Please disregard my new self, I really only joined to ask what your thoughts are on the breed and color of my dog.
There is a very, very long and wonderful story behind this young lady dog, and if you care to read it, here it is. If not, my question is below the line of stars beneath the wall of text. Pictures are below her story.
I was in Oklahoma visiting a friend for a little while. I'm 700 miles from home. One day, my friend's own BC starts barking up a storm and I go outside to see what is going on, and I find a little canine-esque creature behind a large piece of wood, cowering and all wiggle-bodied and happy, muddy and full of scars and missing tufts of fur, and covered in dirt and oil. This dog was black, slimy, and disgusting. She would not move from behind the piece of wood, and would not leave the porch at all within the next week. I really shouldn't have, but I fed her anyway.
My friend lives on a ranch, with millions of dollars in cattle right there on the 160 thousand acres of land they own. The man of the house was ready to "get rid of it" because he could not just assume this dog was okay to live around the place. He thought she was a dirty, nasty coyote baby and didn't want any part of her. Being my animal loving self, the next day I gave the sweet little girl a bath, and low and behold, a bright orange fuzzball pops out of all that mud and such. She was in terrible shape.. her ears had no hair on them, she had scars and scabs everywhere, and her gums were almost white. I have no idea what happened to her, but I got her cleaned up enough that the man let her stay for a while longer. He asked me to find out where she lives and take her back, or he's going to call animal control.
She got along with all of the animals. She literally was playing with the baby cattle, wanted to play with the horses, and got along with both dogs that already lived there, even the cat! I highly doubted this animal was feral, because she was just so incredibly well mannered and sweet, and seemed like she just had a horrible experience or something.
Anyway, he never did try to get rid of her. I think it was because every single day I sat with her outside, holding her and making sure she was okay. I never found a poster or an ad that was looking for a dog like her, and nobody within ten miles knew who she was or where she came from. I eventually bought her a collar with the intention of keeping her..No, I did not ask, haha!
Anyway, I cancelled my greyhound bus ride home and asked my dad to drive from Illinois down to Oklahoma to come and get me and my dog. He hates dogs, cannot stand them, and almost said no. But I told him I wasn't coming home without her, so he dealt with it. He arrived a few days later, and 7 months we've had her and every single day (legit) he says to her "You're the best dog I've ever seen, Olive. I love you, yes I do. I can't believe what a blessing you are."
But anyway. I brought her home around the end of December, and introduced her to my family for Christmas. She was terrified of the house and sat next to the couch for about a week, but got used to everything and soon was bouncing happily throughout the place.
So of course, I then took her to the vet to get everything up to date and perfect, got her checked up, and started her on Taste of the Wild dog food, which is apparently one of the best kinds of food to feed to your dog, or so I've heard. Much better than Old Roy, which is what she lived on when my friend's family was feeding her. Here's the interesting part.
****************************************************************************************************
Every single person I come across here in Illinois has asked me if she was a wild dog. I'm not kidding. Our next door neighbor even asked us to keep her inside when the old man came out because they didn't know if she'd "finally turn." I'd like to think they're full of crap because she's the sweetest animal I've ever met, and is so full of love and joy. I took her to our town parade, and several people asked me if she was part coyote.
So I'm sitting here thinking that perhaps she's exotic for Illinois, but she doesn't look like a coyote to me... I don't think so, anyway. I've never seen a coyote in person. The part that gets me is her fur. I've looked up so many colors of BCs, and none of them seem to match her funky fur.
You can't really see it all too well, but her base fur is a chocolate-reddish color, and she has guard hairs that are seriously bright, bright orange. The second picture sort of shows them on her back, but not entirely. She looks like (if I have to use BC examples) a brown border collie fur color with australian red, almost blonde guard hairs. Her ears are folded halfway down on a normal basis. When I get to take pictures of her she doesn't normally have her ears on alert, so they are almost always folded back against her head.
On another note for her fur: She is starting to develop white furs on the end of her tail... is this common in border collies to develop white tips after one year of age, or is this another characteristic of her... strange characteristics? Haha!
And her eyes... They're a super super pale green. I've never seen a dog with green eyes before.
Here is a picture of her after I fattened her up while in Oklahoma, and after her hair started growing back. Following it is a picture of her I took about a month ago, after all of her shots and being fed good food, and had a chance to grow up a bit. Our vet told me she was about a year old last time I brought her in, which would make her about a year and four months old right now.
So, what do you think she is? Is she a Border Collie? I only ask this because a breeder friend of mine said "You're a strange looking border collie, but you're cute" when she first met her. Or is she something totally different?
