Hello everyone. I'd like to introduce myself and my family to the forum.
I'm Andy, the proud parent of Colt, a pure bred JRT that I adopted from a family friend who had to give him up due to a work situation, and Ruger, my new GSD.
A little background, then I'll get to the story of Ruger.
My G/f Sarah and I currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment in Concord NC. We have recently moved from the University area. Almost 2 years ago I adopted Colt, our JRT. He had been through a lot in his short life up to that point. His original family wasn't all that nice to him, because like all JRTs he had lots of energy and lots of personality and they couldn't handle him. It also didn't help matters that he was hit by a car when he was a puppy and has an underdeveloped leg. He was then adopted by a family friend who loved him very much and made him into a pretty good boy. Unfortunately the family friend took another job where he would be out of the house up to 14 hours a day, and just could not leave Colt alone that long. Being that I lived at the time with 3 other room-mates I said I would take him because I knew someone would be around almost all the time to take care of him. He is exceptionally smart, and only marginally hindered by his leg now that he has reached full size. He is still just as fast as a normal JRT, but he doesn't have the jumping ability that a healthy Jack would have. That is not always a bad thing!
After we moved to a new place, I expressed interest in adopting another dog, now that we have more room so Colt could have a buddy. We also had an incident about 3 days after moving in. Apparently sometime during the night someone was either trying to peep in to our place, or get in through the back door. Ever the good watchdog, Colt slept through the entire ordeal. I had always wanted a GSD, or other "working" style dog, and with Colt's enthusiasm for life, his intelligence, and his nature I knew we would need a smart breed to compliment him (and maybe wake up if someone tries to break in .)
After a few weeks of checking websites we decided to look around on CL and see what was available. We both ooh'd and ahh'd and "Dawwwwwww'd" over many different ads, for all kinds of dogs. Most of these were people who were moving, or had some kind of life event going on that was forcing them to give up their pets, and most had a $200+ re-homing fee. Then I saw a listing for one of the local shelters. It was one of the few around that is still a "kill" shelter, so we started looking through all the listings.
On page 2 there was a listing for a 2 - 3 year old male GSD.
This was Saturday night, 8-13-11. His adoption/put down date was 8-15!
I immediately showed the listing to Sarah and told her I wanted to call and check him out, provided he was still there on Monday morning. We checked into the shelter website and saw that there was a $90 fee to adopt which included a wellness check and having him fixed. Sarah agreed. Monday morning I woke up early and called the shelter. They did confirm they still had him, but as with all shelter dogs, it was a first come basis. 2 other people had already called to check on him that morning.
So I walked Colt, and hopped into my Jeep. This shelter is over 35 miles away. I got there in less than 45 minutes.
About an hour later and $90 lighter in the wallet, I was on my way back to the apartment, and Ruger was moved from his holding kennel to the waiting kennel to be sent to the vet. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the apartment and gathering supplies.
The next day I got a call from the vet telling me that his surgery had went just fine, and that I could come get him in a few hours. The only issue is that he is heartworm positive. Happily it is in its early stages and he is not symptomatic at all. The vet said we could wait a bit before having the treatment done, since he had just gotten lots of shots and been... cut.
The only other thing they said is "he smells awful!" so I had them give him a bath.
A few hours later I went to pick up my new buddy, and he got to enjoy his first of many Jeep rides.
Here he is all cleaned up and doing what he does best... laying around the house.
I'm Andy, the proud parent of Colt, a pure bred JRT that I adopted from a family friend who had to give him up due to a work situation, and Ruger, my new GSD.
A little background, then I'll get to the story of Ruger.
My G/f Sarah and I currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment in Concord NC. We have recently moved from the University area. Almost 2 years ago I adopted Colt, our JRT. He had been through a lot in his short life up to that point. His original family wasn't all that nice to him, because like all JRTs he had lots of energy and lots of personality and they couldn't handle him. It also didn't help matters that he was hit by a car when he was a puppy and has an underdeveloped leg. He was then adopted by a family friend who loved him very much and made him into a pretty good boy. Unfortunately the family friend took another job where he would be out of the house up to 14 hours a day, and just could not leave Colt alone that long. Being that I lived at the time with 3 other room-mates I said I would take him because I knew someone would be around almost all the time to take care of him. He is exceptionally smart, and only marginally hindered by his leg now that he has reached full size. He is still just as fast as a normal JRT, but he doesn't have the jumping ability that a healthy Jack would have. That is not always a bad thing!
After we moved to a new place, I expressed interest in adopting another dog, now that we have more room so Colt could have a buddy. We also had an incident about 3 days after moving in. Apparently sometime during the night someone was either trying to peep in to our place, or get in through the back door. Ever the good watchdog, Colt slept through the entire ordeal. I had always wanted a GSD, or other "working" style dog, and with Colt's enthusiasm for life, his intelligence, and his nature I knew we would need a smart breed to compliment him (and maybe wake up if someone tries to break in .)
After a few weeks of checking websites we decided to look around on CL and see what was available. We both ooh'd and ahh'd and "Dawwwwwww'd" over many different ads, for all kinds of dogs. Most of these were people who were moving, or had some kind of life event going on that was forcing them to give up their pets, and most had a $200+ re-homing fee. Then I saw a listing for one of the local shelters. It was one of the few around that is still a "kill" shelter, so we started looking through all the listings.
On page 2 there was a listing for a 2 - 3 year old male GSD.
This was Saturday night, 8-13-11. His adoption/put down date was 8-15!
I immediately showed the listing to Sarah and told her I wanted to call and check him out, provided he was still there on Monday morning. We checked into the shelter website and saw that there was a $90 fee to adopt which included a wellness check and having him fixed. Sarah agreed. Monday morning I woke up early and called the shelter. They did confirm they still had him, but as with all shelter dogs, it was a first come basis. 2 other people had already called to check on him that morning.
So I walked Colt, and hopped into my Jeep. This shelter is over 35 miles away. I got there in less than 45 minutes.
About an hour later and $90 lighter in the wallet, I was on my way back to the apartment, and Ruger was moved from his holding kennel to the waiting kennel to be sent to the vet. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the apartment and gathering supplies.
The next day I got a call from the vet telling me that his surgery had went just fine, and that I could come get him in a few hours. The only issue is that he is heartworm positive. Happily it is in its early stages and he is not symptomatic at all. The vet said we could wait a bit before having the treatment done, since he had just gotten lots of shots and been... cut.
The only other thing they said is "he smells awful!" so I had them give him a bath.
A few hours later I went to pick up my new buddy, and he got to enjoy his first of many Jeep rides.
Here he is all cleaned up and doing what he does best... laying around the house.