I retired from my first occupation as a neonatologist in 1995 (U Arizona College of Medicine, trained at Emory University and Vanderbilt). There I was a clinician with a research focus on understanding the language (behavior) of sick newborn infants and neurodevelopmental outcome of NICU babies. It was very rewarding to gain training in NIDCAP (Neonatal Individualized Developmental Care) from Dr. Heidelise Als (Boston) and later to be a trainer in the USA and internationally for that program.

Bill and I were married in 1973. Several shaggy pound dogs led to the discovery of Beardies. We became members of the BCCA in 1987 after our first Beardie, Heather, came to Tucson from Colorado. We’ve had seven Beardies who enjoyed whatever was on offer. Another pound blackish short coated dog led us to the PWD (someone at a show asked if he was a PWD). We joined the PWDCA in 1991 when the first PWD of five joined the family. I participated in conformation (4 CH), obedience (3 UD), herding (AKC, AHBA), and tracking classes. Bill did the long distance driving (nothing is close together in the SW) to conformation and obedience competitions and he became a quite good observer at ringside; he also learned a bit about herding. Upon retiring from medicine, the first stop was Taos, NM for 5 years. Bill was in an artist’s heaven both for the region’s history and opportunities to study have a studio where he painted nearly daily. I enjoyed weekly trips down to Albuquerque for competition obedience classes. In the last year we joined a herding club down in Santa Fe with each of us learning with a different Beardie. The next and permanent stop was Elsa’s parents’ farm in Georgia where we learned how to manage a cow/calf beef herd for 20 years before yet again.

Dog related volunteer work has included BCCA Health Committee Chair (96-98), BCCA herding chair (2009-26) (initiating all records from paper to a relational electronic database), PWDCA Health Information Coordinator (2007-25), GA All Breed Herding dog Association positions (2004-16), establishing the Bearded Collie Foundation for Health (BeaCon) in 1999 and administration of the open health registry, writing articles related to Beardies and PWDs for breed magazines; editing the electronic newsletter for BeaCon (Lighting The Way). Recognitions include BCCA Member of the Year (1997) and PWDCA President’s Award (2015) for leading a breed health survey.

It has been especially rewarding to oversee several surveys and BeaCon’s health registry which confirmed the prevalence of two autoimmune diseases (Addison’s and SLO) in the breed, as had two earlier BCCA surveys overseen by Linda Aronson, DVM. That led to finding a research investigator to study genetic aspects of Addison’s disease (starting in 1998) and SLO (2010’s). The most rewarding part of volunteering in the dog world has been the constant challenge of learning something new — relational databases, website design and maintenance (starting with desktop software, now cloud-based), and communicating with the many people connected to the Bearded Collie community. The process is ongoing and one I never expected decades ago to add so much to my sense of purpose. It’s a kind of reward I don’t think you can predict until you’re in it.