Radical Canines

Next up is Rumor. Oh Rumor. He’s another one of a kind dog. He’s big and weird and most working/herding dogs seem to hate him. He gives off so much weird energy and is easily the noisiest of my dogs. A Lab, Aussie, Cattle Dog, German Shepherd mess of a mutt born February 2014. He was the dog that was only supposed to stay until he found his home.

I had seen a post on Craigslist about a female Aussie mix free to a good home. The woman who had her, had picked her up along with what was left of her litter of puppies out in the country along her bus route. Apparently the litter was initially fairly large but by the time the woman was able to get them, there were only 4 surviving puppies. Mom had stopped feeding them, the puppies were barely eating, and the rescuer was at a loss. I went to meet the female, while the puppies stayed inside. She was not happy about me or Ryder to say the least. (Hind sight – new place, litter of puppies, strange dog – I’m not surprised she was pissed). I decided rather quickly that she probably wouldn’t be a good fit to join Ryder and myself. That’s when it happened. The woman asked if I would consider taking a puppy. Mom wouldn’t feed them and the woman couldn’t afford one extra dog let alone the 4 puppies. So I met the litter. They were small and thin, covered in scabs from ticks, and very mellow. I figured I’d be able to teach some basic obedience, get a head start on potty training, and then find the puppy a permanent home easily enough. They were cute after all. SPOILER ALERT I WAS WRONG! I picked the flashy, black and white male, who was the largest and most active of the bunch, but still quite mellow.

As it turned out, Rue was one sick puppy. His initial vet visit later that day revealed he was likely around 5 weeks old and underweight, with a heart murmur and an upper respiratory infection. There was no going back, so we went home with meds and a follow up in a week. We made it a few days. He would barely eat or drink and seemed to be getting worse. A trip back to the vet revealed a positive Erlichia test and an insanely low white blood cell count. Enter more meds and syringe feeding multiple times a day (and night). It was a long few weeks but he eventually came around. Turns out, once he wasn’t sick, he was a wild puppy. By the time he was about 6 months old, I realized he wouldn’t be going anywhere. And so, his name became Rumor.

He’s still wild. He whines all the time. He gives 100% physically to everything he does but the brain isn’t always fully engaged. He challenges me to no end and I can’t even begin to count how many tears of worry, frustration, pain, and joy he’s brought me over the years. It’s quite possible he’s taught me more than I’ve taught him. Rumor could be amazing at almost everything he does, he just tends to be missing one key aspect of it. He handles great in agility granted a bit like a freight train, but drops most of the bars. He loves dock diving but isn’t a great swimmer which really isn’t much of an issue for the actual jumping part. He enjoys disc but has a hard time actually catching it. He’s a great rally dog but gets a little over enthusiastic with some of the maneuvers. Honestly, he doesn’t care one bit because he does it all with the utmost exuberance. He has accomplished more than I ever hoped and has definitely pushed the limits of what I thought possible.

Rumor is one of a kind. His version of greeting people is to wildly run up to them, maybe throw his entire weight against their legs, and then bounce away. He carries around shoes when he gets excited and it’s often accompanied by a weird whiney moan of sorts. When he was a puppy he used to pee from excitement when people touched him and still does it occasionally though not nearly as often. He’s not much of a cuddle but when he does he believes the only way to do it is to lay completely on top of you. He’s a bull in a china shop but at the end of the day he’s turned into a pretty good dog.