Sophie, the Border Collie

On February 26, 2002, Sophie the tri-colored border collie was born at the Crying Coyote Ranch (www.cryincoyoteranch.com/bordercollies.html). In March, Sophie joined Clan McAllister in our home in Spring. Here are a variety of photos of her -- from puppy to current happy, fluffy doggie.
Sophie is a fawn to sable colored border collie with a bandit strip of black around her nose and eyes. She has brown to gray hazel eyes, and her markings make her quite a beauty! In addition, she has the sweetest temperament. Here, she is pictured at 7 weeks.
Sophie has a few things that she is totally crazy about:

1) She loves her walks. Recently, she has become so wonderful at following commands while walking that I've been able to let her off lead while walking along our creek in the community. She loves walking with her "boyfriend" Springbok, a red border collie.

2) Sophie can't stand to be inside the house if someone is outside. She'll whine and scratch at the door until she is let out, and she has to be part of the action. She will chase the ball at the pool for hours until she drops. She often cools down in the pool by hanging out on the shallow ledge. While she won't come further into the water, she lets us come up to her and splash her to cool off and to give her "huggies."

3) Sophie loves her squeaky ball, which she plays with by the pool. She also has a soft plush squeaky squirrel inside the house. When we have bird seed in the garden, it often attracts the squirrels, and Sophie loves to chase the squirrels up the tree! She'll stay outside for hours after "treeing" a squirrel. So the soft plush squirrel reminds her of her favorite animated toy!

4) Sophie still enjoys "suckling" on our comforter and blanket. Since she was only five weeks old when we brought her home, we assume she suckled to comfort herself. As if leaving big wet gooey spots on the bed wasn't bad enough, she used to shred the blanket in her youth. We still can't allow her on our bed without supervision!
5) Of course, we love Sophie so much, and she loves us! However, nothing compares to the love shared between a boy and his dog. Below are Branduff and Sophie. One pictures shows her with him in the "storm" closet during a tornado warning.