My mother and father were the owners of the parents of Joan's dog Spike. We had brought them both back from the UK, after we were stationed there for the second time, my father was USAF. They were both from Champion lines, my dog, Dusty, the male, was from quite notable lines, his father a UK champion. I trained and showed him when were in England, we came back to the US, and the breed was pretty unknown. Both were sturdy dogs, no damn teacups in any of their litters unless they were a genuine runt. Our female, Penny, was at the top of the weight standard, and had at least two litters of 7! True terriers, and I loved them. Mine would love to ride on the top of my Yamaha gas tank, would walk and heel without a leash, and obeyed the stay command with me out of sight, or in the store, and would not go with anyone. Of course I wouldn't do any of these things NOW, but I was a teen, with a very well trained dog, who LOVED the wind in his hair on my motorcycle.
I actually answered the phone when Joan inquired about the puppy for sale, I had no idea who I was talking to, but I gave the call to my mother, she asked a few questions, and she introduced herself. Her daughter Melissa came to pick the puppy up, which was a bit disappointing. Spike looked very much like my dog Dusty. One of these days I will upload the best photos of them both, but I do have this one of my brother when they were both puppies, sometime about 1979-80.
My parents would tell folks they had sold Joan her dog, until she published an autobiography where she stated that the dog was abused, and that she had rescued Spike. My parents weren't too pleased. Mind you, I don't think many people read the darn book, but still. Spike lived a good long time. Dusty and Penny did as well, Penny died of natural causes at 18. My dog sadly drowned during a family visit to my aunt's home in LV, we had meticulously taught both dogs how to escape from a fall in our pool, teaching them where the exits were. They would even teach the puppies that would race each other around the pool. Sadly, my dog wasn't familiar with my aunt's pool, her parents didn't want to deal with both dogs when we left for a couple hours, and put them outside. I was devastated thinking of my poor dog swimming forever trying to figure out how to get of the pool. He was about 14 at the time. |