11/3/2023 - A Very Good Boy!

 I had a heck of a time finding another dog after Steve's death. Everyone one of my dogs has been a second-hand dog . . . all from rescues except for Walter, and Walter was given to me by his second owner.  This time, as I searched online, every rescue wanted me to fill out an application, check my referrals and approve my application before even talking to me.  I missed out on several dogs this way, by the time my application was approved the dog had already been adopted.  There were 2 dogs I passed on because they had been returned to the rescue after an 'incident' with the previous adopter (usually a bite) and one because of age and energy level.  A couple of the rescues never even contacted me back after I sent in an application.  I was disappointed and down and had just decided to stop looking and just hold onto my wonderful memories of Steve when the Babinski Foundation in Pequot Lakes, MN called to tell me that my application for 'Jones' had been approved and he was still available if I wanted to come and visit.  I was very excited and immediately called my best friend of 40 years and she said she was eager to take the trip with me to meet Jones.  

     Within an hour we were on the road and, guided by the pleasant voice on her phone map app, we made it to Pequot Lakes (150 miles to the east)  in three hours (the map app took us on all the back roads)!  While looking at blurbs written to describe the dogs up for adoption I began to notice certain key words . . . hesitant, shy, hangs back . . . because most dogs in rescues in this part of the country have been taken from high kill shelters in the southern states and transported to foster based rescues up here. The foster families usually provide the information about the dogs' personality to the folks in charge and the blurb is written.  Is the dog crate trained? friendly? good with kids or cats? etc. is info gathered by the foster families.  I started looking for words like friendly and/or happy and that is what I found in the blurb written about Jones.  However, when I arrived at the Babinski Foundation, I learned that Jones had been at the shelter and not in a foster home so many of the questions I had could not be answered. I did learn that he had been picked up as a stray in Galveston TX and had been at the Babinski shelter for about 3 weeks).  My friend and I met Jones (he WAS friendly) and walked him around the grounds (the place was gorgeous) and I made the decision to bring him home.  

For many reasons, that I won't bore you with, I choose to believe this match was arranged by Steve.  OK, one thing I'll mention is that I was looking for an older dog and Jones was advertised to be 4 years old.  Our vet says that 1 1/2 yrs is more likely . . . I'd never have gone to see him if his real age was listed.  But he's been here 7 weeks now and, although he has lots of puppyish behavior, he is a wonderful dog and a very good boy!  I'm not in love with him yet like I was with Steve, but I have no doubt that will happen.  I've been as careful as I can with his first few weeks to be gentle, kind and patient, hopefully to build his sense of safety and trust.  I was concerned, because his appearance so resembles a basenji, that I might have gotten in over my head with him but his DNA test came back as 50% Chihuahua and 50% 15 other breeds.  A real mix of everything from Pekingese to GSD and chow. His DNA percentages of herding, retrieving or hunting breeds is minimal so I don't have much in breed instincts to deal with.   I was very cautious when introducing him to the dog park (the dog park is a big part of my social life and very close to the house) because I wanted to make sure his initial experiences were good and to my great relief, he is a wonderful park dog, he loves other dogs and is appropriate in greetings and play. He just wants to play and have fun.  

I decided to call him Amis.  According to what I read on the historical names website, amis is the root word, in several languages, for 'friend' or 'friendly' and that is just what I wanted. Another friend.  Amis Jones, a nod to his rescue name.  I hope I can continue to report wonderful things about Amis, I hope he has only good experiences and lots of love from everyone he meets.  I want to love him as much as I loved Steve.