By Janice Dudeck
My story of adopting my black pup Cash started with the passing of my beloved Sparky in November of 2010 and then my mother-in-law passing away exactly one month later. Needless to say we had a very sad house for that winter. The following February someone came to my house by accident as they were looking for #36 of a street close by mine. The house that they were looking for was a foster home for Manitoba Mutts. This incident got me thinking – and I started to look up different dog rescues in the city and eventually landed on MMDR’s Facebook page. I started to look at all the different types of dogs and realized that I was looking for what I had lost – Sparky. Sparky was a Parson’s Jack Russell, white and tan in colour. I reminded myself that another Jack Russell was out of the question. While Sparky was an amazing, special dog that we loved to death the last eight years of his life (he lived to 14) the first six years resembled a love/hate relationship. Also, I knew that we could not replace him so we decided to go the opposite direction – a big black dog! I kept watching the website and saw so many beautiful pups get adopted as I was trying to make up my mind. Then I watched the saga of Julia and her pups, they were getting very adopted quickly and it was down to one black pup left - Rie. When I contacted MMDR I was told that there was a waiting list for him and that I had to submit an application and then attend the adoption fair that following Saturday to see if he was still available. At that point I pretty well gave up but submitted my application that Tuesday. The next day I got a call from Jill saying that the original person did not really work out and if I wanted him to come and get him...now! It was all quite a shock and it turned out that Jill lived only a few blocks away, her address was 36. Figuring that this had to be fate, how could I refuse? My daughter, Molly, and I went to meet Cash for the first time. As this happened pretty fast, I asked Jill if she could keep him for one more day while I prepped my house and myself for what I'd gotten myself into.
Needless to say Cash has been a work in progress; he is amazing and smart but also very trying… However, he has come along way since that first day! The dog trainer that we were working with said that he was the most strong-willed dog that she has come across, actually someone affiliated with MMDR that she knew had suggested to her to adopt him (this happened prior to us meeting her) because he would be a challenge for her. We didn't finish our obedience classes due to Cash being too much of a social butterfly and wanting to play with all the other pups (at this point he was about 70 lbs and hard to hold) and disrupted the class too much. He has come along way since that day - we love him to pieces and can not imagine our lives without him - he is such a character. He has helped our family to heal and give us joy again and challenges us daily all 87 lbs (and still growing) of him!
I like the saying that you don't always get the dog that you wanted but you end up with the dog that you needed - and that's how I feel about Cash.
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