I’ve been going through photos, literally thousands of them, that take me back in time and let me relive the joys and adventures we shared. But the images don’t do her justice. They are but a poor second when it comes to representing the vibrant soul that she was. As I look back through the photos, I have written down some of the things I will always remember out Rue. I will likely edit or add to this post, and I'll add images as I find them. But I need to put this down as a starting point of a tribute to the enormous part she has played in our lives. I will add more photos and comments in the days ahead. This is way too long for a blog post, but she was too significant a part of my life for her story to be contained in a single post.
She was utterly fearless
Rue didn’t hesitate to walk up on a sheep, a cow, or even out 2,000 pound Hereford bull. Small as she was, she could move or turn our cows and they almost never questioned her right to do so. She was wary of cows with young calves, though. She knew her limits, and respected the boundaries they set.
When blindsided by an aggressive ewe, Rue got up and made sure the ewe would think twice about doing that again. She was a master of the nose nip, but was never a gripper. She had the presence to move stock, more so than any of the dogs I have worked with. An aura of confidence was obvious whenever I looked at her. Even they coyotes seemed to respect Rue. When they began howling, she stood on the patio and barked and barked and barked until they quit. I don’t know that she ever encountered one in person, but I don’t know that she didn’t.
There was one time I remember that she didn’t let that confidence make her do something foolish. She, Colt, Kota and I were walking our creek pasture east of our upper tank. The dogs were ranging into the woods and up into the cedars on the side of the mountain. I heard Rue bark…a different bark, not the squirrel bark or the coyote beware bark, but an alarm bark. I followed the sound of the bark and just as I entered the cedar thicket, I saw the reason for their alarm. A 150 pound feral hog boar charged the dogs, and all three made a hasty retreat, straight for me! Everything happened so quickly that I had no time to react or even get behind a tree. Fortunately, God was watching over all of us, and the boar slid to a stop about 20 yards from me and trotted away into the brush. The dogs, including Rue, were by that time well behind me. They knew their limits!
She was her own dog
Rue came to us on May 31 of 2013, just a few short weeks after we lost our beloved Nickie to a rattlesnake bite. After losing Nickie, I knew I needed another border collie, not to replace her, but to continue in partnership with these amazing creatures. I knew nothing of bloodlines or herding instinct, or where or how to find “another Nickie.” But, since Nickie had been a stray, I began my search with All Border Collie Rescue in hopes of finding one. I can’t say enough good things about that organization. I looked on their website and saw dozens of pictures of available border collies, along with their descriptions. None of them seemed to click with me, until one day I saw a picture of a young female border collie that was “coming soon.” The look in her eyes, her intensity, struck a chord and I immediately contacted the organization. Her name was Rue and she had been picked up as a stray on the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“When she is available,” I said, “I am very interested.” Thus began our dialogue and she start of the adoption process. One of their requirements was that the person be experienced with border collies. We passed, since we had had Nickie for 8 years. They also conducted a home visit to be sure that our yard was appropriately fenced and offered enough room for an active dog. They even brought one of their own dogs to meet our existing “pack,” Colt and Kota.
we passed all the tests, and a few weeks later several of their volunteers drove Rue down from Tulsa to meet us. It was love at first sight, and she came home with us.
Rue was different, though. She was affectionate, but maintained some distance. Where most other dogs impress you with their desire to please, I always felt that Rue considered John and me to be there to please her, not the other way around. She was always her own dog.
I think that attitude may have been because of her early upbringing. We later learned that she had been almost run over by an All Border Collie Rescue volunteer on there way to work early one morning. Fortunately, the woman stopped and was able to secure Rue before she became road kill. She had a large gash over her right eye, with a scar she carried the rest of her life. We concluded that the gash must have come from a passing car, because she was initially terrified by automobile headlines and flashlights. (The latter phobia caused some problems when we traveled in the RV and needed to take her out to potty at night!)
The veterinarian who stitched up Rue’s eye fostered her for a couple of months, working on her obedience skills and house-training. She was a little thing, weighing only some 30 pounds, but reportedly bossed around a 90-pound German shepherd that was also being fostered. She never showed fear of man or beast…but thunder and gunshots were another matter, along with her headlight phobia. Fortunately, she outgrew the latter.
She was the unquestioned pack leader
From the moment she arrived, there was never a question about who would be the Bagley Pack leader.
The original pack, Lucky Dog, Nickie and Feathers, were all gone when Rue arrived. After we lost Feathers to canine meningitis in 2010, Dakota (aka Kota) came on board. When Lucky Dog passed in 2011, Colt joined the pack. Then, after Nickie’s untimely death in 2013, we adopted Rue.
She led that pack until 2019, when Colt perished in a farm accident, and Cody became the third pack member.
A female always leads the pack, but leadership was not Kota’s gift, and she never questioned Rue’s position. They played, and played and played, but Rue was the unquestioned alpha and Kota was happy in her supporting role. When Kota (to her great surprise) killed an unwary squirrel, Rue took quick possession of the prize. Kota always deferred to Rue, but as Kota (who was a couple of years older) began to lose some of her sight and hearing, it was Rue who always brought her back onto the path. But, when Kota disappeared in June of 2024, even though I am sure Rue knew where she lay, she never told. She accompanied me for weeks with the command “Find Kota.” She knew “find” and had many times located a newborn calf or our crippled bull, she never led me to Kota. It was almost a year later, in March of 2025, that John came out of the barn to find Rue lying in the parking lot a few yards from Kota’s collar. It was a comfort to us to know that she passed on the farm she loved so well, even though we were never able to bury her beside Nickie and Colt.
She had more stock sense than any dog I have known
The first time we had Rue off-leash at the farm…just a year-old pup…the met up with our small herd of cows. We hadn’t realized they were close, and when she spotted them she went into high gear. Before we could catch her, in a heartbeat she had them bunched together. But she didn’t stop there; she continued to circle them at a dead run, until we finally managed to grab her. There was no calling her off at that point.
From then on, she considered our stock “her” cows. She didn’t chase them, but instead would just watch them, sometimes from the yard and often from among them. Early on, I had taken her with me to walk quietly among the stock. We would sit and just be close until she was comfortable. Later, when the cattle were close to the house, she would slowly drift out into the pasture and lie down in their midst. She would just stay there, quietly watching. If one of the cows or calves (and even one of our Hereford bulls) got too far from the herd, Rue would get up and slowly circle around to move it back into the group.
The cows had come to accept her and were never aggressive except when they had new-born calves. Except for our #2 cow, that is. She and Rue had an adversarial relationship from the day we bought that cow. She didn’t like dogs, especially Rue. Rue would avoid her in the pasture, but took great joy in protecting the bucket in the back of the ‘gator or Kawasaki mule when we went out to feed. Rue was right beside that bucket, hoping that #2 would come close enough for her to nip a nose, which she did more than once.
Rue had good sheep sense as well. Long before we had sheep of our own, I tried my best to make her into a sheep-trialing dog like her predecessor, the amazing Nickie. She could do it all, fetch, drive, shed and pen. We spent many hours working with amazing trainers…Jack Christensen, Allen Mills, Wendy Auzqui and others, trying our best to harness that amazing ability so she could excel on the trial field. However, Rue worked only for herself, not for me or anyone else. She always made her own decisions, so we were never successful. Finally, after years of trying, I took the advice of another outstanding sheep dog trainer, Michele McGuire. She just advised us to “enjoy her for who she is,” and we have done that.
She was beyond quirky
We were forewarned. When we talked to the folks at All Border Collie Rescue, they said that Rue was really fascinated buy water. She wasn’t just fascinated, she was obsessed! The first thing she did when we brought her home to Volente, was to make straight for our swimming pool. She crouched by the step into the pool and began “digging” in the water, splashing in all directions. As she did, she barked and bit at the splashes.
It was an obsession she kept for her entire life. She spent hours playing at the edge of the pool, and splashing in her “swimming pool” at the farm. And that doesn’t even count all the times she splashed in our stock tanks, and in any puddle or body of water she encountered.
She always loved "shower time" as well. Our homes have featured open, walk-in showers and Rue loved it when someone announced "Shower time!" If she was within earshot, she raced to position herself just outside the shower to watch the water splash, usually with a toy in her mouth. (If she didn't have a toy, she was often lured into the shower to snap the falling water.) We always warned house guests to be sure the bathroom door was closed or they would have an audience.
Rue was a hunter, and although she didn’t catch many varmints, she was obsessed with squirrels. Just the mention of the "S word" would send her racing to the door in hopes of catching one before it escaped up a nearby tree.
She was also laser-focused on mice and where they might be hiding. When we went on walks through the pasture, she thought a mouse might be hiding under every log, and even in the end of pipe fence supports. She would run to where she imagined a mouse to be and bark for someone to turn over the log so she could catch it. I’m sure there was once a mouse, but usually we had toters over the log and tell her, “No mouse today!” so she would leave and continue on our walk.
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