Matt is much more than our UPS driver whom I can text,
for example, this card is from him.
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France
“Happiness is a warm puppy.”
Charles Schulz
Joy & Hope
If LOVE could have kept you here you would have lived forever
Puppies grow up fast
I bought Hope this little Teddy Bear for a quarter at the thrift store.
She was adorable with it for quite a while.
Hope was a great hiking companion.
“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” – Roger Caras
Elsa fell and Hope was literally by her side in a flash.
“Are you ok Elsa?”
A favorite picture – Hope and Elsa.
We like our canine companions to be beautiful and Joy and Hope were lovely looking dogs.
Linda is much more than our veterinarian…whom I can text. For example, she comes to our home with updated knowledge, a compassionate heart and a special love for border collies…
13 day later, Hope was gone…
For the first time in our 47-year-old marriage, we do not have a canine companion.
The hole is huge. We trip over the places she’s left behind.
Tell me about your canine companions and the love you share…
“Walks in nature are hugs for my soul.” Julie A R Stephens
julie@handsbestrong.com
From H.B. Stephens
January 7th, 2025
Hope died today, about 2 pm. Julie and I are really sad. Hope was 10 years, 10 months old.
Here are a few thoughts about Hope that come immediately to mind.
- We really never taught Hope anything, she taught us about border collies (BC).
- She was very verbal, and barked quite a bit. However, she also had an inside voice that was very descriptive. She loved to use her inside voice when ready to go on an outing.
- She never cleared herself of wanting to chase cars despite our best efforts to break this habit. I took her up to the top of Hummingbird Ln and we sat for a long while as cars passed, however her endurance outlasted mine and we only did this a couple of times, so the car was always something to chase.
- She was always wanting to please. Always would try her best to obey our commands. Also, she would take anyone’s command. If there were several dogs around, and a person said “sit” then she would sit.
- She was well socialized. Julie took her early to dog training, and she was the head of her class. She was able to interact with other dogs freely, because she would always take the lower posture and try to be friendly.
- She loved commands, anything with hand signals or “let’s go this way” she would change whatever she was doing and obey.
- She had a special tree on the nature trail (NT). That tree was her “home base”. If we were walking the NT and she was off on her own adventure, when we came near her tree, she was there, circling always counter clockwise around the tree. It was her place to be. She would launch herself, jumping around the tree, snapping her teeth together, as if to catch the imaginary squirrel.
- She was an autonomous or independent walker, meaning she would go her own way, but us keep us in view. It took several years with a shock collar on the NT before she became “autonomous” with us. Back to the issue with cars, she would head to highway and wait for a car to come.
- She had tremendous mobility. We never had a dog that could be completely out of shouting range within a few seconds. It was really amazing with her long legs and speed. It was hand signals and shock collar and several years before she would recognize that we wanted her to walk with us. And even then, she went on her own path, not our path.
- She didn’t really like the water, as far as wanting to swim, but she would not mind walking through the water on our walks. One time, on the NT in winter, she fell through the ice into the river. I was there, and helped her out and carried her home to get her quickly warm and dried out.
- She was always on the lookout for squirrels. This gave here endless enjoyment as she exercised her BC “eye” to watch for these critters.
- She had amber eyes. There is a great book we got early on: “Understanding Border Collies” by Barbara Sykes. Barbara had several pages about the BC eyes and noted (it seems with Hope in mind): “A dog with a much lighter eye, almost amber, usually has a very keen eye and most will resent their ‘space’ being threatened; they are often happier if they are left alone to be ‘one man’ or ‘one family’ dogs.”
- She had the BC crawl. We saw her do this early on when playing with Joy, but didn’t realize this was a hardwired characteristic of the BC. Seeing some videos about BCs hurting sheep, we realized this was her trait.
- She hurt Joy on several occasions. This was a painful experience, especially for Joy but also for us. She would go along fine, but if Joy pushed or tried to assert, then Hope would bite back. This did not end well for Joy. Not a pleasant memory of Hope’s behavior, and again, something we could not teach her, not to do. The last few years with Joy was different however, and although certainly not adversarial, they were sisters in this family and did most everything together.
- She was not food oriented.
- At night she would generally get up and shake herself about every two hours. She continued this practice throughout her life. Generally, she would go back to bed, however on many occasions, she would come to my side of the bed when she really needed to go out, and wake me up by wagging her tail, banging it against the wall and putting her head on my side of the bed.
- She loved Judy, our neighbor who took care of her when we made our trips.
- She was able to self soothe. If there was thunder or ice falling from the roof, she would head to under the window seat and chill out, maybe for hours.
- She understood probably much more than we knew, an extraordinary smart animal.
- She would play “ball” with me, but only on her terms. Very unusual, but always the same, with her body next to the chair in the living room, rolling the ball to her, but only on her terms, it seemed to be something she did for me really.
- She loved her yard. She loved the doggie doors. She would run into the yard to bark at passing cars; not all cars however, because she could recognize the neighbor’s cars and let them pass. She was not intimidated by the gate, but would calmly wait for a command to go. She could hear and get excited by my truck or the UPS truck coming from way down road.
- She spent a lot of time watching or staring at me and where I was going and what I was doing. I was her person.
- She was looking out for me. For example, one time on the NT, my mind was thinking about many other things, when a sudden bark happened behind me. It was Hope getting my attention, because directly ahead, about 20 yards in front of me was a moose. We both carefully began walking the other way home.
- She loved to wear her orange vest. We learned early on that walking Hope with a neck leash was almost impossible. She had tremendous strength. The vest or harness was the only way we would walk. Getting the vest on was a treat, then riding in the car, was great.
- She was so dependable. She knew our routines. Her personal trails are still clearly visible on the NT.
- Her coat was always shiny. The white parts of her fur remained bright white. She didn’t really like to be brushed, but tolerated it because of our interaction together. The tummy rub was important as well as the butt scratch.
We had a couple of really rough nights; she was not doing well. After we returned from our trip to Greece, mid-October, she became unusually hungry, very food oriented, something entirely new. Early in November, she started losing weight and running down in strength. It is interesting, during this time, at night, she would just stand and walk around, as if she could not get comfortable. I remember one night she was standing near the door, not wanting to go out, but just looking, and as I was consoling her, she leaned against me and seem to say, “I don’t feel good.” Mid-December we called Linda Downs (our wonderful Vet), she came and noted her gums were white, indicating a loss in red-blood cells. She gave a steroid shot. That night, Hope had three major seizures. My experience with Shellie dogs, this would have been the end, however this border collie was entirely different, and she rallied back. There were ups and downs, but she was trying to recover. Then last night, it was a set of almost constant seizures, and we realized this was the end.
We never had a dog like her.
Hope will be missed.
It took a while, but after a couple years, I felt like I gained the full trust of hope…… Every time I drove up, hope made sure to announce my presence! She became very fond of the cod, skin treats I would bring her, even in her excitement, she was careful not to nip my fingers, I never even the slightest nick! when I pull up, I always say “there’s always hope! “I think I will continue to say this, because they’re always will be hope, even if it’s just my memory! I sadly looked for the places that she had beat down and ran regularly in the yard the day after her passing, unfortunately, some new snow fell soon after and all the traces I could recognize were gone. A sad day.
thank you Matt – you were importnnt to her – thank you
So sorry for your loss of Hope!
you are so kind – thank you friend