Lost Sheltie Article

"The most distinctive sheltie quality is his temperament and personality. He is a bit of a snob, yet sweet and lovable. He is dependable, intelligent, sensible, eager to please, naturally well mannered- one of the most trainable breeds. Because of these he adapts to a variety of lifestyles and purposes. Two words express the Sheltie's relationship to his owner - sensitive and responsive. Sensitivity is sometimes construed to mean that a dog is cowering and cannot take correction or discipline. While it is true that the Sheltie reacts negatively to harsh treatment, he should have a degree of self-assurance and toughness. However, he quickly senses when someone is displeased with him and rarely needs strong discipline. The Sheltie seeks and expects response from you, and responds best when you respond to him. It takes proper training, socialization, and play on your part to enable your Sheltie to develop his personality to its fullest potential. If you cannot appreciate the refinements and communication of this kind of relationship between person and dog you may want to consider another breed.

These qualities of sensitivity and responsiveness, combined with a degree of protectiveness and intense loyalty, occasionally cause a Sheltie to single out one member of the family as "his person", and become aloof to the other members. The same qualities are responsible for his disdain of strangers. He simply will not lavish affection, or even attention, on a person he doesn't know and to whom he has no reason to respond.

The Sheltie with the "true" "old-fashioned" Sheltie character is capable of establishing a relationship with his master based on mutual respect and understanding, an equality in which both parties communicate without use of words exactly what is expected of the other This Sheltie may seem to others to be "just another dog", because he "turns on" only to his special person. The relationship becomes obvious, though, when dog and man are working together. The dog is so receptive to that person, so eager, so happy, so communicative, that bystanders marvel at the teamwork.

Shelties are easy to live with. They love traveling, real quick to learn and can live indoors or out equally well. They do prefer being close to the family and are very sensitive to neglect or punishment. A Sheltie that is not given attention or training by all members of the family may bond to only the person who takes care of him.

Shelties are amazing quick and agile, a very pleasing trait, most of the time, but this also enables them to skillfully dance right out of your reach or sight and disappear if they suddenly scared. A frightened Sheltie can be next to impossible to catch. Now, this shouldn't be a problem once you've owned the little creature for a while, but when a Sheltie is first transferred to a new owner, the dog's nature being what it is, he is apt to be un-accepting and a bit frightened. Take a few precautions until your new Sheltie has accepted you as his new "parent".

Before you bring the new Sheltie home, check the yard for holes or broken wire near the ground or wide cracks in a board fence or around a gate. Patch these. An eight or ten week old Sheltie can squeeze through a hole no more than three inches wide. Older Shelties can go through hog wire or welded wire fences with ease. Solid board or chain link fences are recommended.

Since the Sheltie by nature is loyal to an owner to the point of being slow to accept a new owner, I do not trust a young puppy off leash for at least a week; nor one over six months for at least a month. During this time I'm especially careful to see that fences are tight and that the dog doesn't slip through an open gate or door. I once sold a one year old Sheltie on a noisy holiday weekend. The bustling family accidentally let the dog slip by when the door was opened and he ran out onto the street. Immediately the entire family gave chase both on foot and horseback, and the frightened Sheltie fled into the fields and vanished.

Another buyer left her newly purchased adult Sheltie in an unfenced yard without a leash after she only had him one week. She thought he had accepted his new home, but a stray dog gave chase and he, too, disappeared into he maze of houses. Although the new owner sighted him several times, the dog only fled. He roamed the city for two weeks before I was finally able to locate him - thin, messed up, but alive. He came at a run and leaped into my arms for joy!

Collar with identification/rabies tags. Make sure rabies tags and identification tags are attached to your dog's collar whenever it leaves the house. A new dog, even kept in the house or fenced yard should have these left on them for months (Just in case someone opens a door and your new pet darts out the door and runs away scared) this has happens a lot! Always, have identification and rabies tags on your sheltie if you transport them anywhere, friends house, dog show, training, veterinarian, etc. A harness is recommended for puppies under the age of 6 months to 1 year, depending on how "leash" broke your puppy is.

Micro-Chipping: Your local vet has the material to do this or micro clinics are cheaper. The vet usually charges you around $50-$60 dollars but at a clinic the price may vary were you live. $25-$35 dollars this is a small investment in your pets life when he has been lost or abducted. Micro chipping is fast and doesn't hurt your pet, it is injected under their skin like a vaccine. So if your pet is found -- most humane societies scan every animal brought into these places and the chance of these pets returning home is much greater..

While in a vehicle: Never, leave a child or animal unattended during extreme weather in a vehicle. If you must leave them in a vehicle make sure, during warm weather, that the windows are down just a few inches (to prevent break in or dog crawling through window). Leave access to water if you are going to be away from you vehicle for more than 15 minutes. Always, lock you vehicle and do not leave it running (exhaust). Dogs are often stolen from vehicles, do not invite theft. Do not haul a dog in the rear of a truck unless it is in a safe crate. Never, leave them loose in a truck bed or tied in a truck bed.

Remember don't give up! Shelties are good at not being found till things settle down, they can hide real good and usually never go up to strangers, or even there own owners as the days go by. I have learned that with the last few shelties I've helped their owners to find ultimately had to be live trapped. Although, when finally caught in a live trap they never struggled to be free. They wanted to be caught !

A Bi-Blue female, who was earning points at dog shows; decided to leave home because the gate was left open. She was gone for 11 days in the below zero Minnesota weather. Although the owner was giving up, I wasn't! We really put ourselves into the search by first putting flyers on cars in parking lots, in local business, grocery stores ect. an elderly gentleman drove into town for groceries and saw the flyer posted at the grocery store. He got the number from the flyer and called the owner and said the little dog had been out side keeping his Labrador Retriever company for a week. The owner went to his house and there her little Sheltie was!!! Nobody else could catch her but when her owner came and called her and opened her arms Lacey ran to her owner so full of excitement and joy and she jumped into those open arms. She had only been 1 mile away from home.

When Peter was first spotted by this lady he was trying to "romance" her terriers. The lady called me, and we made a plan to catch him, we caught him in an empty kennel with a female terrier inside waiting in an X-pen. He was caught, but when the Terrier breeder took him out with a leash that was attached to a nylon collar, this collar slipped off, and he was gone as fast as his little sheltie legs could carry him! Although he did start hanging around again, he would not trespass into the kennel fence again for fear of being caught by a stranger.

The second time around this nice lady went out and rented a live trap, put some smelly "bait" (usually cat food, liver, hamburger, etc.) in the live trap and was able to entice him into the trap. The trapped worked, he was caught, the lady called me right away and I drove over to her house. Peter was still in the trap so I took him out with a chain choke and leash (I wasn't about to have him "slip" out of the collar again (this doesn't mean you should leave a choker chain on your dog, it was just more secure to catch him with, chokers can be dangerous on loose dogs). He was not interested in fighting as he really did want to be caught but didn't know how to! I brought him home cleaned him up and made some phone calls trying to locate his owner. While making these called I noticed that there was something about him that was familiar and I thought "this dog looks like a dog name Peter that I'd seen before". I contacted the person whom I remembered having a puppy, at the time and asked her if she had a missing dog or a puppy out of the dog I had seen at her home. "Yes", she replied, that dog was missing. I asked her to describe him for me. She had a good description of him. As she was identifying him over the phone and said that her "Peter" had been missing for 9 months December 1999-September 2000. They thought he was dead! She had sold this mature sheltie (8 year old) and the new owners did not keep him tied or kenneled they just let him run loose thinking he would stay close to their home when he disappeared. Peter was more than likely trying to find his way home, to the original owner.

It was an emotional experience full of joy when the original owner came to pick him up at my home. Peter was jumping and kissing them! What an exciting moment when a sheltie reunites with his owner! The original owners said" they were never going to give peter away again. This was one story that could have had tragic results but turned out to have a happy ending.

A promising young (2 year old) sable show dog, escaped from a motel room in a strange town. As the owners were packing up their car to head home and were carrying a dog crate out the door of their motel room the little dog ran under the crate and out the door he was. After he made a beeline out the door a car back fired and he became spooked and off he ran, another sheltie gone!

As I was exhibiting dogs a the Duluth Kennel Club Show, where this dogs owners had also been showing their dog, I was informed that he was missing and they needed help finding him. We immediately asked that they get us a picture of the dog. They did not have a picture with them but fortunately there was a picture of a sheltie that looked a lot like him in the Sheltie Pacesetter Magazine. We copied this picture and immediately made flyers with both the owners names and phone numbers and a few of us local sheltie owners who were involved in the search. When the owner got home she sent me pictures of Shawn and we made new flyers and sent them out and posted them.

Many people called to say they had spotted a sheltie and all leads were followed up, including those of 2 dead shelties that were found laying on road sides (this was not pleasant but I checked them out in order to determine whether or not the search would need to be continued) the dead dogs were not the sheltie we were looking for. And just by chance the add for the missing sheltie did also lead to the recovery of "Peter" (see above).

One day a young man, Kelly, and his wife, spotted the little dog and called one of the names on the flyer, which he had seen posted. Since the dog sounded like it could be Shawn, the owner drove up from Iowa. She went to the location the dog was last spotted which was in a very hilly, rocky, wooded location on the outskirts of downtown Duluth. She saw the dog and thought maybe it could be Shawn, but he would not respond to her or come to her. At this point she wasn't yet convinced it was her dog. So next step was to run to town and rent a live trap additionally since we didn't have any food that would attract the dog, as he had been eating parts of deer that had been thrown out by hunters, I had the owner run to Mc Donald's and bring back cheese burgers along with the live trap. I carried the trap down and set it up and put the burgers in the trap and camouflaged the outside of the wire cage live trap. It was very cold and very windy out as we waited until the dog came near and eventually, after what seemed like forever, entered the trap. Finally he entered the trap and he was caught! I ran down to get him carrying with me my trusty choke collar and leash! I reached in and put both the collar and leash on him before taking him out of the trap and carried him to a vehicle and put him in a dog crate. He never struggled at all, I think he was relieved to be caught. Five months on his own was a very long time.

The part of this story I don't quite understand is that while we were waiting out in that cold for the dog to enter the trap the owner gave up and left and headed back to Iowa. At that time she didn't even know that was her dog or not and that we had indeed rescued him. It was only 45 minutes from the time she left, to the time he was rescued. If it had been my dog I would never have left until I was sure!

The owner was called on the cell phone by us rescue people and we informed her the dog was caught and that it was Shawn. A friend of hers then took the dog and met up with the owner at a restaurant 40+ miles out of town and we were unable to see them reunited. So all of us who had worked at trying to find Shawn for 5 months missed out on this grand occasion. We wish we could have got to seen the reunion of the owner & her dog. The young man who spotted Shawn received his award.

Shawn has settled in here at home as if he never was gone. He slept on my bed the first night (even though he didn't smell the greatest but I didn't care), and has been there every night since. I cleaned him up on Monday and took him to my vet. He had only lost about 2 pounds and had no other signs of his ordeal. He doesn't even have worms. I won't know about heart worms for a couple of months because my vet says it takes at least 6 months to show up. But otherwise he is in astoundingly good health. The vet just shook his head and said it just goes to show you they can survive without you. That may be true, but I will never give him another chance to show those survival skills.


	SANJO SHELTIES \| home PUPPIES \| FOR SALE \| In Memory Of \| Lost Sheltie Article \| Favorite Links \| Sanjo Arabians \| Contact Us \| Breed Standard \| juniorshowmanship LOST SHELTIE! Sheltie Temperament It is important to understand the Sheltie Character, to fully understand when you loose a Sheltie they are very seldom easy for a stranger to catch. "The most distinctive sheltie quality is his temperament and personality. He is a bit of a snob, yet sweet and lovable. He is dependable, intelligent, sensible, eager to please, naturally well mannered- one of the most trainable breeds. Because of these he adapts to a variety of lifestyles and purposes. Two words express the Sheltie's relationship to his owner - sensitive and responsive. Sensitivity is sometimes construed to mean that a dog is cowering and cannot take correction or discipline. While it is true that the Sheltie reacts negatively to harsh treatment, he should have a degree of self-assurance and toughness. However, he quickly senses when someone is displeased with him and rarely needs strong discipline. The Sheltie seeks and expects response from you, and responds best when you respond to him. It takes proper training, socialization, and play on your part to enable your Sheltie to develop his personality to its fullest potential. If you cannot appreciate the refinements and communication of this kind of relationship between person and dog you may want to consider another breed. These qualities of sensitivity and responsiveness, combined with a degree of protectiveness and intense loyalty, occasionally cause a Sheltie to single out one member of the family as "his person", and become aloof to the other members. The same qualities are responsible for his disdain of strangers. He simply will not lavish affection, or even attention, on a person he doesn't know and to whom he has no reason to respond. The Sheltie with the "true" "old-fashioned" Sheltie character is capable of establishing a relationship with his master based on mutual respect and understanding, an equality in which both parties communicate without use of words exactly what is expected of the other This Sheltie may seem to others to be "just another dog", because he "turns on" only to his special person. The relationship becomes obvious, though, when dog and man are working together. The dog is so receptive to that person, so eager, so happy, so communicative, that bystanders marvel at the teamwork. Shelties are easy to live with. They love traveling, real quick to learn and can live indoors or out equally well. They do prefer being close to the family and are very sensitive to neglect or punishment. A Sheltie that is not given attention or training by all members of the family may bond to only the person who takes care of him. As a child's pet, Shelties excel, they are small, active, playful, and caring. How ever, they should be raised with children from a young age. The Sheltie that has been raised in an all adult household is often frightened by a child's more abrupt movements. A Sheltie with correct temperament is not fragile. He is a steady, capable, trustworthy, tough little working dog. Shelties, by and large, are a sturdy, happy-go-lucky dog not apt to cause you a lot of worry. But all dogs, like all children, are notably prone to accidents. Now that you have acquired your new companion, safeguarding him from the hazards of a dog's life will constitute one of your responsibilities. Shelties are amazing quick and agile, a very pleasing trait, most of the time, but this also enables them to skillfully dance right out of your reach or sight and disappear if they suddenly scared. A frightened Sheltie can be next to impossible to catch. Now, this shouldn't be a problem once you've owned the little creature for a while, but when a Sheltie is first transferred to a new owner, the dog's nature being what it is, he is apt to be un-accepting and a bit frightened. Take a few precautions until your new Sheltie has accepted you as his new "parent". Before you bring the new Sheltie home, check the yard for holes or broken wire near the ground or wide cracks in a board fence or around a gate. Patch these. An eight or ten week old Sheltie can squeeze through a hole no more than three inches wide. Older Shelties can go through hog wire or welded wire fences with ease. Solid board or chain link fences are recommended. Since the Sheltie by nature is loyal to an owner to the point of being slow to accept a new owner, I do not trust a young puppy off leash for at least a week; nor one over six months for at least a month. During this time I'm especially careful to see that fences are tight and that the dog doesn't slip through an open gate or door. I once sold a one year old Sheltie on a noisy holiday weekend. The bustling family accidentally let the dog slip by when the door was opened and he ran out onto the street. Immediately the entire family gave chase both on foot and horseback, and the frightened Sheltie fled into the fields and vanished. Another buyer left her newly purchased adult Sheltie in an unfenced yard without a leash after she only had him one week. She thought he had accepted his new home, but a stray dog gave chase and he, too, disappeared into he maze of houses. Although the new owner sighted him several times, the dog only fled. He roamed the city for two weeks before I was finally able to locate him - thin, messed up, but alive. He came at a run and leaped into my arms for joy! Most Shelties make a beautiful adjustment to a new home so long as accidents of this sort are not allowed to happen. Within a month (and many adjust more quickly) they should be confident and happy in their new situation. Every Sheltie needs a place to call his own, whether a box, crate, kennel, or dog house. The essential requirements are that he be dry, clean, and out of drafts. Your Sheltie will be happiest if his bed is close to yours, but he can also sleep outside, if he has adequate shelter and warm bedding." (The above information quoted from "Sheltie Talk" by Betty J. Mckinney and Barbara Rieseberg, a MUST own book for the new Sheltie Owner!!) Safe Keeping Your Sheltie 1. Identifying Your Sheltie: As soon as you bring your sheltie home take color photos of front, back and both sides of your dog. Write down any distinctive features. Keep these on file in case your dog is every lost or stolen. Collar with identification/rabies tags. Make sure rabies tags and identification tags are attached to your dog's collar whenever it leaves the house. A new dog, even kept in the house or fenced yard should have these left on them for months (Just in case someone opens a door and your new pet darts out the door and runs away scared) this has happens a lot! Always, have identification and rabies tags on your sheltie if you transport them anywhere, friends house, dog show, training, veterinarian, etc. A harness is recommended for puppies under the age of 6 months to 1 year, depending on how "leash" broke your puppy is. A collar can be taken off or possibly slip off your lost dog, so another means of identification is either micro chipping or a tattoo. I believe this is a must! I have been working hard on finding lost shelties and it has been rewarding to see them back with their family's) again! Tattoos noticeable identification on your pet, but may be hard to see on long haired breeds. Micro-Chipping: Your local vet has the material to do this or micro clinics are cheaper. The vet usually charges you around $50-$60 dollars but at a clinic the price may vary were you live. $25-$35 dollars this is a small investment in your pets life when he has been lost or abducted. Micro chipping is fast and doesn't hurt your pet, it is injected under their skin like a vaccine. So if your pet is found -- most humane societies scan every animal brought into these places and the chance of these pets returning home is much greater.. For Safety's Sake! On Leash: When away from home, always keep your sheltie "on leash". While in a vehicle: Never, leave a child or animal unattended during extreme weather in a vehicle. If you must leave them in a vehicle make sure, during warm weather, that the windows are down just a few inches (to prevent break in or dog crawling through window). Leave access to water if you are going to be away from you vehicle for more than 15 minutes. Always, lock you vehicle and do not leave it running (exhaust). Dogs are often stolen from vehicles, do not invite theft. Do not haul a dog in the rear of a truck unless it is in a safe crate. Never, leave them loose in a truck bed or tied in a truck bed. What To Do If Your Sheltie Is Missing: Missing From Home: Look for them! Ask a friend to help! Immediately contact all of you neighbors within a 1 mile radius by telephone, follow-up by handing out flyers. Make Flyers! Distribute flyers to all neighbors within a 5 mile radius from your home. Contact your local veterinarian, human shelters, and any local animal groups. Post flyers at all local businesses. Offer a reward of $50-$200.00 depending on what you can afford. Put an add in your local paper, a picture if possible. The longer your pet is missing the more area you should cover with flyers and phone calls. Remember don't give up! Shelties are good at not being found till things settle down, they can hide real good and usually never go up to strangers, or even there own owners as the days go by. I have learned that with the last few shelties I've helped their owners to find ultimately had to be live trapped. Although, when finally caught in a live trap they never struggled to be free. They wanted to be caught ! Missing While Traveling: Remember: It is a good idea to have pictures of your dog in your purse or vehicle, just in case something like this should happen! Shelties that have been found: Case History 1: "Lacey" A Bi-Blue female, who was earning points at dog shows; decided to leave home because the gate was left open. She was gone for 11 days in the below zero Minnesota weather. Although the owner was giving up, I wasn't! We really put ourselves into the search by first putting flyers on cars in parking lots, in local business, grocery stores ect. an elderly gentleman drove into town for groceries and saw the flyer posted at the grocery store. He got the number from the flyer and called the owner and said the little dog had been out side keeping his Labrador Retriever company for a week. The owner went to his house and there her little Sheltie was!!! Nobody else could catch her but when her owner came and called her and opened her arms Lacey ran to her owner so full of excitement and joy and she jumped into those open arms. She had only been 1 mile away from home. Case History 2: "Peter" A male sable Sheltie, who's father was a finished champion. Fortunately a breeder of Terrier's was willing to try catching him. When Peter was first spotted by this lady he was trying to "romance" her terriers. The lady called me, and we made a plan to catch him, we caught him in an empty kennel with a female terrier inside waiting in an X-pen. He was caught, but when the Terrier breeder took him out with a leash that was attached to a nylon collar, this collar slipped off, and he was gone as fast as his little sheltie legs could carry him! Although he did start hanging around again, he would not trespass into the kennel fence again for fear of being caught by a stranger. The second time around this nice lady went out and rented a live trap, put some smelly "bait" (usually cat food, liver, hamburger, etc.) in the live trap and was able to entice him into the trap. The trapped worked, he was caught, the lady called me right away and I drove over to her house. Peter was still in the trap so I took him out with a chain choke and leash (I wasn't about to have him "slip" out of the collar again (this doesn't mean you should leave a choker chain on your dog, it was just more secure to catch him with, chokers can be dangerous on loose dogs). He was not interested in fighting as he really did want to be caught but didn't know how to! I brought him home cleaned him up and made some phone calls trying to locate his owner. While making these called I noticed that there was something about him that was familiar and I thought "this dog looks like a dog name Peter that I'd seen before". I contacted the person whom I remembered having a puppy, at the time and asked her if she had a missing dog or a puppy out of the dog I had seen at her home. "Yes", she replied, that dog was missing. I asked her to describe him for me. She had a good description of him. As she was identifying him over the phone and said that her "Peter" had been missing for 9 months December 1999-September 2000. They thought he was dead! She had sold this mature sheltie (8 year old) and the new owners did not keep him tied or kenneled they just let him run loose thinking he would stay close to their home when he disappeared. Peter was more than likely trying to find his way home, to the original owner. It was an emotional experience full of joy when the original owner came to pick him up at my home. Peter was jumping and kissing them! What an exciting moment when a sheltie reunites with his owner! The original owners said" they were never going to give peter away again. This was one story that could have had tragic results but turned out to have a happy ending. Case History 3: "Shawn" A promising young (2 year old) sable show dog, escaped from a motel room in a strange town. As the owners were packing up their car to head home and were carrying a dog crate out the door of their motel room the little dog ran under the crate and out the door he was. After he made a beeline out the door a car back fired and he became spooked and off he ran, another sheltie gone! As I was exhibiting dogs a the Duluth Kennel Club Show, where this dogs owners had also been showing their dog, I was informed that he was missing and they needed help finding him. We immediately asked that they get us a picture of the dog. They did not have a picture with them but fortunately there was a picture of a sheltie that looked a lot like him in the Sheltie Pacesetter Magazine. We copied this picture and immediately made flyers with both the owners names and phone numbers and a few of us local sheltie owners who were involved in the search. When the owner got home she sent me pictures of Shawn and we made new flyers and sent them out and posted them. In addition to posting and handing these flyers out all over town we put an add in the local newspaper, called the local television station, called the radio station and all of the local vet clinics, humane societies and dog shelters. Also a reward which was $100 was offered. Many people called to say they had spotted a sheltie and all leads were followed up, including those of 2 dead shelties that were found laying on road sides (this was not pleasant but I checked them out in order to determine whether or not the search would need to be continued) the dead dogs were not the sheltie we were looking for. And just by chance the add for the missing sheltie did also lead to the recovery of "Peter" (see above). We never quite searching, for 5 long months. The add was continued in the Duluth newspaper for the whole five months that Shawn had been missing. We didn't give up! We were going to find him one way or another, dead or alive. One day a young man, Kelly, and his wife, spotted the little dog and called one of the names on the flyer, which he had seen posted. Since the dog sounded like it could be Shawn, the owner drove up from Iowa. She went to the location the dog was last spotted which was in a very hilly, rocky, wooded location on the outskirts of downtown Duluth. She saw the dog and thought maybe it could be Shawn, but he would not respond to her or come to her. At this point she wasn't yet convinced it was her dog. So next step was to run to town and rent a live trap additionally since we didn't have any food that would attract the dog, as he had been eating parts of deer that had been thrown out by hunters, I had the owner run to Mc Donald's and bring back cheese burgers along with the live trap. I carried the trap down and set it up and put the burgers in the trap and camouflaged the outside of the wire cage live trap. It was very cold and very windy out as we waited until the dog came near and eventually, after what seemed like forever, entered the trap. Finally he entered the trap and he was caught! I ran down to get him carrying with me my trusty choke collar and leash! I reached in and put both the collar and leash on him before taking him out of the trap and carried him to a vehicle and put him in a dog crate. He never struggled at all, I think he was relieved to be caught. Five months on his own was a very long time. The part of this story I don't quite understand is that while we were waiting out in that cold for the dog to enter the trap the owner gave up and left and headed back to Iowa. At that time she didn't even know that was her dog or not and that we had indeed rescued him. It was only 45 minutes from the time she left, to the time he was rescued. If it had been my dog I would never have left until I was sure! The owner was called on the cell phone by us rescue people and we informed her the dog was caught and that it was Shawn. A friend of hers then took the dog and met up with the owner at a restaurant 40+ miles out of town and we were unable to see them reunited. So all of us who had worked at trying to find Shawn for 5 months missed out on this grand occasion. We wish we could have got to seen the reunion of the owner & her dog. The young man who spotted Shawn received his award. One month later I received a letter and late Christmas card from Shawn; and was happy to hear from her. Which said: Dear Sandy, I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for all you did in trying to find Shawn. Without you I would not have had any hope of ever finding him. Shawn has settled in here at home as if he never was gone. He slept on my bed the first night (even though he didn't smell the greatest but I didn't care), and has been there every night since. I cleaned him up on Monday and took him to my vet. He had only lost about 2 pounds and had no other signs of his ordeal. He doesn't even have worms. I won't know about heart worms for a couple of months because my vet says it takes at least 6 months to show up. But otherwise he is in astoundingly good health. The vet just shook his head and said it just goes to show you they can survive without you. That may be true, but I will never give him another chance to show those survival skills. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. Thank you for being such a great friend of shelties (and other lost dogs). Sincerely, (Shawn's Owner) by Sandy Johnson Go Home