Welcoming Stevie

Wow can't believe it has already been 10 days since she has arrived. You can tell by this delayed post, we have been busy around here. But you guys are the first media platform we are introducing her too!

Stevie is a 11 month old deaf border collie. She was the outcome of two merle border collies bred together. What is merle? Its a color pattern "The merle gene creates mottled patches of color in a solid or piebald coat, blue or odd-colored eyes, and can affect skin pigment as well."
But when this recessive gene is bred together blind/deafness can be a common result.
I've had quite a few animals in my care that were deaf/blind due to being born bred this color morph.
Chichi our mink is a current resident example.

Stevie came here because her owners were having a lot of behavioral issues with her despite having her from a very young age and having 4 other border collies. She would not stop resource gaurding and herding the other dogs and it was stressing the household dogs out.

They were having a very difficult time trying to place her in a home. They knew dog shelters would be terribly hard on her since she didn't get along with dogs and they had already tried placing her three other times with no success. When the opportunity to take Stevie came my way, I did. I was told she got along fine with cats so I was optimistic she might get along with the foxes.

I'll admit, she a lot more work than I expected. A LOT. But I'm motivated to work through her issues with her and hopefully she can get better. She has a lot of personal growth she needs to work on before being adoptable.

This post is getting long so I'll make another one soon on her issues and what we are working on with her. Also all the different sign commands she knows!