Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —One New Mexico dog pulled off a truly incredible journey. Josie disappeared from a farm in Rincon, New Mexico, eight months ago. Josie’s owner is Racheal Carpenter. Her family farms everything from pecans to cotton to onions. Josie disappeared during last July’s harvest.“She was gone long enough that we just quit looking,” Carpenter said.The family figured Josie had wandered off and died of old age. But an unexpected phone call from Oswego, Illinois, proved them wrong.“They said, ‘We found your dog,’” Carpenter said.Josie somehow ended up at an animal shelter in Joplin, Missouri. A rescue group sent her...

Border Collies are considered by many to be one of the most intelligent and trainable dog breeds. Though they are wonderful companions, they require a lot of exercise and training.

There's an old " Three Stooges" short that features the boys being transformed into gentlemen as part of a bet between two professors. A similar scenario is being played out at Chicago's Anti-Cruelty Society, as the training staff has taken on a challenging fellow named Baxter with the aim of making him adoptable. The mission of shelters such as Anti-Cruelty is to find homes for as many unwanted animals as possible. Unadoptable dogs don't have much of a future, so these organizations try to make them more desirable. This brings us to Baxter, a 5-year-old border collie mix who —...

Roy Klopp survived a shocking twist in his daily bike ride Monday after being bit in the behind by a black bear near Clinton. "It wasn't my day to die," said Klopp, who returned to his job at the sawmill last night after taking a day to recuperate from the attack. Around 11 a.m. Monday morning, Klopp, 56, and his border collies, Tippy and Chuckie, met an unusually aggressive black bear in the bushes near a curve in the walking trails above Clinton, a town of about 740 residents 380 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. Protected only by a pair of...

A flock of ducklings have been taken under the paw of an unusual protector. Ben the Border Collie lets the fuzzy youngsters snuggle up for warmth and makes sure they don't stray too far from his side. The black and white dog will eventually learn how to round flocks of ducks at the Pennywell Farm in Buckfastleigh in Devon. For now, he looks happy with his quacking role of guardian.

<p>WATERFOWL hunters got some good news this week with the announcement that the daily bag limits for Canada geese hunting during September have been increased in almost all of New York's waterfowl hunting zones. The increase, from five geese per day to eight, will help local authorities reduce the numbers of these birds, who have become numerous and a nuisance in many parts of the state.</p>