Sharon Nichol tells the story:

     We had lost our beloved Phoenix in May of 2000 - she was part bearded collie and we loved her dearly. We thought we would try to make a home for another bearded collie who NEEDED a home.  So we contacted the people with bearded collie rescue and October 27 2000, we went to the airport to pick up our Tory. 
     She was one of several bearded collies rescued from a puppy mill. She was 1-1/2 years old and had already had at least one litter of pups and had apparently lived her entire life in a cage. When we got Tory from the airport we received a bundle of shaking, quivering, fearful dog. Tory was afraid of everything mostly because she had experienced nothing. 
     Though we have no idea of what her life was like in the puppy mill outside of the fact that she was not socialized at all, it is clear that her contact with humans was less than pleasant. Every noise sent her running back to her crate.  Any sudden movement sent her running back to her crate.  She wouldn’t eat until it was dark and we were in bed.  It took weeks for her to let us close to her.  She constantly hung her head, kept her tail down between her legs and would not look at us.  When we would bring her in from outside, she would run so fast into her crate she would bang into the back of it. 
     We had her 5 weeks and she ran away. Four days and a lot of worry later we managed to trap her and bring her home. She made very small progress from that point. 
     We decided she needed a companion. The search was on! Though we wanted to rescue another dog, we thought it best to avoid another puppy mill rescue. I had been looking for ages, and happened to stumble on to a web page that led me to Dawn’s page, I sent a simple ‘hope for help’ email, and found Niffy!!  Niffy is not a ‘rescue’ dog in the way the word represents, he is a well-bred, well cared for pup. But, when you think about it, he is a RESCUER!  He has rescued Tory from her misery.

     You could not find two more different dogs to live together! Beyond the obvious differences in gender, color and size, Niffy has a ‘I’m King of the Hill’, ‘Fear Nothing’ attitude, is full of energy and curious about everything. Tory is (or was!!) hesitant, fearful, extremely non-aggressive and easily intimated spending most of her time in her crate or in a small corner of the bedroom. The two liked one another immediately! 
     And Niffy began working his magic on Tory. He doesn’t let her get away with hiding away all day in her crate!!  He makes her get out and play. Tory watches what Niffy does and eventually will try it herself. They have been together for 3 months now. It would take pages to describe the ways he has changed her!! She is curious, wants to be in the room with the rest of us, looks us in the eye, eats out of the same bowl at the same time as Niffy, has learned to play tag and tug-a-war.  Tory would never play with a toy before Niffy – Niffy can’t have enough toys! 
     Nowadays, after we go to bed, we can hear Tory out in the other room getting toys out of the box to play with them on her own.  Niffy loves to get ‘treats’ from us as we eat. Tory would have never thought of coming that close to us.  Now, she stands right there next to him waiting for her share of the goodies.  It is perfectly clear she is coming alive, she is finally happy. Recently Tory got off her leash and we thought the worst for about 2 minutes. Instead of running away, Tory followed Niffy back home.

     Today, we can describe Tory as, happy, bright, inquisitive, playful and still very non-aggressive. Niffy may have taught her to bark when someone comes to the door, but she still runs back into her crate after she does the barking!! We prefer her to be non-aggressive but she shows signs of being able to stand up for herself!! They are good buddies and Tory is becoming a real member of the family.

Want to read more, as the story happened?  Click on the following to read their emails:
August 7th - Niffy is home!
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