The story:
I live with my girlfriend here in Durham NC, and we had been together about two years when we started talking about getting a dog. We had just discussed the idea that morning when her mom calls (they live in Clayton) to tell us that there was a stray in their yard, and she was really pregnant with their boxer’s pups (I wish I had a picture of their boxer, but let me just say he is the largest boxer you’d ever meet. If you want to make a really big dog, feed it a steak every night.)
Well, lo and behold, 2 days after she told us that, the stray had the pups on their property, all 8 beautiful boxer mixes. We took one (Lola, the white and black one) and we helped to find homes for all of the rest.
Cue to 1 1/2 years later, where after months of Lola whining like there’s no tomorrow, we decide we need to get her a sibling. This time we actually got to shop around and look for the dog that would best suit us. We went for a couple of months finding dogs on craigslist and boxer rescues, but by the time we put in a bid to adopt, each dog was already taken (which is a damn good thing, so we weren’t complaining.)
We finally found a dog that was at a shelter and was a nice boxer mix, male, and the description said he was really friendly. However, when we had been looking for dogs, we also saw the ads for Sweetie, the brown and white American Staffordshire terrier mix in the other picture. All the ad said was that her name was Bebe, and she was really sweet, and that she was a boxer mix (which she’s not.) So we knew that Sweetie was at this same shelter, but we really wanted to get a male because Lola was a female.
The day comes where we get down to the shelter, and as we pull into the parking lot, my girlfriend turns to me and tells me she’s going to fall in love with the first dog she sees. Well, sure enough, we walk into the cage area and right there, first cage on the left, is Sweetie. She was stick skinny, hair matted, and the backs of her paws had blisters on them from where she constantly pawed on the cage at the people that came in there. It was a very sad sight, but we wanted to take a look at the boxer mix we had originally gone in to see. We get him into the acquaintance room, and he doesn’t pay attention to us whatsoever. He just sniffed around the room, and then peed on the wall. Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed. However, the entire time we were in the room, Sweetie could see us from her cage and she was DYING for us to pet her. She had her ears fully back and was doing the little “I gotta pee” dance to the full hilt. We had the male boxer taken back to his cage, and we said we wanted to see her as well. Well, the second we got her into the room, she was all over us, just loving being petted and licking our faces. At that moment, we knew we didn’t even have to make a decision, Sweetie was going home with us.
Little did we know that we would be adopting the world’s most hyper dog. From the moment she stepped foot in our house, she has had a ball in her mouth at least 18 hours a day, just wanting us to throw it for her. I’ve even spent 6 hours straight throwing the ball with a chuck-it, and the only reason we quit was because we had to go in and eat dinner. She was still bringing us a rope toy at the table.
We originally got Sweetie so Lola would maybe stop whining, but now Lola whines and Sweetie wants us to throw the ball, so they now both require constant attention, but I tell you, I couldn’t be happier.
They’re both about 3 years old now, and every day we spend an hour and a half at the local dog park (Pineywood dog park, it’s on facebook!) throwing the ball for Sweetie and the frisbee for Lola.
Having these two dogs in our lives is the best thing I have ever done, and I still tear up when I’m remembering how sad Sweetie looked when we first got her.
I really just want to thank you, John, for all these wonderful stories about Lily and all the other dogs. I look forward to reading your blog every day, and though I love the snarkiness, the posts about the dogs are definitely my favorite.
Cheers,
Daniel
Consider this your open thread.
JK
John,
How about a rescue thread for The United States?
Get Ready for the Obama/GOP Alliance
h/t http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-cohen/get-ready-for-the-obamago_b_370458.html
General Winfield Stuck
Love these posts senor Cole. you are tops for bringing them. I hope to add mine in a couple of weeks or less.
abo gato
Oh, the face on that Lola!!!
Makes me want to hug her. And Sweetie has quite the smile.
These stories are great.
Thanks.
Violet
Oh, they’re both gorgeous. That blue bone dog tag is quite the adornment for Lola. And Sweetie looks like she could just jump through the screen. Adorable and lovely story. Thanks so much for all these stories, John.
General Winfield Stuck
@JK:
Sorry JK, I don’t agree with hardly a word in that linked story to Huffpo. Just look at whats been passed already, to what Clinton got done in eight years on progressive legislation. No comparison on anything like a meta scale the author states.
You can argue Obama is maybe compromising a little too much here and there, but on an entirely different and much smaller scale.
Ruckus
I want a dog, I wish I could get a dog.
I want a dog, I wish I could get a dog……….
mcd
Did Dana Perino really say there were no terrorist attacks on the U.S. under Bush’s watch? Did she really?
General Winfield Stuck
@mcd:
They all say that. Meaning on American soil. Other grubworm races overseas don’t count in the average lizard brain cortex.
Jager
I had several German Shepards growing up, then with college, the army and getting a life started I hadn’t had a dog for years. I got married and we had two girls in 4 years and we got them a “Benji” dog, Sonny was a super dog and we all got along just fine. One day my wife called and said the kids and Sonny were playing with a stray dog in the backyard. When I got home, I was introduced to the dog, a female, sable German Shepard, no collar, no tags. we did the usual, a note card at the super market, an ad in the local weekly (this was long before the web) called the cops, etc. Weeks went by no one called. One saturday i got a call from a security company, they were missing a guard dog, could he come by and see if it was her… The guy shows up and sure enough it was their missing dog. He takes me aside and said, “you know she has been gone for a month and your kids are madly in love with her, the dog is happy, what the hell, you keep her!” He later sent me her papers, she was show quality, highly trained and my kids had turned her into a goofball.. Her registered name was XLS (Alexus) the kids named her Rosemary! She lived a long and happy life with the kids and her Alpha Male Sonny who took absolutely no shit from the Shepard! This was a ‘bank-shot” rescue…that made everbody happy. BTW, if anybody looked sideways at my kids, Rosie immediately turned into XLS the guard dog!
General Winfield Stuck
And of course 9-11 was all on Bill Clinton and Monica.
Keith G
Oh, those faces! Way to go Daniel.
mcd
@General Winfield Stuck:
It really is just a matter of time before we hear Obama planned 9/11. And anthrax. Also.
MikeJ
Is it possible to get democratic policies passed without democrats? I just can’t fucking stand most people on my side any more.
Obama never gave me a pony! That’s proof he’s going to sell us all to the meat factory! He’s worse than HitlerGenghisKhanCaligulaSatan!
Xanthippas
Anybody see this yet? Wikileaks is publishing over half a million pager texts intercepted on 9/11. They seem to be legitimate, but nobody knows where they came from or how they were collected.
beltane
@MikeJ: The funniest are the Clinton supporters who believe that Hillary would have been the great lefty messiah, unwilling to compromise one iota of Democratic principles in order to assuage the concerns of Evan Bayh, etc. Those people really crack me up.
HRA
It’s a wondeful story. Your dogs are beautiful, Daniel.
@Jager:
Your story reminded me of the time we had our first puppy, a German Shepherd, too. He was well enough trained to be by himself in the open front yard. Then one day he followed our neighbor’s daughter to her school which was a good 2 miles from home. I walked for blocks along with my 4 children in our complex to look for him. I talked to almost everyone door to door with no results. A few days later, the neighbor’s daughter told me she saw our dog with a classmate and confronted him about it. He insisted it was his dog with tears in his eyes. I knew about this family from a relative. They had 7 children and were very nice people. My children were too young to really socialize with the dog and I was really too busy to give him the proper attention he would get from a 12 year old boy. I let him have the dog. A few years later we got Trapper (a Welsh Corgi mix) from the dog catcher (a school friend) and had him for 18 years. We have had dogs ever since then.
Thadeus Horne
Life without dogs is….well…not life. I couldn’t imagine not having dogs…and cats….and, well, I can’t conceive life without at least two dogs…and two cats. That’s all.
JK
@General Winfield Stuck:
I don’t entirely agree with Jeff Cohen’s assessment, but I felt his post deserved to be read.
Right now, I’m just hoping that the Democrats can avoid a major blowout in the mid-term elections, otherwise Obama will and the country will be totally screwed.
brat
Great story.
Over nine years ago, near the anniversary of my partner’s mom’s death, we stop by a “adopt a cat” extravanganza. I had no intention of getting a cat, but there was a calico one the end that just looked pitiful. Seems she was one of 14 cats pulled out of a house, the owner was dying of pancreatic cancer, no one was interested in the cat, etc. etc. So, I look at the bedraggled cat, and I look at my partner, who’s not saying a world but the tears are running down her face (her mom died of colon cancer). So we got a cat, who was renamed Clare in honor of St. Clare.
Clare took a while to warm up, so we got a kitten, who was a wild tabby. Clare and Xena were inseparable for 8 years. Unfortunately, Xena developed bladder cancer and we had to put her to sleep a year ago. Our vet was sheltering kittens and gave us a call about a week later. And so, Gilda came into our world.
Clare is now 14 years old, Gilda is a year, and they are inseparable. The vet told us later that Gilda had been part of a ferral litter (thanks a lot!), which explains why she was sooooo spooked when we got her. But she has always followed Clare around like a puppy. And we’ve been delighted cat owners for over 9 years.
If you have the time and the space, there is a pet waiting for you.
Shell
What a riot that photo of Sweetie is. She makes me think of the dog, Dug, from the pixar flick ‘UP” You can almost hear her going, “Hi there, Hi. I am Sweetie! I just met you but I really like you and….SQUIRREL!……..Hi, there!”
RedKitten
I think Sweetie looks like the World’s Happiest Dog.
Annie
@General Winfield Stuck:
I agree. After this story, I am crying…Thanks John, and General, we look forward to your story and pictures. I am always up for a good cry….
@Ruckus:
Just get a dog………….and send pictures!
@brat:
Wonderful story. I love that Gilda follows Claire like a puppy. What a wonderful image…Thanks!
dlw
Sweetie looks like she might have some ACD in her, which would explain why she wants to chase a ball all day.
moe99
Great story to read after returning from walking my 3 dogs (a black labrador retriever and 2 miniature dachshunds). Thanks.
Jager
My long time German Shepard, Straka and the baby Shepard Ava just strolled into my office…he has his stick in his mouth. Wonder what he wants from me?
Bad Horse's Filly
Sweetie: Hi, how are you?! That’s great! Just great! Can you throw me the ball! Huh?! Huh?! Can ya?! Can ya?!
From the picture, she looks like she speaks in exclamation points. Did anyone else think of the scene in Spanglish when the housekeeper throws the ball?
And Lola is beautiful, as well. Great story.
Bad Horse's Filly
Oh, and a Lane Cake update. I may be a bit tipsy from the filling. Thanks to BJ-er Maude, the cakes are nice and moist, even though they are very thin (baked in a pie tins). Now I’m just waiting for everything to cool so I can put filling and cake together, then frost. This will have to be an over-21 cake – I put brandy in both the cake batter and the filling. I had planned on adding some to the frosting, but thinking that might not be a good idea. BHF +?
tidge
got a bit teary reading your story…especially when you met Sweetie at the shelter..lucky doggies have lots to be thankful for. thanks for sharing
General Winfield Stuck
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
Oh, come on. It’s the holidays. Live dangerous:)
Jason Bylinowski
Nice story. Sweetie looks scary though!
(not much of an animal person, sorry)
mandarama
Awesome pups–I love Sweetie’s angled bat ears.
Litlebritdifrnt
Sweetie definitely puts me in mind of the “dogs diary” “ooooh breakfast my favorite thing” “oooooh the kids my favorite thing” etc., she looks like the happiest goggeh in the world. You did good. I have two boxers, completely opposite in size and personality, Judy is a petite female, who is polite, and gentle and nice, and would really only rip your throat out if you ever threatened me or the DH or one of the cats. Cueball is a 90lb pure white force of nature who basically just charges around and knocks stuff over, clumsy is putting it nicely, “bull in a china shop” is more accurate, he has no teeth however (an anomaly of the breed), so if anyone ever broke into my house Cueball would knock them down and sit on them while Judy (complete with teeth) ripped their throat out. I would love another one (there was one at the pound several months ago, I e-mailed our local boxer rescue about her) however boxer rescue will not allow the adoption of a female in a house with a female or a male in a house with a male, so we are limited to the two we have now.
The Moar You Know
@JK: Awesome story; the very definition of concern trolling, embodied. For the rest of my life, I’ll have young people come to me and ask “Moar, what is concern trolling?”, and I’ll be able to – assuming that HuffPo or the author doesn’t realize how stupid the piece is and takes it down – point them to the story and say “right here, little guy. This…this is concern trolling, in its purest and most refined form.”
I want the minute and thirty-five seconds of my life back that it took me to read that idiocy.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Litlebritdifrnt:
PS) Cueball is technically a rescue because white boxers are normally euthanized at birth, breeders do not want them in the gene pool.
demkat620
I just have something in my eye, that’s all.
Man these stories are just great. Makes me want to adopt a friend for my Jack.
Just Some Fuckhead
That first pic is what I imagine Stuck must look like, except in human form.
General Winfield Stuck
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Why thank you fuckhead, that’s the bestest thing nobody has said to me in a long time.
PS- I think I’m a little purdier than sweetie, but not much.
A Mom Anon
You know,all these stories would make a great anthology in book form to raise money for our intrepid host’s favorite animal rescue organization or shelter.
Ruckus
@Annie:
With my living situation right now it is just not realistic.
Jager’s story of the guard dog brought back memories of Poison, the shop dog we inherited when my dad purchased a machine shop. I was about 12 and the dog was taller than my waist. He would also stand on his hind legs with fronts on my dad’s shoulders (5’9″) and look over his head. He was mangy, he lived outdoors in a 4×4 and corrugated tin dog house and no one got in that yard that wasn’t supposed to be there. He was as friendly as any dog I’ve seen. To me. He tolerated only 2 adults and only as long as they fed him. Regularly. Don’t know why but I was never scared of that dog, but everyone else was. I believe he could have taken off an arm or leg with one bite, but he never made an aggressive move to me. During the day he was tied up with about a 15 foot chain, the kind truckers used to tie down cargo. He would just start running till he ran out of chain. He broke that chain 5 or 6 times over the years. Don’t know how old he was (I think about 12-14 at the end) but we owned him for about 4-5 years before he died.
Ruckus
And I’m going to thanks day dinner at fiends who have a Chihuahua named Sweetie Pie. She’s now the second most hyper dog in the world, wonder if the name has anything to do with it?
robertdsc
Beautiful creatures, both of them.
Jager
Every Shepard I’ve had does an interesting thing when people they don’t know come for cocktails, dinner, etc. They position themselves so they can keep an eye on everyone. We had a party on the patio several weeks ago and the old boy took his post and the baby was angled off to the right of him, the entire party they kept a close eye on the “killers” (in their doggie minds, anyway) we invited into the house. I’ve never noticed other dogs do this. The guests don’t notice, but I watch the dogs as they stay on the alert for any funny business. They don’t do any thing overtly and are friendly but they are ready for business, if needed. The baby (she is 6 months old) does it naturally, too.
Just Some Fuckhead
@robertdsc:
All three of them.
JK
@The Moar You Know:
You’re very welcome. Glad to be of service.
Having read Jeff Cohen’s work for many years and being a big fan of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, which Cohen co-founded, calling Cohen a concern troll is the cheapest of cheap shots. Cohen is a progressive who’s justifiably dismayed with the direction Obama’s presidency has taken and wrote a compelling post to highlight Obama’s shortcomings.
Are Obama supporters just supposed to blindly endorse everything he does and never offer a critique of his actions?
chrome agnomen
@MikeJ:
that’s nothing. i’m still waiting on my check from soros.
Lesley
Lola is ADORABLE and reminds me of Gromit.
General Winfield Stuck
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Woof Woof!
Sit Ubu sit. Good dog.
Lesley
Ok, now that I’ve read all about Sweetie – hello, is that name a heart-slayert? – I am teary-eyed and thankful you went with your intuition. Who knows, the boxer mix may have knowingly helped you guys focus on the more needy Sweetie. And I hope he has a good home too.
I don’t know whether there is a higher power at work, but when it comes to animals and the amazing difference they make in our lives and how they connect to us, I can’t help but think something larger is at play. Or maybe that’s how all living things are wired in this universe. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for it.
Give Sweets and Gromitty Lola hugs from me.
KyCole
My Zella died Sunday and now I am catless. I haven’t been without a kitty since 1985. It is so strange to sit down and not have a furry body immediately landing on some part of my body. This is my second cat loss this year. Conan died in January at 19. Zella was only 15 and I miss her terribly. My son keeps threatening to get me a kitten but I’m not ready. I tell him that I have a key to his house and he doesn’t have a cat box. My two boxes sit full, clean and empty in the basement.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@brat:
You guys rock.
As does everybody else of course.
We’ve been in Misery for 13 years now and have had, gulp, 21 cats in all that time. We’re currently “down” to 8 and there’s no more room at the inn…except for the fosters.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@KyCole:
You’re right not to rush into it. When the time is right, you and the cat you meet at that time will know it’s time.
My condolences. Thanks for sharing.
KyCole
Thanks Comrade.
HRA
@KyCole:
I am sorry for your losses. I understand it’s too early. We went through it 5 years ago and it was very difficult to pick another pet. Our children brought us our new dog as an anniversary gift 2 years ago. Just saying be ready as I read about your son.
Something Fabulous
Ah, well: I am always still too tentative and jump in just as a thread is winding down! But must add anyway how funny I thought it was. When the post first came up, only the tops of Sweetie’s ears were above the fold on my screen, and I assumed it was going to be another one of the amazing photo posts, and a close-up of some kind of exotic orchid or something. But no: DAWG EARS! Such a great friendly face. So glad to read about both your girls.
KyCole; so sorry to hear about your loss. I have two cats now who are still quite young; I know at the other end it is going to be so hard. 15 and nineteen are admirable ages to reach; I hope you have some pride and comfort in that. The woman who runs the rescue where I volunteer always says, “you will know when it is time,” and I used to doubt her, but I have seen it just work out now too many times. It may not be right away, but you will know!
D-Chance.
Can we all offer Jennifer Reese a pile of Shut The Hell Up? There are far more than two turkeys featured in her crunchy, self-congratulatory tale of “I’m just trying to be a better person” tripe.
KyCole
I know I’ll eventually get some more cats- they always seem to find me. At one time I had twelve, although most were barn cats that just showed up. Now that I live in the city this is less likely, although a customer came in a month ago with kittens looking for a home. I knew Zella would not be pleased with a new addition so I declined. My dog doesn’t really miss her since she is missing an eye from jumping on the chair that was already occupied by said cat when she was a puppy!
Morbo
Good dog.
Good dog.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Nutella
Does Sweetie have some bat in her ancestry? Those ears sure look like they could be used for echo-location.
asiangrrlMN
Sniff sniff. Sweetie and Lola are beautiful. This story gives me a teary happy.
@brat: Aw, that’s a very sweet story, too. More teary happy for me.
@KyCole: I’m so sorry for the lost of your Zella (and Conan). May they play happily on the other side. My deepest condolences to you and yours. You are right that when the time comes, the right cat will find you.
KyCole
Damn if I don’t just love this blog! Happy Thanksgiving all.
Dog is My Co-Pilot
Sweetie looks like the goofiest, happiest dog ever. I love reading stories like this.
Jackie Hutter
My husband has been asking me to tell the story of Doug, our purebred German Shepherd rescue. So here it goes . . . .
In May of last year, we lost our 12 year old Rottie/Shepherd pound puppy Keyser Sose. He was a big bear of a dog, and it was a blow to lose him. My husband was particularly upset because Keyser was his buddy (he was the puppy that I suggested to get him in the frame of mind for kids, who came 2.5 years later).
Before Keyser died (he was getting old fast as a 100+ pound dog), I decided that I wanted to get a purebred German Shepherd, but I was torn because we had always had rescues (countless stray cats and various pound puppies). However, I told myself that I “deserved” a purebred for all of the good deeds we had done over the years. I contacted a breeder, and was told that puppies would be coming in the Fall. I resigned myself to wait a few months for a new dog.
Fast forward to July of this year–I became “itchy” for a dog. I work at home and missed the companionship of a dog to keep me company, although we have 2 cats who make their presence known, usually on the keyboard of my computer. My loneliness manifested itself in a web search for German Shepherds on day while I was killing time before a client phone call. Of course, the last time a reputable breeder would have German Shepherd puppies is July, when distemper and parvo are rampant in the deep South. But, I was bound and determined to find a dog at that time.
As luck would have it, a local rescue lady had just posted a picture of a German Shepherd on the available pet website. Doug (as we named him) was definitely purebred, we later found out that he is a Czech line Shepherd. He was more than 30 pounds underweight and very ill. The lady who rescued him was called by a local shelter. Doug was passed his “due date” but they did not want to put him down because he was clearly such a fine dog. The rescue lady spent about $700 of her own money to save him, and it cost us several $100’s, also.
We named Doug after the dog in Up. Doug is the kind of dog that would hide under your porch for days just to be with you. He is an amazing creature. He is happiest when he is watching you just waiting to do something for his pack.
One must wonder why Doug was on his own. Our belief is that his prior owners, who likely spent $2-$3K on him as a puppy and cared enough about him to train him, lost their house and had to let him go. Doug was clearly on the streets for an extended period of time. Our thought was confirmed when we were changing out our closets for the Fall. Doug truly flipped out when we were packing up stuff. It was as if he “had seen this movie before.” Well, their loss was our gain. We have the most amazing dog I could ever imagine. He is happiest when he is healing at my side when we are jogging for miles and miles.
This picture is of Doug in his life preserver. http://picasaweb.google.com/jackiehutter/Doug#
I found out he couldn’t swim when I was fixing the boat, and he jumped in to save me. My husband said it was like the scene from “It’s a Mad Mad Mad World” when the character says “I’m coming to get you, Mama. That’s why you had me.” I ended up pulling him over to shore and rescuing him. He now wears the floatie when near the water.
My web search showed me that there are many homeless purebred dogs available for rescue. Many, like Doug, are likely a bit neurotic, but you would probably be neurotic too if you were abandoned. I couldn’t imagine life without Doug, even after less than 5 months with him in our life.
tenkindsagrumpy
I don’t mind eating dogs, but I just don’t have the time or inclination to keep them as free range pets.