NEOESR Picnic, Day 2 [5 June 2004]
My wife Deb and I live about 70 miles from Bozrah, Connecticut, where
this year's NEOESR 10th Annual Picnic was held. This was our first trip
ever to the NEOESR picnic; having meant to make it in previous years,
but held up by other things. Of course we took our precious
little girl 
Pippy the Miracle
Dog with us, and I finally got my wife out of the house (who's had
some health issues of her own and really needed to get out!!); and then
we headed down 70 miles of typical New England secondary roads (bumpy
but pretty) to this tiny little town a couple miles west of Norwich. I
posted on the morning of 5 June and promised the OES-L that I'd take
the digicam and take some pix. Here they are. Hold your mouse over them
for a quick description of what they are of (if I even knew in the
first place!) ... so, proud pet owners who think you might recognize
your loved
ones on this page,
feel free to write me, and I'll
correct the identification.
I can't remember who this pretty little girl's name is, but she was a
sweetheart. But then again, what OES isn't? :-)
This snapshot is of Nyla P. (L) talking to my
wife Deb (on the right, who has the other love of my life,
Pippy, on a leash). It was incredibly nice to meet you, Nyla. Welcome
to Connecticut! You know, when you talk to people on the list over
e-mail so much, you have a clue who's going to be nice and who's not.
Meeting Nyla in person was a most pleasant surprise! I was born and
raised around where she now lives (Los Angeles metro area) -- I got out
in '79 as she said she was just moving in! (It figures!!) Her husband,
Dennis, seems like a very nice man, even though Nyla will tell you he's
not a "dog person". But Dennis and I grew up in the same hometown, so
he's got enough points to be OK in my book!
You know, I took so many pictures of sheepdogs (one of my favorite
subjects) that, inevitably, uprights got into the picture too. And I
have to admit that I'm just awful connecting names to faces most of the
time; and some of these pictures were taken for the canine value
without any kind of respect at all to the humans who might happen into
the pic. Gosh, that wasn't very bright. So if I didn't meet you, I'm
gonna have to crop you out 
or blur your face.
I'm sorry; but I keep fearing that maybe you don't want your face up
here for some personal reason, I could at least do my best to protect
your anonymity. But I do love your dog(s) ... honest, I swear, and that
's why I took the photo.
A posting on OES-L took me to wigglebus.com
a few weeks ago, and to be honest, it's been an emotional experience
for me; at first following this very cute and imaginative story about
three (quite normal!!)
sheepies: Guinness, Patrick, and Henry; who manage to sneak Mama's
credit card number long enough to get a broken down old short bus off d(og)Bay, so that all three
of them can have a window seat. We all know how sheepies wanna stick
their heads out the windows and have megasmell rushes at 40 mph, don't
we? :-) Sadly, Guinness just went to the Rainbow Bridge one night a few
weeks ago without any warning, at an age far too 
young; but
the story kept on going anyway. Some of the pages are real tearjerkers;
so use caution when you follow the link
and have some Kleenex™ handy. But the accompanying photo is living
proof that the Wiggle Bus really does exist!! And the
uprights -- Mr & Mrs Holland -- that own her are very nice people,
too. Thanks for letting me meet Henry and Patrick O'Malley -- it was
quite an experience (but I still wanna know how you got that cheese off of their
beards!!).
In the small town I live, there don't seem to be any other OES I ever
see in public; Pippy is pretty much alone, breed-wise, in the area as
far as I know. It was a real thrill for me to see so many proud OES
owners in one place at a single time: I can't figure out whether there
were more sheepies or uprights around!! 
Pippy was really truly overwhelmed:
we got her from the breeder at 8 weeks old (she's two and a half years
old right now), and she hasn't seen another sheepdog since her
littermates. She was completely confused about what to do -- you could
almost hear her
thinking "whose butt do I sniff next?
Who are all these uprights? And so many other dogs that look just like
me!! What do I do now?".
As a result, she really wasn't her
normal self: normally, she just loves people and will do almost
anything for attention; but not today. All this put aside, she was very
well behaved. I'm proud of the way she acted. She just gets better as
she gets older :-)
I also met today a woman named Kelly (sp?) with two very beautiful boys who both have
gorgeous long coats without so much as a hint of a mat on them. Turns
out both of them are champion show 
dogs (of course!), and she said
she'd teach me her grooming secrets for free. I got her number, and I'm
gonna take her up on it. If there's one thing I don't know very much
about sheepies, it's how to groom them so that they don't mat up. If I
can learn that skill, it'll be worth the two-hour drive one way, and I
don't care how many times I have to do it to get it right. I love
Pippy's look in a long coat; and I'd sure love to keep her that way
year-round. These two boys both had excellent dispositions: the bigger
of the two dogs was almost in my lap (yep, Pippy gives me plenty of
practice!) as I was petting him and introducing myself to him. I
guess that's what I adore so much in this breed.
And I finally got to meet our famous hostess, Grannie Annie, who wasn't
wearing her fireman's boots like she said she was gonna <grin>; but then
again, I don't think Henry had it out for her today, either. G/A did
bring out the rescue quilts -- I saw
three of them,
which all have squares representing a rescued life that NEOESR has had
more than just a little something to do with. What an awesome record of
accomplishment! When Deb & Pippy and I got to the picnic,
there were people coming up to the microphone and telling their dog's
rescue story. Some of them brought tears to my eyes. There was one fellow who even stood up
and said that his rescue dog had actually returned the favor: his house was on
fire one night, and his rescued sheepie came up and barked him awake --
she
rescued him!! (Go
ahead, try to convince me there isn't a God ... you'll never do it!)
May God bless all you Rescue Angels
out there, keep you safe, and keep
your hearts from being broken too often. Let's not forget,
either, that NEOESR is a volunteer
organization: it holds these picnics and other events to raise needed
funds so that more sheepies' lives can be saved. It looks like
there will be an auction event coming
up in
October, so keep your web browser pointed to NEOESR's site for details. By
contributing and even showing up at these events, you're helping
perhaps that next sheepdog who's just literally hours (or less!) from
being put to sleep. What an awful fate for any member of a breed like
this with such generous and loving personalities -- every rescue cheats
the "euthanizer" just one more time. It's a terrible shame that all of them aren't rescued:
I've never seen an OES that didn't have a huge heart and tons of
personality!
And now, since I'm all out of things to say -- except thanks to all, we
had a GREAT time today -- I'll just post the rest of the sheepie pix I
took this afternoon.
Sorry ... names & faces
unknown.
If you didn't get a chance to come this year, then try to make it next
year! This event is superb.
The numbers of people I got to meet that I'd only known from e-mails
and forum postings was awe-inspiring. Thanks everyone, especially to
the folks who put this event together: your
hard work shows.
Peace to all,
--Jim--
New Milford, CT, USA
5 June 2004