Letter from Coonagh (now Swift) & family

Hello Everyone, my name is Swift . I’m a red and white border collie and I’ve just come to live in Notts at the house where Anya, Morag and Romany Ree used to live. Let me tell you a bit about myself . . . .   I was born in Ireland near Limerick around about February 2009. I don’t remember much about my life there except that people were not nice to me. I may have been a farm dog. Then around about Easter time I was hit by a car. I was just left by the road badly injured, with both my back legs broken. It seemed like the end for me, but somehow there was hope. I found myself in a rescue centre where the kind people there saw that I got the vet treatment that I needed. Nobody ever came forward to claim me. I was at the vets and the rescue centre for a long time, but eventually, after much care, I was declared fit and ready for a new home!   Well things aren’t very good for us collies in Ireland. Apparently we are very difficult to re-home as no-one wants us! But the Limerick rescue centre have links with a wonderful place in Northants called Wiccaweys, where Sarah and Paul and all the helpers work tirelessly to rescue and re-home border collies and sheepdogs, and they take on a lot of us girls and boys from Ireland. So I was bundled into a crate and shipped off to England!   On Saturday 12 June, two people came from Nottingham to see me. They showed Sarah and Paul some pictures of the other collies they had owned, Anya, Morag and Romany Ree, and said how sad they had been. They then took me for a walk and then I lay down beside them while they had coffee and sandwiches. Then after a while they said something about ‘sleeping on it’ and got in the car and went home! But the next morning, they were back! And they had a dog crate in the car! We went for another walk together then they signed some papers and paid some money and I went off back to Nottingham with them in the car. They were mine!   They decided to call me Swift. (I was ‘Coonagh’ at the rescue centre). Romany Ree had a white marking like a swallow or swift’s tail on the back of her head, and I have a similar little marking on my brow. I feel happy and think that the future is bright from now on.   It is now 4 months since I came to my new home. Inevitably there were a few ‘settling in’ issues. I adored my new Mam from the very start, but I wasn’t at all sure about my new Daddy, as I am very apprehensive of men. But they worked very hard and he soon won me over. My separation issues are just about sorted out. When they go out and leave me I go in my crate. Then I am quite happy and just go to sleep. But if I’m left loose in the house when I’m home alone, then things tend to get damaged - ooops! (There was the infamous ‘bedroom-trashing’ incident where computer cables got chewed and pillows shredded, but we won’t go into that!) I didn’t like being left downstairs to sleep at first either. Why couldn’t I go upstairs with my beloved Mam? There was a lot of yowling went on! But I soon learnt that Mam and Dad were still close by and that there was nothing to fuss about.   Everything is much more settled now. Mam and Dad adore me and say I am a joy to own. I go for lots of lovely walks in the countryside where we live. I can be off my lead almost the whole time as I just tag on with Mam and Dad and always come when I am called. They just can not understand why anyone would not want me. I am happy to be just about anywhere as long as Mam and Dad are there. I have turned out not to be a red and white collie at all! I am black and white - WITH SPOTS! Once my old scruffy coat was brushed out, my true colours came shining through. I am handsome and sleek!   Mam and Dad would like to thank Sarah and Paul for the wonderful work they do at Wiccaweys. Needless to say, so do I!!!   Love Swift xxx