Allie Smith

VERY SAD NEWS (26 June 2014)

Aileen told us: ” My beloved Miss Allie went to the Bridge this morning.

Allie and her sister Angel rescued me in January 2008 and helped me find a path through a very difficult time.

Allie won the Best in Show prize at the 2008 IRR Reunion, has been an IRR Sponsor Dog from the beginning and was a most wonderful, gentle ambassador for IRR, wearing her bandana and IRR coat with pride on homechecks and fund-raisers. Run free sweetheart.

ALLIE’S STORY

When she came to the UK in 2008, ALLIE was 6.5 yrs and very well bred. She came over from Ireland with her half sister, Angel. She is spayed and housetrained and is now microchipped. She pulls a little on the lead but the lady owner could walk them both in the one hand. Allie is great with children, has never been in contact with cats but get on well with other dogs. The aim is to rehome the two girls together. The owner’s circumstances have changed and she can no longer give them the attention they require. They had an overnight stop in Somerset to recover from their journey and are now microchipped.

UPDATES FROM FOSTER MUM, AILEEN

FIRST NIGHT

So far so good! The girls spent a quiet evening taking naps and sometimes coming over to me looking for attention.

Allie is by far the more confident of the two. She loves the duck-toys I bought them and constantly carries them around with her. Angel seems to be afraid of them at the moment!

Allie has now followed me as far as the office this morning. Angel has not ventured farther than the kitchen yet.

I have ordered the Elderberry & Nettle to help with Allie’s brown nose.

They don’t like the beds at all, and preferred to sleep on the floor just inside the back door – which is fine of course. Allie squeaked one of the ducks for about an hour after bedtime but other than that they don’t seem to have moved at all overnight.

FIRST MORNING

Angel and Allie have now decided that they prefer the hallway instead of the kitchen, because from there they can keep an eye on everything that’s going on, front and back. So that’s their new territory!

They had a good bark at my neighbour’s cat last night! (The cat normally would make a nightly excursion through my garden but I think last night she just sat on the fence wondering what on earth was going on).

They slept very well during the night and woke me up this morning barking at the postman (which was good because I had accidentally messed up setting my alarm clock!!!).

LATER THAT DAY

What an adventure we have had!!! These girls are really not very used to being walked on leads. They dragged me halfway up a neighbour’s driveway in hot pursuit of a squirrel!

After about 10 minutes their excess energy dissipated and they were much easier to manage, and in fact I think now they are quite worn out at the end of 3 miles, as I ended up almost dragging them along at the end!

Allie in particular is quite afraid of cars, and motorbikes/trucks and a bus gave her serious concern. I guess they just need to become accustomed to those noises etc…

SECOND MORNING

This morning the “alarm clock” bark was at 4.20am – I guess there was a cat or squirrel or something that triggered it, though I can’t see anything significant on the security cameras!

Allie demolished one of the duck toys yesterday evening so I can’t leave toys with them if they are not directly in my sight.

The remedies should probably arrive today from Dorwest Herbs but anyway all is going well.

LATER THAT DAY

We’ve been for another long walk today, off the lead for much of it so they got a really good run, and they were very well behaved when I put the leads back on for the section where they were going to have to walk along the road.

TWO DAYS ON

Allie (aka my new shadow!) reminded me that we forgot to email Auntie P today…

We had a quiet day overall.

Allie is now letting a very strong personality show today! She took over Angel’s food once her own was finished, which earned her a strong “no” from me. She lay down in a very, very mucky puddle on our walk and was quite stubborn about getting out of it! Any time I show affection to Angel she comes barging in to get some for herself – And she comes into the office and nudges my arm for a rub while I’m working!!!

A MESSAGE FROM ANGEL AND ALLIE

We see on the internet that you’ve been busy re-homing some more of our cousins and bringing some more over from Ireland!!! We wanted to let you know what’s happening here at “The Girls House”!

Nicky the dog-trainer came last week and thought we were simply adorable but with a few bad habits, so we’ve been working on them with Mum.

We now understand that it’s not right to simply rush through doors as soon as they are opened, and instead we WAIT until we are told we can go. Allie can fetch a ball and bring it back to get a treat and she’s very proud of this new trick. Angel forgets that she is supposed to bring the ball back, but we’re still working on that!

We are getting very good on our haltis when we go for walks, except if we see a cat like we did today, and it was all just so exciting we just couldn’t stop ourselves from trying to chase it.

We’re also working on recall in the back garden and we’re beginning to get the hang of it now. Mum says she’s going to take us one at a time into the woods to see how good we are there because there are lots of exciting smells and sounds that can distract us there.

But Mum is very happy with us because she knows we really are doing our best to learn how to be good canine citizens.

Allie’s cough has gone away thank goodness, cos she was keeping us all awake at night with it! Angel had another bath and her coat looks lovely now. Her excema is almost cleared up, and the black skin is turning pink. Her hind quarters are definitely a little stiff, so she has started taking green-lipped-mussel tablets to help with that. We have both lost some weight too so we are starting to look very smart.

Next week Mum is going away for work for the first time since we’ve been here, and we are going to stay with a very nice pet-sitter called Susan and her puppy Morse. We already visited there (and we were very good in the car) and we are sure we will have a good time!

And finally – Mum is very proud of her marathon training, and on Saturday she ran 17 miles. That is a very long way indeed, and she said that Alan was smiling in heaven watching her J

Woofs and licks from both of us! Thank you for helping us find a great home!
Allie & Angel.

ANGEL AND ALLIE WHEN NANNY CAME TO STAY

The girls are crazy about their Grandad (he has that effect on dogs!) and vice-versa of course ….. they have been following him around like a tail. They have been giving him their paw, and then the “other one” which is very cute!

ALLIE’S NEW FRIEND

Allie and Angel have a new friend called Sam (pictured with Allie and mum, Aileen). He is a short term foster brother for the girls and they are loving having this handsome fellow as a temporary member of the A team.

Of course, Sam wasn’t temporary at all and soon became the third IRR rescued Golden Retriever in the Smith household!!!!!

ALLIE BEST IN SHOW 2008

Having won the IRR Best Condition Bitch at the 2008 Reunion, Allie went on to take Best in Show. Well done Allie and Aileen.

POPULAR SPONSOR DOGS

In 2009, Allie and Angel became Sponsor Dogs for IRR, taking over from Zach and Burt as “the pair” to represent all those dogs who are surrendered with their sibling and who are too close to be separated.

Aileen would like to thank the kind sponsors who always looked forward to their updates:-