Tuesday, November 14, 2006

the crew

the dogs of "Sweetgrass Kennel" ( left to right) Camille, Moxie, Tazzy, Trevor, Hunter and Charlie. picture was taken December 2005.

the brothers!!

I have felt a little guilty that Trevor and Hunter haven't had their picture on the blog. So tonite I went searching and found this one.. the two of them together!!! And if it's hard to tell them apart, that's OK, because they really are brothers, a matched set!!! In this picture, Trevor is on the left and Hunter is on the right.

In real life, Hunter is a little bigger than his brother and has a curlier coat. He is also more patient than his brother, I call him the "salt of the earth". He is not easily phased by things and seems to roll with the punches. Trevor is more fiery, any new dogs that come into the house, are met with growls first, and "get to know you" second. He doesn't like things to be out of order. Funny how they can be a like in so many ways, and so very different in other way.

We got Hunter and Trevor thru rescue. I received a call to foster a puppy (which of course I said yes to -- especially when I was told that he was only 10 weeks old!!) and when I met the family, there wasn't one puppy... there were two.... little black, bear-like babies!!! I remember coming into the house, with one under each arm and said to Ed "look honey... twins". Now, as luck would have it.. it was November and rescue doesn't like to do adoptions during the holidays, besides these babies at 10 weeks, needed a little growing up time, so we knew that we would have them for a while. (just occurred to me... all the dogs that we have adopted from rescue have come to us the month of November... that's IT... no more "november dogs!!!") Any ways, back to the story... as you can imagine, it doesn't take too long to fall in love with a puppy, and I knew I had hit the jackpot, when Ed said one night (cuddling Hunter) "you know this little guy could stay"... well... no way was Hunter going to stay and Trevor wasn't... so, you can guess the rest of the story!!!!

By the way, the reason they had been turned into rescue was a family had gone to pick out a cocker puppy from this "breeder", but they couldn't make up their mind between the two boys, and decided to buy them both. They also had a three year old son, and after a couple of weeks, were almost driven mad trying to house train two puppies and potty train their son. Plus teach their son how to properly treat a dog(s)... they didn't want to return them to the "breeder" (ie: not the greatest of places) nor did they want to just leave them in the shelter, and thus cocker rescue came into the play. Their names had been chosen by the family and since "we weren't going to keep them" I just continued to use the names they had come with. Actually, though, their names fit them well!!!

They turned 5 this past September (which hardly seems possible!!) and have been great little guys to have around the house. Sadly, I haven't done much "obedience" with them, both have their CGCs and Trevor played flyball for a while (picked up two titles there), but mainly I have enjoyed them just a pet/house dogs. and of course, part of my two "matched sets" of dogs!!!!