My Girlkin spaniel mix --Ysabelle
I lost my Bernese Mtn dog mix a few years ago. At 70lbs, he was a shrimp next to a true Berner, but he looked exactly like one. At 9 am one morning he was fine and frisky, and by 5:30 he had died. My vet suspected a ruptured tumor, and internal bleeding. We were stunned and devastated. He was 8 years old.
I've fostered several dogs over the years. The one who was hardest to let go, the one who still haunts me at times, was Boone, a boykin spaniel mix who, at a mere 6 months of age, knew how to chill for hours on the couch at home and gallop around like a madman when the opportunity presented itself at the park. As a puppy, he already lived by the maxim 'when in Rome...'
God, I miss that dog.
Eighteen months or so after Ramsey's death, I took a deep breath and started searching for boykin spaniel mixes in shelters and rescues.
They are pretty rare, since the population of boykin spaniels itself is pretty small.
I found one, though. About 7 months old, a female. Only she was in South Carolina. 6 hours away. That's ONE way.
I wheedled middle son, teen-aged at the time, to come along, brought my stalwart border collie mix, Yoda, to make sure he could tolerate her, and off we went.
Six hours is a long time to wind up in the parking lot of an institutional looking building with a lot of nothing-else sprawling in all directions around it.
We went in to meet our maybe girl, dubbed Jarvis by the shelter staff. Who calls a girl Jarvis?
She thought Yoda was just fine, and he didn't get that long suffering look in his eyes like he had with some of my fosters.
We loaded her up and brought her home, and, crazy as the whole thing was, it has worked out just beautifully. She's the girl in my life, a little Yin to balance the wonderful, but sometimes overwhelming Yang of my 3 now grown boys. She has energy that won't quit, but she's somehow geared herself down to be my constant companion when I go through stretches of ME/CFS that keep me bed bound.
She's smart as a whip, eager to please, fanatic about fetch, sweet and steady, but not needy. She's my gal.
I just wish Ramsey and Boone could have met her.
Pictured are:
Ramsey
Boone
Yoda
And my girl, Ysabelle
|
Threaded Mode