I have 2 PWC. Shorty is a tan and white and he is definitely the boss in our family. He loves to herd. He herds everything, my other corgi Dusty, my kids, the neighbors geese, sheep and cows. His favorite pastime though is playing Guard. He guards everything from Dusty, the food bowls, the water bowls, the furniture the kids anything you can think of he guards Dusty from it. You see, both of my corgis are rescues. Shorty we've had 4 years now and we really don't know where he came from. We live way out in the country and it's on a small one lane road. The kids and I were outside 4 summers ago and up walked this beautiful dog. My children had never seen a corgi before and they thought he was pretty funny looking. I knew what Shorty was right away. We went up and down the whole length of our road looking for his owner. No one knew him. So the next step was we advertised that we had found a neutered, corgi tan and white, if lost please contact etc...No one has ever responded. We don't know how he got to us or where he came from but we are very thankful we were outside that day. Shorty has become our best friend and never fails to not make us smile no matter how bad a day it has been.

Now that leads me to Dusty, I hadn't planned on getting another dog, but I happened to be thumbing through the paper and saw an ad from a local breeder (not very responsible one either) who was advertising PWC for sale. she had 8 puppies 2 female adults and 1 male adult for sale. As an afternote, she had also listed 1 male free. I read the ad to my husband and he, being in a good mood that day, shrugged his shoulders and said "it's your call". I nearly broke my neck getting to the phone. I had no idea what to expect, breeders don't give away pedigreed dogs without a good reason. Praying I was not too late I called and lo and behold they answered the phone, yes we still have the free corgi they said. We went over immediately and were very dismayed at what we saw. These people raise 3 different breeds Corgis, Rotties and Anatolians. The pens were very dirty and small and crowded. They intentionally crossbreed rotties and corgis. Getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach I ask to see Dusty, and immediately asked myself what can I expect from this dog. If bad breeders like this were willing to give him away. He must be a little monster. Totally prepared to leave him behind the breeder walks out to the pen and says We cut him out from the rest of the breeders for you. Suddenly I see a mud ball come flying by. At least that was all I could see - mud. The dog would come to no one, he was scared of his own shadow, and he obviously had never been socialized. By this time, my husband and I could pretty much tell this poor bedraggled dog had spent his entire life in a pen, and had no idea what human contact was. My heart went out to this poor baby. The "corral" that they had turned Dusty into consisted of a 30 by 30 chicken wire pen 6 inches deep in mud. He probably thought he was in dog heaven compared to what we could see of where he had been. They had approximately 15 corgis of various sizes shapes and colors crammed into a 10 by 10 holding pen also 6 inches deep in mud.

Needless to say my husband and I spent the next 45 minutes trying to catch Dusty, who had no intention of being caught. We finally cornered him and I scooped him up (mud and all) and deposited him into a crate into the back seat of my car. I then asked the man why he was getting rid of the poor little thing. The man said his puppies have overbites so he is useless to us. (We found out later they were breeding him back to his sister and mother - No wonder having overbites).

I told the man This didn't matter to me he was not for breeding purposes. He was a companion for my other corgi. When we got Dusty home we immediately took him straight to the bathtub. 4 shampoos later we realized he was a tri-color. He has a perfect black saddle. he is also very scared. He will let no one near him. The first three days we kept him in the house constantly and only took him out on leash. He would come to no one and was spending 20 out of 24 hours of the day under my daughters bed. If you made him come out he would shake like a leaf and do everything in his power to get away from you. My husband was at the point where he was saying it would be more humane to have him put down than to live in constant fear of everyone and everything.

I decided a different approach was needed. We have a large fenced in backyard. I decided to turn him loose out there. I set him free. He didn't know how to act. For 3 months he would stand at the back of the yard and just look at us if we were outside. He would never come to the food bowl if anyone was outside. I didn't pressure him to become my friend and I didn't force him to have contact with us. After the third month I got to noticing that if I was outside he would follow me around from a distance. Each week he would be a little closer and a little closer. We got Dusty in March of 1999 and by August I could sit in the yard and he would come up to me and let me scratch his ears, never anymore and never any closer contact than that. By september He would come to me when I called him and let me scratch him and rub his belly. It is now November and as I sit here typing this story he is warming my feet. He has become a full-fledged member of our family and is as lovable as any corgi I have ever had contact with. I guess the old adage about "If you love something set it free" is true.

Story by: Theresa Greene