Three Rights Make a Left

A NEW FAMILY MEMBER

We are dog lovers, but it has been a decade and a half since we have had a dog in our family. Since I traveled all over the country doing disaster relief and Census Bureau work, it hasn’t made sense to have a dog that we would have to figure out what to do with while we were gone.

Now that we are retired it makes sense to add a dog to our family.

At first I decided to get a good guard dog and when I googled the best breeds for guard duty, I found a web site that listed Akitas as the top breed.

With that little bit of information, I posted on a Kaufman County FaceBook page that I was looking for an Akita puppy.

I got a lot of input. Most was positive, but a fair amount was non-positive but all of the comments were helpful.

I had made it clear I wanted to get a puppy and I didn’t want to get one from Dog Alley on Canton First Monday. When someone asked: “What’s wrong with First Monday?” I explained that the last time I bought a puppy from Canton it was supposed to be a sheltie, a small breed that looks like a collie. We bought him as a pure bred AKC registered Sheltie from someone from Arkansas who showed us pictures of both his father and mother. We named him Scout and our kids loved him. Several months later it became clear that we had been taken. The puppy we bought grew up to be huge. He was a collie, not a sheltie.

I had a little fun once after Scout got out of the back yard. I found out he had escaped when he started scratching at the front door. I let him in and minute later there was a knock on the front door. It was the Forney dog catcher. Obviously Scout was on the run from him and had given him the slip.

The dog catcher asked: “Sir, do you own a collie?”

Without missing a beat, I answered truthfully; “No sir, I don’t have a collie, I have a sheltie.”

Agitated, the animal control professional said: “Sir, I just saw a dog come to this house and he was NOT a sheltie.”

I admitted that our dog had obviously gotten out of the back yard and I had just let him in the house, but I assure you he is a sheltie, and I have papers to prove it.

Now back to my post for a puppy. Next there were a couple of comments that I should get a “rescue” dog. While I think it’s noble to get a rescue animal, I would rather get a puppy from a loving family so I can know what to expect.

Several people posted negative comments about Akitas. One person posted she had actually witnessed a little girl being killed by an Akita. I don’t know if those stories were valid but it made me think that I might want to get a watch dog rather than a guard dog.

Again I went to the internet and decided I would like to get an Aussie. I put another post on our neighborhood Facebook page and got a lot of feedback.

One comment included pictures that were particularly interesting of three Aussie Pom puppies. I decided on a puppy that looks like one we had before we had kids. His name was Chris because we got him on Christmas Eve 1980.

I told the woman who had the puppies I definitely wanted one. Before I could arrange to pick him up I got a call that my neighbors Danny and Pat had seen the Facebook post and were picking up our puppy’s brother. They graciously offered to bring ours back with them. And that is how we got our new furry little family member.

The best bonus was that he is already house trained and will bark at the door when he wants out. Our grandkids don’t know we have him yet and I think we will leave naming him to them. I will tell you the name Orwell is available since Lori vetoed that idea.