All of our dogs came to us through breed-specific rescue organizations:
C, who we lost in November 2008, was our first dog. She was rescued from a breeder and adopted through ABR.
Meg, who turns 11 in June, was our second dog. She was an owner-assisted placement through ABR. An owner-assisted placement is what you call it when an owner contacts the rescue group to surrender a dog, for whatever reason, but agrees to keep the dog until a new forever home is found.
Belle, who will be 3 in June, was our third dog. She was surrendered to ABR by a family who was losing their home to foreclosure and could no longer care for her.
K, our fourth Brittany, who will be 4 in June, came to us through NBRAN. She was dropped at a kill shelter by her previous owners who could no longer afford to care for her.
Why switch rescue groups? We were looking for a very specific dog to add to our family. We needed to find one that was a certain age (young) with just the right temperament. ABR didn’t have any dogs fitting the bill at the time, so we discovered NBRAN. I’m glad, too, because K is an amazing dog. And, through NBRAN, I’ve met lots of really wonderful people.
American Brittanys come in three different colors: liver & white (like Belle), liver & white tri-color (like Meg) and orange & white. Their coats can either have a clear (Meg and Belle) or roan (like K) pattern with ticking (freckles).
I figured I’d give you this little bit of background before introducing you to Chester, an orange & white Brittany, who happens to be the latest addition to our pack.
I’m not sure of Chester’s exact age, but he’s definitely a senior. I think the vet estimated him to be around 11 or 12. He looks much older, however, because he has some sort of spine issue that makes walking sort of difficult. He also tends to get a bit confused. He’s gotten stuck behind our sofa twice now because he couldn’t remember how to back up/turn around.
He’s a sweet old guy, though. He’s pretty quiet, but paces a lot while in the house. It isn’t easy for him to sit either because of the spine issue. Plus, this place is new for him.
Belle keeps forgetting Chester is here. All of the girls hang out with me while I work in my upstairs office. Chester doesn’t do steps too well so he’s been staying downstairs. A couple of times now, when Belle has run downstairs and seen Chester, she’s started barking. She barks pretty loud, too, which has set the poor guy’s heart a-pounding.
K doesn’t seem to be thrilled by the old guy, but I think that’s just because he doesn’t play. Meg, being Meg, is mostly indifferent to him.
Hubby says he reminds him of Duke, our first long-term foster dog. Oddly enough, Duke and Chester were both pulled from the same kill shelter on the same day in late 2004. The lady who fostered Chester had just lost a Brittany of her own named Duke, and knew fostering a Duke would be hard on her. SO she opted to foster Chester.
Chester is what this particular lady, the Maryland state ABR coordinator (she coordinates for other states, too), refers to as a failed foster. Chester was not the failure. The failure was all hers. You see, once she’d had Chester for a while, she couldn’t bring herself to give him up. So she adopted him. She’s had two more failed fosters since then (Bodie and Sam), too.
The lady (Andrea) had to go on a business trip. She put Bodie and Sam in a boarding facility, but didn’t want to subject Chester to the same, with his various issues and ailments. So he’s staying with us for a few days. I picked him up on the way back from Carol’s house yesterday. He’ll only be here until Friday evening.
Yep, Chester’s just a temporary addition to our pack, which I could have said at the very beginning of this post, but thought it would be much more interesting to let y’all think we had completely lost it and added a fourth dog!
Sorry, but I just could not resist. 🙂
It’s very weird having four dogs here…
Having just added a third dog in Oct, I did think you were just a little bit crazy for adding a fourth…lol…It’s great that you were able to watch Chester for a few days.
Yeah, I would think we were nuts, too!
You had me……I was thinking, wow….she’s soon going to be up to 6 dogs like we were!!!
I was wondering if anyone would fall for it. (-:
Chester’s face reminds me of that flying dog in The Neverending Story (which, of course, means that I’m totally in love with him!).
Also, do the girls *really* all have birthdays in June, or is that just when you celebrate them?
I didn’t see that in Chester at first, but I think you are right. He’s a star!
I know Meg’s exact birthdate. We know Belle was born in June, but not what day she was born. I figured K should be June, too. 🙂
You got me! I was thinking SHE HAS GOT TO BE OUT OF HER MIND!!!!! Thanks for the laugh