These things never come at a perfect time. It was a week before I would retire and commence a giant move to Freedom from Hoback where we had wedged ourselves in so thoroughly both Mike and I would marvel at the sheer quantity of stuff we have accumulated in such a small space.
Ting. The Facebook messenger tinged a message from Rebecca Koch, the Spinone dog breeder from Victor, ID whom I had been following since the day I met Carl - a spinone puppy - in the old Jackson post office. Carl calmly laid on the floor beneath his owner and looked up at me with those big yellow eyes saying - deep dog voice here, "Hello. I like you. You look like a nice human." Of course I asked Carl's owner what the breed was of the lovely young dog with giant paws and on that day I fell in love with Spinones.
Rebecca is one of the very few US breeders for this Italian bred bird hunting dog. She sells pups for $2600. No way, no how am I ever going to spend that kind of money on a dog!! So, I continued to follow her Facebook page, even going so far as to name a female pup she kept posting - Myrtle (my great grandmother's name). I wrote it in the comment line on Facebook.
Two weeks later, Shannon, the gal at our front desk, announced during our office Christmas party, that her husband had gotten a pup in trade for fixing this lady's boiler. It was some kind of bird dog she reported; my eyes getting bigger and bigger until she opened her pictures and showed me a picture of my Myrtle!! We laughed and laughed and laughed for the chance of it!!
So Myrtle got named Olive and Shannon's husband fell in love with Olive.
And then the Ting came to my phone. Would I be interested in fostering a spinone, asked Rebecca. A young male had landed in her kennel, bred by a breeder in Washington who sold the dog to be a show dog. The young dog had chewed on a very expensive table and the owner wanted his money back for the dog and the table. The breeder, filled to capacity, asked if Rebecca could take him and look for a rightful owner.
Ting.
I reminded Mike that once he said, "If I ever get a ranch, I'd have 25 dogs!" We drove up and over Teton Pass to meet Rooster.
Rooster came to Freedom the next day. Smoke and Ruby, the heeler dogs, were not impressed. The rule for acceptance would be if Smoke began to mark/pee inside it would not work. When Rooster had an accident one morning because his owner was too asleep to recognize he needed to go out to pee, his owner saw the pool of pee and immediately threw Smoke under the bus. All day I stressed that Rooster would have to go back. Happily, the epiphany came to my brain and I realized this pool of pee was Rooter's not from Smoke and all has been good since. No pee and no arguments bad enough to draw blood.
So Rooster is staying. Both Mike and I are off next week to travels and Rooster will return to Rebecca's where she will hold him in safe keeping until I return, anxious to reconnect with this big spirited dog! Rooster and I were meant to find each other. A love story.
I have a lot to learn, but I sure hope I can be as good of an Owner for Rooster as he is a dog for me! Make sure to see all three pictures because the last picture is sure to make you laugh!
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