One Week In And I Still Have My Fingers

Well today marks one week since we bought our little dynamo home. Don't be fooled by the picture above - these are the sweet moments of having a puppy. What you can't see are the continual battles to provide and outlet for puppy mouthing. Now I don't mean he talks back, but I'm convinced that if he could talk, he would talk back. Puppies have some alien need to bite everything at this age. I'd forgotten all about this but it's all coming back now. After one week, we've both become pretty good at providing a toy for his ravenous biting appetite. Nothing is off limits. Your limbs, your face, your ears. your kitchen cabinets, the floor, the wall, basically everything. Tonight  he was doing his damnedest to chew on the concrete outside.

I've been told that this will all soon pass and to not worry so much. My wife and I deem ourselves lucky that we have our fingers intact and able to type and work on our computers. It can be overwhelming at times when you'd just like to have a puppy lick your face instead of a little demon trying to rip off your earlobes. But just when you think he's gone mad, he turns into the little angel above. Now who's going to argue with this? It's all worth it when he's like that.

Now having a puppy makes you pretty much worry about all sorts of stuff you'd not normally think much about. We worry about if he's going to chew the wrong thing. We worry about him getting stuck in his crate or his x-pen. We worry if he's got worms. We worry about hawks. Yes, hawks. We hadn't added hawks to our list of worries until our breeder warned us to be careful of hawks. Little JR puppies look wonderfully like rabbits at Gumbo's age. Now we were worried! We do have 2 or 3 neighborhood hawks that we watch almost on a nightly basis. We always thought how beautiful and graceful they were. Now it was war. We came up with this poor man's hawk proof x-pen to keep him safe while on his bathroom breaks.

It's not exotic but damn if it doesn't do the job. If you look close, you'll see the edges to his grassy area. In this drought stricken area of Southern California, we're pretty conscious of our water use so we've narrowed our backyard down to an 8 x 8 piece of real estate just for Gumbo. 

So onward and upward to our next Gumbo adventure. Next time we'll speak of the challenge we face with his bathroom breaks and the correct timing. Just like having a baby. Stay tuned!

Dogs: Woman's Best Friend

My husband and I recently said goodbye to our little fur child.  His name was Rascal and he was a Jack Russell Terrier. We were lucky to have him in our lives for almost 15 wonderful years.

We never had any children and were used to a very solitary life of reading, gardening, and traveling. We were afraid that we wouldn't be good parents to a breed of dogs who are notorious for being high-energy and willful.  Beforehand, we even found ourselves taking quizzes about whether or not we would be able to "handle" a dog with such special needs.  It was scary; but we were willing to take a chance.

I think I first fell in love with Jack Russell Terriers when I watched PBS's "Wishbone".  It was a show for children featuring a dog who was able to talk, read and travel back in time to become a character in literature and teach kids to love reading.  I'm an English Literature Major, so this was right up my alley. In the series, Wishbone would wear cute costumes and would be Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood.

Then, I saw the movie, "My Dog Skip".  That had to be the cutest dog and the cutest story I'd ever seen. To top it all off, a flower shop in my town owned a little JR named Gumbo who would often hop up onto the window display at the store and I'd see him whenever I drove by. It really was like the song, "How much is that doggie in the window?"  And then, of course, there was the JR in the movie "Mask" and the TV series "Frazer."

So, with much trepidation, my husband and I threw caution to the wind and became parents to our little 8 week old JR who we named Rascal before we'd even met him.  We picked out his name, thinking that it best described the temperament of this lovable but challenging breed.  It was love at first sight.  He was the runt of the litter and had a interesting early life: his mother had become "Mommy Dearest" and attacked and killed the last puppy of the litter.  She had tried to kill our little boy, too, until the breeder intervened.  The breeder had to separate the mother from the rest of the puppies and bottle-feed the rest of the litter.  Everyone loves an "underdog" and that's who our little Rascal was.  I immediately considered myself his "mother" and protector.  I was going to save this little dog from his psycho mom.  He weighed only 6 ounces when we brought him home.  I was so afraid that I was going to step on him and crush him accidentally.

My husband and I love to travel: we have been to France, Italy, England, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and Switzerland and many big towns in the US such as New York, New Orleans, and Chicago.  But our lives entirely changed when we brought this little bundle of joy into our world. Whenever we traveled, all we could think about was coming home and seeing our Rascal again.  We even cut vacations short because we missed him so much.  We were truly smitten. 

Our little fur child died almost 4 weeks ago.  He had "been there for me" through it all and was by my side when I lost both my parents and my brother and sister, who died 3 months from each other. Rascal and I were inseparable.  Whenever I'd be gone for the afternoon, when I opened the front door he was there waiting for me and would crawl on the ground with his tail wagging until I got down on my hands and knees and crawled right along with him.  He acted like I'd been gone for days.

 We brought his ashes home shortly after he passed.  I'm so glad to finally have him back.  He was the best dog in the world.

Gumbo Has Landed!

Gumbo is here!

We brought him home this past Thursday afternoon on a day that was over 100 degrees here in So Cal. Welcome to summer. As we drove home we could see the billowing clouds of smoke from the Lake fire in the nearby San Bernardino mountains burning all the dried lumber it could. This is a bad fire this early in the season.

Gumbo sat, or should I say wiggled, in my wife's lap the whole hour drive home. He's at that wonderful mouthing stage that I completely forgot. It was all my wife could to to keep from getting completely chewed up by those wonderful puppy teeth. I'm convinced that the Pentagon should be looking into puppy teeth for their next round of weaponry.

He's taken to his new home remarkably well. The first night was a memorable one. We learned that he has a very good set of lungs on him. After we turned out the lights for the night, we heard sounds coming from him that I'm sure were the same sounds in the Exorcist movie. Boy! That was a fun night. Since then, he's been quiet every night. What a change!

He has taken to his crate right away even without our prodding. With our last Jack Russell, we just used an X-pen with newspapers and pillows. This time we're getting serious and trying to be real honest-to-goodness Jack Russell owners by using a crate. He seems to love it and that makes us feel much better!

His home here is in our kitchen which has undergone much puppy-proofing on a daily basis. I've forgotten all the wonderful things they like to chew on. He's working on the edge of the refrigerator now. I haven't figured out how to deal with that but stay tuned and we'll see. Next step is to hawk-proof our yard!

Ask Around - Breeders Know!

When my wife and I searched for our Jack Russell, we compiled a rather lengthy list of breeders from across the country. Emails were sent out and requests made for upcoming litters and information about their dogs. Everyone we communicated with was polite and very nice about our circumstances. They all seemed to truly understand the pain we were feeling having just lost our little guy.

We narrowed the search to one breeder who was local to Southern California and made arrangements to get our little bundle of joy. We spoke on the phone and they assured me with a long list of qualifications, awards, shows, quality of dogs and references as well. Everything about this breeder was perfect I thought. Their website was perfect and convincing. When I made the final arrangements to come see their dogs, they suggested we meet halfway so that I didn't have to drive all the way there as the roads were bad to their location. I thought, OK, they're being nice and considerate. My wife, the wiser of the two, smelled something wrong. She suggested that didn't it sound funny that a breeder was hesitant to have us see their place? I had to agree but my heart was trying its best to ignore the obvious. My wife is so sweet and supported me completely even though her heart felt differently. Onward I went finalizing the pickup and payment. I took the time to email the other breeders to let them know I had found a pup in Southern California and that we'll be going with them.

Several days before we were scheduled to meet, I received an email from on of the other breeders who wished us well. The last part of her email said that she was happy for us and hoped we hadn't bought a pup from Breeder X (name withheld) - they were trouble. When I read that last line, I was dumbfounded. How could they know about Breeder X and what was so bad? Well, as it turned out, alot. After calling the breeder who warned us, I found that she was an attorney who had been pursuing Breeder X and all the other Jack Russell breeders felt the same. She send me a 27 page copy of Breeder X's criminal records, legal papers and the best, a mug shot. Well that did it. We cancelled the deal right then and made arrangements with another breeder of much better repute. Boy did we dodge a bullet!

The moral of the story for me was to first and foremost, trust my wife's instincts! She knew the deal was bad from the start. Also, if I had to do it again, I'd talk to the breeders about their breed community. They know alot about each other. Alot! They are not afraid to share this with you and are very supportive of each other. Boy did I learn alot!

Now we have our new little Gumbo home. He's been in our home now for about 48 hours and what a difference he's made. More on that in upcoming posts as we learn again how to raise and train a Jack Russell puppy.

What if your breeder turns out to be a crook?

OK so I couldn't resist sticking a picture of the beloved Uggie into this post. Whenever I think of him in the Artist I laugh out loud. Of course the real story behind the Artist is Uggie's story. He once belonged to a family who was going to send him to the pound for biting a goat in their back yard. He was just 7 months old at the time. Hearing this, the current owner rescued him and the rest as they say, is history.

Now what does this have to do with breeders being crooks? Well, it's a long story. Let me begin.

Many weeks ago, we lost our beloved Jack Russell. After we regained some sense of life, both of us agreed that we needed another puppy to pour our love into. Now I know what you're saying; why not go to the pound and adopt a dog there? Wouldn't that be better? Believe me, many people have told us that too. Each week when our newspaper has it's pet pages, I fall in love with most of the dogs there and wish I could find places for all of them. But, there's something about Jack Russell terriers that we can't get away from. There's no other dog for us I'm afraid.

So, setting our guilt aside, we began to search high and low for Jack Russell puppies. We compiled a list of breeders both near and far. What did we ever do without the Internet? We learned that many breeders routinely ship puppies across country if you like. Some even travel with them in the cabin. Wow. Who knew? Well, despite finding that many out of state breeders had litters of the most beautiful dogs, we chose to narrow our search for breeders in a driving distance of our home in Southern California. We soon had a few good choices and after much web site perusals, we narrowed down our search to one that had pups and a great price too. The pictures of them on the web site were great and everything looked wonderful. My heart and soul were sold! What could go wrong? I thought everything looked great but in retrospect, I had ignored some pretty large things. My wife knew and was smarter. I was going my heart instead of my mind.

So what happened then? Stay tuned for more in the next post. Oh and one more thing about Uggie. Our new little guy, Gumbo is related to him. Seems his aunt was Uggies brother. Maybe we'll have a star on our hands!

Now we must speak of Rascal

Rascal at 8 weeks old
2000

Almost 15 years ago we brought home our first Jack Russell Terrier. Both of us were full of trepidation and worry if we could handle one of these little balls of energy. Sure, we had seen My Dog Skip and the Wishbone TV series that had us absolutely hooked on JRs. We even met two sweet JRs right in our own hometown who happily resided in a florist shop window. Even though we were full of resolve, we still wondered if we were up to the task of being an owner of a Jack Russell.

When we located a breeder who had 4 puppies, we eagerly sprang into action and made arrangements to see them. Out on the edge of wine country, east of Temecula, we found the most beautiful dog in the world. One of 4 handsome puppies, my wife zeroed in on one named Oliver right away enticed by the fact that he was the 'runt' of the litter according to the breeder. He ran and played with a joy and abandon that soon won our hearts over completely. That day we took Oliver for a place in our home and heart and christened him Rascal. 

Well, all those years later we did ourselves proud. We had been successfully trained by our first Jack Russell. He was such a joy to be with and gave us love and unquestionable devotion every single day of his life. He lived a long life although it will never be enough for us. Finally succumbing to the ravages of kidney failure, he was loving and devoted until the very end. We loved him so much and I don't think we'll ever get over his passing. 

Now we must move forward and in 2 days, we begin the cycle once again. An 8 week old puppy awaits us and our hearts are full of joy, anticipation and love to welcome another little ball of energy into our home. Rascal, we will never forget you or everything you taught us about you and ourselves. Let's hope we can be half as good as parents to Gumbo as you were as a loving companion to us. Then we'll know we've succeeded and done right by your memory.

Until we meet you again over that rainbow road. We miss you little guy.

Three days until Gumbo comes home

Today marks just three days until our new little Jack Russell bundle of energy and joy comes home to become part of our world. I hope and endeavor to document as much as I can about raising this little guy. Having recently just lost our first Jack Russell, we found that we couldn't remember much of his early days so trying to keep a record of our efforts, struggles, joys and everything else will make sure that this new little man, Gumbo, will stay in our memory forever in the pages of this blog.

Stay tuned for everything Jack Russell and how we cope as parents raising another pup. Maybe along the way we can share our experiences and even learn from those of you out there with more experience that us. Please feel free to chime in. We'll be here!