More Photos Below!Gallery
So, well before Xmas Martha and I decided it was the time of life that the kids would really appreciate having a new dog.
So I started prospecting. What breed? How to get one? Pup or dog? We need portability so we decided on a terrier of some kind. Then I found Petfinder.com and Adoptapet.com. That opened up a HUGE world of pet adopting for me. I also wandered around various purebred breeder websites and the local dog-pound and Humane Society. I spent a lot of hours gleaning the stories and photos. We narrowed the search down to a dozen and I emailed all the rescuers a few more questions and filled out some applications. We were willing to drive a couple hundred miles for the right pooch. We were inclined to Jack Russells, Cairns and related mixes. We ideally wanted a fast, strong, big little dog.
One thing I didn’t do was discover that there’s a book called “The Adopted Bible” by the Petfinder.com people. Now I know. We’ve now checked it out, after the fact.
So, after finding out that many of the dogs were being quickly adopted, we decided to go visit one that was described as a Patterdale Fell Terrier, 3 years old. It was the only one with that breed label that I had seen. Googling the breed brought up kinda interesting results: a small pit bull sort of thing bred for catching woodchucks. Not recognized by some associations because it has no fixed physical description, just a function.
“Fruitie” was at a Boys Home that was located in a doublewide out in the country. The 10 “second chance” teens who lived there helped work an operation that rescued dogs, cats and horses (300, 50 and 100 in past year). We instantly fell for her. Is that how it always is? She was winsome with everyone there. Quiet, yet approaching everyone and giving them long, sweet, unblinking looks.
She’s now “Pickles” (sometimes Poochy or Pickleton). She’s fitting in fine. We checked out a half dozen dog-training books and will get her into a class as soon as she has some basic housetraining down pat.
She seems to be our ideal. She sniffs and patrols like a hunting dog. Runs like a racehorse. Is as sweet as a lap-kitty.
Those who’ve followed OYB awhile might see that Pickles looks familiar. She has to be as close to our (famous) old Skeeter as could be. What were the chances? It’s kinda spooky.
Internet-adopting was an interesting process, I tell ya. The Net sure has changed things. …But that’s also how I got Daisy, way back in 1996 when the Web was darn new. I used it to locate our sweet GWP who was in need of rescue. She was chained out back of a shack. Didn’t even have a name. Yet the Web led her to us. Amazing.
Welcome to “Pickles,” the latest cyber addition to our family!
Lap dog.
The ears can go every which way — up, down, back — folded back, folded forward.
Staunch pointer!
Run!
Canter. (She can blaze like a thoroughbred through the snow.)
Staunch! (I sound like Edie of Grey Gardens when I say it, but that’s the word!)
Lap dog.
Staunch window watcher.
