7 Mar 2018

Year of the Dog

Two and a half years after Flemington's demise, we felt ready to have another dog.

We had two conditions to meet for our new dog:  firstly, it must be a Jack Russell, or a Jack Russell cross.  And secondly, it must be from an animal shelter, as we wanted to give a homeless dog a home.

As you can imagine, it's fairly difficult to find a Jack Russell in a dog shelter.  We scoured their websites for weeks, and even visited a couple of these shelters unsuccessfully.  The dogs in these homes are mainly large dogs like mastiffs, which would not really suit us.

We finally found what we were looking for in a dog pound in the little town of York, about 100 km east of Perth.  A quick phone call to confirm it was still available and off we went.
York is WA's oldest inland town, established in 1835.
He is a Jack Russell cross (the pound didn't know with what) and is a very excitable little fellow - showing all the exuberance of a Jack Russell.

What was different was his colouring, which was very un-Jack Russell like.  He is a brindle with the streaks of black, which led the the pound calling him Little Tiger.
The people in the middle car labelled "Dirty D" may not get accommodation in Settler's House, judging by their policy advertised.
Lunch at the local pub before picking up our little doggie.
And here's the little fella:
I'm pretty sure he's crossed with a Chihuahua.  He's got the bulging eyes and pointy ears characteristic of them.   And he's quite a bit smaller than a regular Jack Russell.
He's 14 months old.  The ranger in York told us he belonged to a lady in the town of Southern Cross (370 km east of Perth) who had this fella and a large German Shepherd.  They didn't get along and she surrendered this fella for his own good.  He had been in the pound for only a week before we took him up.
Still a pup, he's very playful and has a lot of JR qualities - stubborn, determined and highly energetic.

He appears to have gone past the destructive stage, knows how to use the doggie doors in our house (which is a huge plus) and also appears to have been house trained.

His new name?  I'm calling him Ripper - Ripper the Jack.

2 comments:

  1. It looks absolutely lovely! My friend in New Zealand would rescue pups too, pugs in particular, and raise them with lots of TLC!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, suituapui. Pugs are very loveable dogs. They love to eat. My sister had one in Singapore, kept running away to the nearby coffee shop to ask for food from the customers.

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