Special Edition(s)

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Note: When a litter of adoptable, adorable, healthy puppies is maybe 50 yards away from my office desk, I am compelled to break my own rule of not featuring dogs up for adoption. I was armed only with my cell phone for photos, and these puppies are wiggly and snuggly – you’ll just have to see them for yourself. Oh, that new puppy smell!

With Cheri Bovee at Dirty Paws Pet Spa.

Waitsfield, Vermont. I drove to upstate New York, about 2 1/2 hours. It was very, very rural. They had kept her [the puppies’ mother] chained to the axle of a pickup truck, but it was supposed to rain so they put her in the pickup truck. When we arrived it was 92 degrees, and she was in that truck. No windows open.

The litter has four females and one male. They are nine weeks, they’ve had their first set of shots, they’ve been wormed three times. They’ve seen Dr. Hadden from the day after they were born.

Re-homing fee to adopt a puppy is $250 each. The mother has been adopted out already. My goal is to give every dog a home of their own, with their own boy or girl – a place of their own.

Visit the lab-mix puppies at Dirty Paws Pet Spa, 5081 Main Street, Waitsfield, Vermont. Telephone: 802-496-7297.

Rescued

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Fayston, Vermont. With Susie Snow and her daughter Cecelia, along with Mavis, Cleo, and Simon.

Mavis came from Riverside Rescue in Lunenburg, Vermont. She’s eight, turning nine in January. Mavis came from this woman – she was an older woman – who had a mixed breed female. The woman kept breeding her, selling the mixed breed dogs for $50 each. The litter before her [Mavis], all the puppies died because they had a brain abnormality. So when they took Mavis’ litter to Lunenburg, they told the woman that they’d take the mother too, but they need to spay her. So she was finally spayed after Mavis’ litter.

Cleo came from Potter’s Angels. We just got her off the truck – we hadn’t met or anything – and she’s fabulous. Cleo’s turning four, in December.

They both got lost in the woods together for three days last year, down at my father’s camp in Reading. When we found her, Cleo had attacked a porcupine. Quills were in her mouth and her legs. She couldn’t walk on one of her legs. We feel that Mavis helped lead her out. It was amazing. When we got the phone call that they had been found and went to pick them up, we took them to an emergency vet in Rutland. Cleo had quills everywhere. The quills had been in so long that the tops had popped off. When we had to take Mavis out of the room, she cried and cried. Their bond was so strong. We think that Mavis saved Cleo’s life… Cleo’s never off the leash now.

Simon, who is my cousin Kelly’s dog, was found in a ditch in Tennessee. He was 2-3 weeks old. My cousin Kelly’s best friend found him. They had him for about six months before Kelly adopted him. He lives in Warren village.

Note: I met Susie through her work with Golden Huggs Rescue, for whom she had previously fostered dogs. Susie performed our pre-adoption house visit before we adopted Lucy.

Another note: My posts will now be coming monthly. My work load has made scheduling interviews difficult, and I really don’t want to write about my dogs all the time! I know I can find many, many more stories out there, but I need to give myself a little more time. If you are interested in participating in an interview for wagmorevt, please fill out the contact form below. Thank you!

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Linus, looking innocent.

Fayston, Vermont. Our house sits at the end of a gravel driveway, off of a dirt road. We travel about two miles down the mountain to fetch our mail and to buy groceries. My mom’s family is from rural Pennsylvania, where the trip to the mailbox is down a long driveway. During my rare visits there, dinner was generously served comfort food, created from home-grown ingredients and prepared by the women-folk. Post meal, if a man-folk’s digestion became odiferous, the women would scold “Go check the mail.”

Linus, go check the mail!

Linus likes to curl up next to me after dinner. The moment doesn’t last very long. He eats the same food as Lucy and Charlie Brown.

Lab Partners

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Luna and Huck

Waitsfield, Vermont. With Lisa Davis, Luna (black lab), and Huck (yellow lab).

Huck Reinhold, who’s named after the mountain climber, is my husband’s dog. [My husband Josh and I] were introduced after we both had lost our labs. And shortly later I adopted Luna. Then a friend had bred his two pets and wanted to give Josh a dog. We consider Huck a rescue because we don’t know where he might have ended up if Josh hadn’t taken him for free.

Luna is from Lab Rescue. I got her when she was 18 months to 2 years old. Her name is Luna Juno because the movie “Juno” was out at the time.

She picked me. I went in to pick up a foster dog, and Luna had just come into Lab Rescue. She jumped up on the counter and introduced herself to me, and I said “I’m taking her.” I wasn’t even sure I was ready to take a dog yet.

She has been a vigilant mother to our son since he was born. She sleeps in his room. He went straight from a crib to a full-size bed otherwise he would have had to share a toddler bed with a lab. She sleeps with him every night.

I assumed that Huck’s namesake is Reinhold Messner, a mountaineer, adventurer, and author who is perhaps best known for making the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen (with Peter Habeler).

Lisa Davis is the Executive Director of the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Lisa, for participating!

The Replacements

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On deck: Lucy & Charlie Brown

Fayston, Vermont. My son recently left home for his first year of college. He is an only child. Before he left, he was often asked how I was coping with his departure. His usual deadpan reply: “She’s replaced me with dogs.”

“How so?” I asked him one day.

“Well, each dog represents part of my personality,” he explained. “Linus – he’s kind of lazy. He can lie around the house all day.”

Following his thinking, I noted “That’s pretty normal for a teenage boy.”

“Lucy,” he continued “is always wagging. She’s always happy.”

I smiled. My son’s personality is very happy-go-lucky, like Lucy. “Go on,” I said.

“And Charlie,” he concluded, “doesn’t always listen to you, Mom.”

“But he’s easily bribed with cookies,” I replied.

“True,” he said, as a big grin slowly spread across his face.

My son Erik attends Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. I miss him so much, I might need a few more dogs. JK!

In the hole: Linus takes over my son’s vacated spot on the couch.

A Dog of One’s Own

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Puppy Linus

Fayston, Vermont. “I found Linus,” he announced as he entered the living room, holding his laptop. My husband and I had been competing for puppy Lucy’s affection too much, I thought. I had always been the chief dog person in the house – he had to agree to take me and my dog when we were engaged. Many years and a succession of dogs later, when Lucy joined our family, he surprised me by becoming much more involved. So much so that I had told him to “Get your own puppy.”

I didn’t realize that he responded by trolling the web for available dogs.

We adopted Linus from Golden Huggs Rescue.

Hop on Pop! Charlie and Linus suggesting that it’s time for a walk.

Beautiful Day Celebrated

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Lucy takes in the view atop Mt. Ellen.

Fayston, Vermont. In last week’s post, I outlined how we planned to celebrate National Dog Day. I had to put that ambitious itinerary in writing, so I needed to follow it. However, the boys Linus and Charlie Brown accompanied “Dad” to trail work, leaving Lucy as my hiking, swimming, creemee sharing, grooming, and napping companion. Lucy and I hiked to the summit of Mt. Ellen, took a different way down that featured a thicket of thorns, then Lucy cooled off in the pond as I pulled nature from my shins and arms. We had barely settled on the couch for our nap when the boys arrived back home after a long day on the trail.

I took a few photos of our day, except that we were both quite sticky as we enjoyed the creemee so no photos of that part. Although every day is a dog day in our house, the designated day provided a really good excuse to channel Ferris by ignoring my schedule and “have to’s” and enjoy a beautiful summer day with my best girlfriend. We need more days like this!

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A Day for All Dogs

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Which way? Lucy finds her way at Mt. Ellen in Fayston, Vermont.

Happy National Dog Day! We’re celebrating by taking a long hike, then a swim, definitely a car ride, sharing a creamee, enjoying a good brushing, and indulging in a long nap. That doesn’t leave any time for work, does it?

A Muse’d

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Hutch admires the scene at the Great Vermont Plein Air Paint-Out.

Hutch admires his mom’s work at the Great Vermont Plein Air Paint-Out.

Waitsfield, Vermont. With Catherine Elliott: Hutch is a true artist’s dog. He is an English Labrador. Goes with me everywhere to painting events. His father is an international award winning show dog, but we just love his sweet temperament and good nature.

Hutch

To see his mom’s artwork visit: www.catherinemelliott.com.

Author’s notes: Last weekend, I was on assignment at the Vermont Festival of the Art’s “Plein Air” Paint-Out where I met Hutch and his person, Connecticut artist Catherine Elliott. Hutch immediately became a much-adored paint-out mascot! He didn’t seem to mind sharing the role with Mabel and Jenny, the McTigue sisters’ cats who live at Bridge Street’s All Things Bright & Beautiful.

What’s a “plein air” paint-out, you ask? It’s an event where artists gather to paint outside, in the open air, then show and sell their fresh work. If you missed the paint-out, check the Facebook page of the Valley Arts Foundation for my photo album.

Paint-Out spectators came in all sizes. I didn’t photograph every dog, but here’s a gallery of my three favorites: