Seven years? It doesn't seem possible!
I came across this picture a couple of days ago:
This picture, sent to us through the mail, was our first glimpse of the skinny, scraggly dog who would become our wonderful Scooch and change our lives completely. Mistakenly identified by her rescuer as a Bearded Collie mix, Scooch turned out to be a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, probably mixed with something we can't identify.
On March 4, 1999, we met her in a hotel room in Springfield, IL. She had been shaved down to remove all of the mats, and this was what we saw:
She
bounced onto the bed, into our hearts,
and has been at the center of our lives ever since.
She has traveled the country with us in three different motor-homes, put up with our moves from Tennessee to Colorado and to three different homes here, has tolerated and trained her two Bearded Collie "brothers", brought tremendous joy to many people as a therapy dog, and is a treasured part of our family.
Along
with a few recent pictures,
here are a few of Scooch's stories from the last year.
Four of the seven years since we adopted her, Scooch has had the honor of being in the Beardies of the World calendar - more times than Boogie and Shadow combined. This year, the category was "Grungy/Soggy Beardies!"
Scooch is the "boss dog" around here. When we first got her, she was our only dog for about 5 months until Boogie joined the family. Until he came along, all of the toys and bones belonged to Scooch. She was delighted to have Boogie around, but he didn't know anything about playing, so she taught him. In 2003, we added Shadow, then a 12-week-old puppy, to the family, and Scooch taught him very quickly that she was to be respected.
Now that she's older (we think she's probably around 9 years old), Scooch doesn't have much interest in toys or bones. But every so often, she'll walk up to one of the boys, take whatever they're chewing on or playing with, walk a few steps away and either chew on the bone for a while or shake the toy in the other dog's face until he plays a short game of tug with her. When she's satisfied that her target remembers who's in charge, she gives back the stolen item and walks away.
Because of Boogie's Addison's Disease, we retired both Scooch and Boogie from regular therapy work last spring. Until then, we had been doing 3 hours of visits in 5 different areas of a local assisted-living to hospice facility every Tuesday for over a year. Scooch often entertained the group in this picture with dancing and tricks. In the other areas we visited, we went room-to-room visiting the less ambulatory residents.
We recently moved from our home in the pines north of Colorado Springs to a new home on small acreage on the plains east of the city, mainly to enjoy one-level living . . . our last 3 homes have all had stairs. Scooch really seems to like it here. She's always been an indoor dog, but now she spends a lot of time lying on the back porch. The neighbor behind us has three horses, and she watches them without comment, but when neighbors ride their horses down the street, she objects very vocally!
This is still my all-time favorite picture of Scooch! Her favorite pastime is still riding in the car or RV. She still loves vegetables of all kinds, and we still have to watch her weight. She has become more generous with kisses from that lovely purple tongue, sometimes even offering them without being asked. She loves children and other people of all ages, and is still a little testy around other dogs if they're too enthusiastic in greeting her. She is a delightful companion and we are very grateful to have her in our lives.
We're getting ready to head for Kansas City, MO for the annual "Wheaten Meetin'" on Thursday, so Bill has been preparing the RV for the trip. He needed to go into town to buy a part, so as a special treat on her special day, Scooch got to go for a ride all by herself with Bill. When they got home, he told me that he had stopped by McDonald's and bought Scooch her very own junior burger to celebrate. What more could a girl ask?
So, with our thanks yet again to those who helped bring this great girl into our lives, particularly Marilynn, Karen and Cindy . . .
HAPPY GOTCHA DAY, SCOOCH!
