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Just about 11 years ago we brought home our first Border Collie - Ruby, who had made a long journey from Arkansas to New York. We picker her up from a "train" at the Border Collie Trials in Gettysburg, Pa, and she inserted herself into our farm and lives from that point on. She is now 13 years old and is suffering from an enlarged heart and lungs. Her activity is limited by herself, and she no longer joins me to oversee my work with the farm and sheep. She doesn't seem to be in pain, but she does faint more and more frequently and we've scheduled this Thursday, August 16th to put her down humanely before she gets to a point of suffering. That said, I'm now wondering if meds might help. Given her age and inevitable outcome we initially decided upon diagnosis, to allow the condition to run it's course and before any suffering took place, put her down. My understanding is that even with meds, her days are numbered but they may allow for more of a quality of those remaining days. Putting her down will be devasting, especially for my husband who loves her beyond description. Of course I do too, but I cannot bear to ask her to continue if she's simply reached the end of her journey. So, having had amazing success with Ruby, we are of the mindset that rescuing another BC who deparately needs a good home, would be good for us and the BC. We are a " forever" home. We don't believe in getting rid of a dog with issues, but rather work to remove the issues. Once the dog is ours - it's our until the end of it's life. Ruby helped tremendously and she will be missed in so many, many ways. She came to us with a basic education in herding and that served her very well all these years. Another dog will have a hard time filling her paws and we don't expect another Ruby. Just another dog who needs a stable loving home. We have 25 sheep and an equal amount of ducks. Ruby excelled and was invaluable with the darned ducks. :-) She did well with the sheep but mine will do just about anything for corn so she was not often employed in that role. At any rate, if anyone should know of a dog close to N.Y. that could be a good fit, we'd be happy to consider him/her. A spayed female would be nice but not required. Age is not important and quite frankly an older dog is better I think. Health issues could be an issue depending on the issues. Thank you, Kathryn Central N.Y