Chauncey URGENTLY needs a foster home or permanent home. Please call Barbara at 801-942-4762 if you or someone you know can help. Thanks!

Chauncey was a stray in a rural community in Idaho and landed in a very small shelter. That shelter needed help and turned to a large shelter in Boise. Luckily for Chauncey and us, Joan Smith in Boise, noticed Chauncey and knew that Collie Rescue and Sheltie Rescue in Utah would be willing to pitch in to help him out. Initially we were told that they weren’t sure if they had a large Sheltie or a small Collie. It turned out that Chauncey is a small Collie weighing in at 47 lbs. Chauncey is not at all underweight either - he’s not only handsome but has a wonderfully healthy body — even his teeth look good. Chauncey is estimated to be 3 or 4 years of age.

Joan arranged a ride for Chauncey down to us here in Salt Lake. We heard that on his ride down he would nuzzle the driver and rest his head on her shoulder. He was afraid to get into the vehicle and frightened a bit when lifted into it. He had been in an outdoor run in rainy weather and arrived literally caked in mud. At the last minute we were told that Chauncey _might_ have kennel cough which meant we couldn’t bring him into our home or any home with another dog because kennel cough is so very contagious.

At the last minute, thanks to the great help we get at Cottonwood Animal Hospital, we were able to arrange to have Chauncey go straight into Cottonwood Animal Hospital even though he probably wouldn’t arrive until 9:00pm. We set up an appointment for the next day with Dr. Lisa Pascarello and Chauncey. His personality is so sweet, gentle, and loving that he was a huge hit at Cottonwood. Since he was staying there for several days to be treated for kennel cough, although it wasn’t clear that he definitely had it, they were excited and enthusiastic to have him around awhile.

In the short time between meeting the transporter from Idaho and bringing Chauncey to Cottonwood Animal Hospital we learned that Chauncey was not neutered, has some concerns about being lifted into a vehicle, as we had heard, was heavily caked in mud, and wasn’t house trained and probably wasn’t used to living in a home or a typical household routine.

Chauncey gets his name from the French word “chance” which means luck. We didn’t want to name him Lucky in English — but because he is a lucky Collie we named him Chauncey which is derived from the French word for luck.

Chauncey is not completely house trained yet but he’s close. He’s been living in a home, unfortunately two different homes, plus the vet’s office for a little over two weeks now. Chauncey initially moved in with a very tender-hearted gentleman with a doggie door and a chihuahua mix that Chauncey learned to play with very nicely. He also lived with three cats there. Chauncey is now living with a single Mom who’s baby daughter is just learning to walk. The baby latches onto Chauncey to help herself walk and also lays on Chauncey. Chauncey is gentle and unconcerned by her behavior. When the baby cries Chauncey runs to the baby’s Mom and back to the baby. He must have seen an episode of Lassie! Chauncey’s foster Mom, Megan, frequently tells us how good Chauncey is even though he doesn’t know any verbal commands. We’ve also learned that Chauncey is uncertain and anxious about stairs — just something else he needs to learn with a loving foster parent or permanent parent. He currently goes up and down a short flight of stairs to go in and out of the house. So he can negotiate the stairs but he’s anxious about it and tries to run over the stairs as quickly as he can.