Our Big Pound Puppy

We are dog people. I have nothing against cats, but I’m allergic to them. And long ago, at an “adopt a pet” event, a shy beige/white Spitz/Spaniel-cross stole my heart. She had been abandoned on Sandy Lake Road…Sandy was our companion for 13 years, almost an older sibling to our two daughters when they were small, and a faithful friend as they were older.

Later dogs came to us from a rescue organization, Maggie, a little black Lab puppy, came to us as the girls were in fifth and eighth grades, prime time for girls and their dog. We got her at 8 weeks, so tiny! She was a lot of work early on, but well worth the effort. You may read Maggie’s story elsewhere on the blog.

Dale was our bridge to having two dogs. He was an old brown Labrador that no one wanted, as he was blind, with a bad case of heartworms. He had lived a hard life. We were looking for a young dog to liven up Maggie. Instead we got Dale’s elderly rambunctiousness that led to “old married couple” dogs. You can also read more about Dale elsewhere on the blog.

Our next dogs were adopted as a pair from a local rescue. You can read about our experience with littermate syndrome in my previous post. After a few months with Sally on on her own, we were ready to introduce a new dog. Sally was still afraid of her own shadow and inactive, so an alpha dog would be good for her, not another shy pup. We had heard good things about the County Animal Shelter, so we decided to look there first. Our only condition was that we did not want a pitbull or a bulldog, due to the fears of one of our daughter’s dogs, who was adopted from their County shelter. Our other daughter has a sweet bulldog mix, but he’s not sweet with other male dogs. We wanted the out-of-town daughter to be able to visit with their dogs.

Visiting the dog shelter was a sobering experience. Adopting from a rescue organization is a rewarding experience, but there is no Gotcha Day to compare to the one when you get a dog from the pound. That said, the smell and the noise of a County Dog Shelter is shocking. If you have ear plugs, bring them. Also bring a pad of paper to write down which dogs you want to meet. We walked in the entire shelter, with barks bouncing off the concrete block walls. We read all the bios of dogs that weren’t Pit or Bull mixes (to keep our granddog Ivy happy). A dog named Clarence didn’t have much of a bio: stray transfer from another shelter, but he seemed like a good friendly dog. We walked the whole shelter, then revisited the dogs we’d written the names of on our short list. The one-year-old Clarence was happy to see us again, wagging his tail, a few barks and a big smile. We learned the reason for his transfer was just overcrowding so we asked to meet him in one of the outdoor meeting areas. Clarence bounded out the door (not leash trained) and went straight for the fake grass and did his business like he’d been holding it in for hours (so possibly house trained-yay!), then he was very happy to meet us in person. He enjoyed playing with the ball and getting pats and treats. We arranged to have him and Sally meet the next day. Sally had never entered a County shelter (her mom had been a pregnant rescue) but she sensed it wasn’t a happy place and she was more scared than usual.

Sally and Clarence first met outside rubbing noses between a fence. When that went okay, the fence was opened and they had some time together, which also went well. The shelter needed a couple of business days to do their required shots, neutering and assorted paperwork. Then we brought Clarence home! We soon learned from our daughter who has a friend with a Bernese mountain dog that Clarence was probably from that family of dogs, popularly called Swissie for Swiss Mountain Dog. With research, we think Clarence is an Appenzeller Mountain Dog, smaller and shorter haired than a Bernese, at 50 lbs., although without papers the vet listed him as a mixed breed, but Clarence has all the breed characteristics: tricolor, affectionate, good with young children and with babies, good with other dogs, high energy, and especially the characteristic high-pitched yippee bark. Taking Clarence for his walk the first few months was an ear-splitting experience. The high yippee bark can mean anything: yay, the sun is shining, the grass is green, look there’s kids, I want to play!, there’s too many cars on the street and they’re scary… yep yep yep!

Clarence loves to go on walks, chases his tail, and tries to get Sally to play with him much more roughly and often than she would prefer. They both collapse in a heap after a walk, then Clarence is ready to go chase a rabbit or squirrel in the backyard soon after. He loves to catch a frisbee, stick or ball, and will bring fallen tree branches up to the fence for Mr. H. He’s snatched unattended food off countertops and wallowed in against-the-rules places, like the white couch or our bed. He will play with laundry or trash cans if he has the chance, but Sally is showing him how to sleep at our feet in the den. He’s working on learning “gentle” and “slow”. He has nibbled on way too many houseplants, some to their extinction, and broken a few pretty flower pots when he’s barked at deer (or squirrels) seen through the windows. If we could bottle up some of his extra energy, we could make a lot of extra bucks-you would think we put coffee in his water bowl. But all in all, he’s a fun and faithful, loyal dog friend. We’re glad Clarence is part of our family.