an airline crate for her to be shipped in and a one way ticket for her to fly to Orlando, Florida. I overnighted all of her other belongings to Gisele that weren’t allowed to be shipped in cargo. It was all starting to sink in now and seeming so surreal. This is the part where I get all weepy. I knew I was doing the right and thing and never had a second thought about who she was going to. Since I had to take her to the airport at 5am, my husband and my son did the good-bye thing the night before. I sware she knew…that damn dog is so smart it’s frightening. One time when my husband and I were dating, he had to fly back to England and the morning he was flying out she climbed in his suitcase. No joke!
She’s the best!!!
She has now landed in Florida and been there for 2 days and adjusting just fine. She spent the night with Keara, the woman that picked her up from the airport, and she told me that she doesn’t know how I’m coping. That she’s only had her one day and she’s gonna miss her. She posted a photo of Flyer and her dog, Beau snuggled up on the couch together. From there she’ll be with Gisele until Andrea can transport her back to her house where she and her family will foster her for the next 3 weeks. Everything couldn’t have gone better if i tried. The experience with the airline could have gone better, but don’t sweat the small stuff right?…
I am so grateful to everyone that was involved and for never being judged in any way.
Many thanks to Andrea, Gisele, and Keara and everyone else that offered to pick her up from the airport. BIG hugs!
~Jaime
Update: Flyer is being fostered by Betty, waiting on Andrea to pick her up for some disc fun.
Update: Betty picked up Flyer as she was picking up Tater (formerly BoBo) to her place, to make Andrea’s drive easier. Here’s a fantastic photo of what I call Disc Meets Agility! Andrea and Betty, two awesome dog trainers and dog lovers! Thank you ladies! Andrea will be evaluating Flyer and taking her to disc events just to show her off! I hope Flyer has the potential that we think she does!
Flyer has been adopted by an awesome family, and boy is she going to love being with the kids!