Why I can have a border collie...

...and you can't. I stumbled across a wonderful (albeit long) article at the weekend which is a fairly tongue-in-cheek look at the rigours a would-be border collie owner has to go through to show that they are worthy. It's all too close to reality (I don't recall my final exams for my degree being as in depth as the forms I had to fill in for the rescue centre), but it's a good thing, collies being what they are.

Check it out here: 101 reasons you can't have a border collie and I can

I defy anyone to keep a straight face at comments like this:

I have lived with happy Border collies for twenty years, but if I filled out one of those online applications, respectable breeders and rescuers wouldn’t even bother to send me a polite note to say they’ve received my application and they’re laughing. In fact, that’s what happened a couple of years ago. When my last Border collie died at fifteen, I didn’t have what it takes. First, I didn’t have a fenced yard. Then, even though I’d spent two decades learning to entertain Border collies, I’d been too cheap and lazy to get titles on my dogs. Between the lines of my empty in-box I could read the hint: “Just go get a used dachsund.”