The DU Lounge

The great dog of my life. The dog we should have known better than to buy.

DH was working nights and wanted me to have a dog for protection. Cash-strapped as usual, we went to a backyard breeder who turned out to have puppy-mill aspirations, but only had a breeding pair. The pups were all overage for selling - it seems other buyers knew better than we did. I looked up the AKC records later and found out not a single other pup from that litter was ever registered. Now, not everybody registers their purebred dogs, but there should have been at least one. I know they wouldn't have paid for euthanasia and hope desperately that they were dropped off at the Humane Society.

The canine parents were penned outside and obviously unsocialized. The pups had been separated from the mom and placed in the basement for inspection. They had to be dragged out from behind the furnace by main force. One of them was nearly catatonic with fear.

DH and I left and discussed the matter. (We have a standing tradition that we don't buy anything important without leaving the premises and talking first. We go back the next day if we're still interested.) I was worried and didn't want to reward these people for their misdeeds.

DH argued that we couldn't leave them there and had to rescue one - he wanted the one in the worst condition. And we got Autumn.

I won't get into the whole history, because it would take waayyy too long. Physically, she was fine. Mentally, she was in horrific shape. But she managed to bond with us and didn't turn into a fear-biter. She was scared to death and did it anyway because she trusted us. She went through obedience classes. We walked around the lake. She learned to have fun. She stood between fighting cats, between screaming infants and the hapless individual who was trying to jolly them out of it. If anybody, even a stranger, sneezed in my house, she licked them until she nearly drowned them in dog spit, because that would help. She just wanted everybody to get along.

I could have done everything I did to work with her and failed. It was all her. She was the one who had the courage to trust me.

She was the bravest dog I will ever know.