Phoenix was found at deaths door by the side of the road in Sarijavo, Bosnia at the end of May, 2016 and was rescued just in time.

She was taken to the vets for emergency treatment … fluids, tick removal – over 80 ticks were removed from her frail body, and antibiotics. She was painfully thin and had been used for breeding and then dumped !! She was thought to be 3 or 4 years of age.
She was moved to a boarding kennels (known as a Pension) and did very well. She had a “virtual adopter” here in England who paid all her vet bills and kennel charges until she was ready to come over to the U.K. to be re-homed by Collie Rescue (Rough and Smooth) UK .  She eventually travelled to England in November, 2016 and was re-homed directly to her new family in Loughborough.  Her story is taken up here by Karon, who is Phoenix’s new mum.

​”I’d waited a long time for Phoenix, so much so that I was beginning to think I would have to give up on a rescued dog and look for a puppy.  The problem was I have 4 children, currently ranging from 6-13 and for obvious reasons many rescue dogs simple aren’t compatible with our family.  Then I heard about Phoenix, and to be honest I didn’t dare hope she would be a good match.  The fact that she was in another country just seemed astounding to myself and my sons and everybody got a bit excited.
We arranged that she could come to us early November, bypassing the November 5th fireworks which she apparently was scared of.  I was kindly sent the transport details for the truck she was on and this meant that I could follow her progress across Europe with GPS on board.  This turned quickly from a bit of a joke into something that lots of people enjoyed, and I ended up posting regularly on Facebook with a description of where she was and a photograph from Google Maps of the area, if possible.  I learned more about mainland Europe in those 24 hours than I ever did at school!  If anybody in the future rescues a dog from another country I really recommend following their travels.

My first impressions on meeting Phoenix were that she was scared but desperate to please. She wasn’t scared of people but was wary of the situation she was in, understandably. She walked into my house and was immediately scared of my laminate floor, a surface she is still wary of today, but trimming her pad fur and some paw wax have helped. She mostly stays in the back of the house which is tiled, near my guinea pigs whom she adores. We had a scary moment on the second day of ownership, as I had taken her for a walk and due to her reluctance to cross my laminate floor I’d left her standing on my doormat while I took my coat off and went to get her a dog treat to encourage her to cross the floor in her own time. At that moment my parents opened the front door and she bolted! I went out after her and calmly called her back (even though my heart was hammering! Annette had told me very clearly never to let her run out of the front door!), but she came straight back to me and at that moment I knew everything was going to be okay.
She’s settled in well, taking to my children at first meeting.  When they ran up to say hello, she wasn’t fazed at all, just calmly fetched her ball, dropped it at their feet and off they went playing happily as though they had known each other for ages.  I can even let her off the lead for a run and she comes straight back, something I did not expect at all in a rescued dog.  Whoever had her in Bosnia, looked after her well I think, she is house trained beautifully, lead trained, and very responsive.
Of course it would not be fair to make out that she is some sort of angel of a dog (she is!) because she has dug a couple of holes in my garden, and she does insist on rolling on the grass every single time we go out for a walk (five times this morning, a new record!).  She also likes to run about and then run straight at you and jump up, which we are currently working on to stop.  She prefers to drink rain water any day than drink out of her water bowl.  She also likes to stop and collect her pee mails every few metres if she can, and she likes to say hello to every single dog on a walk whether they want to or not. She is also convinced that squirrels are evil! She is the best behaved of all the collies I’ve had, and I trained the previous two, so that’s saying something!
It feels like I’ve had her for ages, not just a few months, and I want to say a big thank you to Rescue for matching us with our (nearly) perfect dog!”​​
Karon and the boys xx

PHOENIX’S SUMMERTIME FUN (2017)

Since my last update Phoenix has had her first seaside holiday. She loved going on the beach and wasn’t at all phased by the sand or the sea. She didn’t like going to the toilet on it though, as she doesn’t like people looking at her, so she was always trying to hide behind breakers.

Favourite memories from the holiday were my sons running off up the beach and Phoenix going into “mum mode” to round them up and bring them back to me, and my son Danny burying himself in the sand, which resulted in a frantic doggie digging him out! The funniest moment was when we went to a deserted Castle with a proper moat full of water. The moat was almost entirely covered in pond weed making it look a bit like a grassy field. My son Daniel said to me “Wouldn’t it be funny if Phoenix thought the water was grass and tried to walk on it?” I turned around at that second to look for her just as she did just as Danny predicted and with a huge splash ended up in the water! She got out easily enough though even if she was a bit disgusted by it all! When we got home, Phoenix started wetting in the night, which wasn’t at all like her. I thought initially the change of scenery with the holiday might have upset her, together with the change in routine because she had been doing school runs with me twice a day and that had changed to longer walks at different times of day so the routine had gone.

She didn’t seem distressed at all though. Eventually, after trying various things to try to break her of it, I took her to the vets who examined her and said she looked well but suggested a urine test. This revealed that she had an infection and struvite crystals in her urine. She has just today finished her course of antibiotics for this, she has a few days more of anti inflammatory medicine and is on a special veterinary urinary dog food. I have to get her urine retested in the next few days to find out if the problem has cleared itself up or if she is on the special food for life to stop the crystals from reforming. I am pleased to report that from the first dose of antibiotics the weeing in the night stopped and hasn’t returned, and Phoenix is now much more loving towards me so our bond has been strengthened through the experience, so overall something positive has come out of it . As an ex street dog she obviously hides feeling poorly, but I will be expecting that if anything happens again .

​Over the summer Phoenix also went to her second Collie Chaos and if you were there she probably came up to say hello and see if you had any treats she could beg from you! She loves seeing all the other collies and getting lots of fusses. I love seeing all the different types of collies all together and meeting up with friends old and new. Phoenix entered a few of the fun dog show classes with my son Danny and managed to bring home the rosette for best footballer! It wasn’t a big surprise as she is an absolute nuisance for wanting to play football, even charging into groups of children playing football and intercepting the ball! She is very lucky that my four boys will play football with her whenever she wants to! Danny was scared of dogs before we had Phoenix, so I was very proud that he was brave enough to take her into the classes. Phoenix showed off her dribbling and heading skills and luckily the ball was tough enough that she couldn’t burst it! The poor space hopper wasn’t quite so lucky though ! I can’t quite believe that Phoenix has been part of our family now for nearly a year. She now happily comes in the living room and will lie there for a short time, whereas even a few months ago she only stayed in the back of the house. She’s still a monkey for rolling in grass at every opportunity and if you see the pictures from Collie Chaos, any pictures of a dog on its back will be her! She’s a very much loved member of our family and we are very pleased and proud of her .