ITS A BIRTHDAY DAY!

Guess who is FIVE YEARS OLD today? Yep it is a huge milestone bday for the little red Lizard-Lizzie!

It was freezing and really windy but I took Lizzie out in the big agility yard today for a run, she was so cute she ran around and did all the equipment and just looked so happy. Her and I have a little trip scheduled in a few hours to Petsmart to pick out a birthday toy.

I will never forget the day Lizzie came into my life. I saw an ad with a picture of a cute little red/white split face border collie a few hours away. I figured it was probably a picture of past puppies, but I called and she was a girl, and she was available. Yep, I fell in love with Lizzie's looks! Never a good criteria to use when picking a dog....but she was too cute for words.

The whole family got into the car and drove down to the ranch where she was at in Temecula, CA. When we got there there was a huge pack of dogs, all running loose and getting along-hey I thought that was a good sign that she came from stock that all got along with other dogs and were nice --even to strangers driving up that they did not know. I happen to like that!

Lizzie's mom was a working girl and worked full time herding cattle and had gone back up to her job in Northern CA before I met Lizzie, so I have no clue what her mom looks like (yep, this was a spur of the moment decision and I sure did not go down my check list of what I would look for when I decided to get the little Lizard). Her dad was a red/white sweet heart of a dog-he was there.

We went to where the pups were kept, and there were three sisters. A black/white split face girl, a white face girl and Lizzie. Lizzie was the one that choose me, she wanted to play with me with the toys I had brought, she kept crawling up in my lap and she made me feel very loved ;-). I loved her split face too. The curly hair was a special surprise that I did not know about until long after I had her, LOL.

The lady must have thought I was CRAZY taking so much time to decide which girl I wanted, I dropped pans to look for noise sensitivity, played lots of games with the pups and just sat in the pen checking out how the girls were playing and reacting.

Of course Lizzie went home with us. My older daughter held her on her lap and a few miles from the ranch she got her name-Leapin' Lizzie just came to me, I am not sure why. The next afternoon I set Lizzie up in an xpen and went to agility class with Chloe, I came home to the cute little split face peering out the window. You guessed it she had leaped over the tallest xpen they make. Yep, I had chosen her name well, and she fit it to a tee.

Lizzie was the most challenging youngster, and I learned so much from her and everyone loved her. I will never love a dog like I love her, I love all my dogs but Lizzie will always hold a special place. I had to go on a lot of faith with Liz, faith that she would turn out ok, and that is a hard thing for me to do, relax and have faith. I worked hard but mostly she just grew up. Now at five she is pretty laid back, she is mostly just sweet and I miss some of her wildness and naughtiness. Who knew I would be able to say that when we started this journey, BUT it is true!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LIZZIE, THIS HAS BEEN A REALLY FANTASTIC FIVE YEARS! Who knows who I would be today if I had not found her? I am sure i would not be the same person.....that is how I know she was truly meant to be in my life and I am so grateful we happened upon each other all those years ago!