April 15, 2013

Blog the Change: My First Shelter Love

It's time again for Blog the Change. When I was trying to think of what I wanted to write about, I thought I might do a post on Black Dog Syndrome (if you've never heard of it, in a nutshell - black dogs, especially big ones, are much less likely to get adopted than their lighter shelter mates). While I was looking for a picture of Smiley, my sister's very lovable black Lab mix from my youth, I came across lots of pics of my first shelter love - Lazar Wolf:
Lazar, the day we brought her home - 1980

So, I'll have to save the BDS post for another time because it struck me that Lazar had a sort of Abby/Rita quality to her. She's got Abby's long and lean body type, and Rita's shepherdy looks.
Lazar, Abby & Rita: my shelter girls - beauties, all!
What do you think? Do you see similarities? Does it seem that I have a "type" that I fall in love with? (Of course, there were also two beagles interspersed in here... Our dog when I was little was a beagle named Barney, and the first dog the hubs and I had was Bailey the beagle, which explains my penchant for tri-colored pups.)

Lazar (named after a minor character in Fiddler on the Roof, which my sis was in in high school) was a very sweet girl! Like her angel sisters, she hated having a bath:
Lazar sitting on the edge of the tub. (Rita makes this exact same face.)
My dad worked for Goodyear, so she had a special tire she played with. It was technically supposed to be an ashtray, but minus the glass ashtray part in the middle, it made an awesome dog toy.


She also had the life-size version:
Nom nom nom. I love my tire.

As I mentioned above, we had a beagle before Lazar. Barney was a fabulous dog. When he died, we were all devastated. So when the local shelter ran an ad in the paper listing a beagle, my parents sent me and my one sis down to check her out. (You could not have picked two worse family members for this assignment. Of course we were going to come home with a dog. Possibly ALL of the dogs.) This was back in the day when there was no internet, so you couldn't check the dogs out online first. If you wanted to see them - you went to see them.

We got there and asked to see the beagle, so the gal took us back to all the kennels. Lazar was cowering in the back of her cage barking at us - and, as you've already surmised from her photos, looking nothing like a beagle. I have to admit, I was a little afraid of her at first. But when the gal that worked there walked in to the cage, Lazar was all sweetness and kisses and waggy tail. Our hearts melted, and she came home with us.

So, we were sent to bring home another beagle, and we came home with our little shepherd-mutt looking thing. Not quite as much of a case of "mistaken identity" as Thursday's post - but one with a happier ending.


She was a great dog. Who was your first shelter love? Maybe your next love is out there waiting for you??



30 comments:

  1. I'd definitely say you have a type!

    We never actually had to go to the shelter....sadly, people dumped their dogs near us because they'd heard we would take them in. We lived in the country and took in a few strays over the years.

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    1. Yes, I'm a sucker for the long skinny legs and little floppy ears.

      Sad that folks would dump dogs - but I'm sure the dogs were better off for being brought to your door!

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  2. Oh what a sweetie Lazar was. We always say if it is meant to be it will. Pip is now 15ish and she came from a lady who rescued Jacks and I am from a puppy mill. Have a marvelous Monday and that was a nice trip down memory lane.
    Best wishes Molly

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    1. Wow - 15! That's great. Molly, I didn't know you were from a puppy mill. So glad your momma found you!

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  3. Those are great pics of your dog, love the 80's hair, lol. Looks like a real sweet dog.

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    1. 80s hair?? Pretty sure my hair still looks like that... (at least if I don't blow dry it.) :P

      She was indeed a sweetie.

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  4. Aw Lazar looked like a sweetie. There's nothing wrong with having a type. I have a thing for the shepherd look, too.

    Beamer is a big, black dog. He was the last of his litter mates to get adopted. His brothers and sisters had brown and white markings. I think Beamer is beautiful though :)

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    1. Beamer IS beautiful! He was just waiting for you!

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  5. Lovely story! My first shelter love was Benji, a German Shepherd/Doberman mixed breed pup who I adopted when I was in college. I went to the shelter with friends who were planning to adopt - I was just along for "the fun." But Benji was on the kill list... I'd fallen in love and couldn't let that happen. We had 14 years together of love and adventure :-)

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    1. Wow, 14 years when you just went along for "fun". That's pawesome!

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  6. Aw, this is a great post...and I forgot all about Blog the Change! Ah, it is April 15!! Duh! Ma says her first shelter love was when she was a toddler (so she didn't get to pick the doggie)...Buffy was her name and she was a Schnauzer that lived with Ma's grandparents (who adopted Buffy just for Ma)!
    *Cairn cuddles*
    Oz

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    1. That's sweet that your Ma's grandparents adopted Buffy for her. Good grandparents!

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  7. Wow, don't you have a type thing going on! And the tri-color thing. Our current babies are rescue dogs, but growing up there was no shelter to go do. We lived at the end of nowhere. So when a friend's dog had mutt puppies, one came home with me. Or when a stray showed up, it became our dog. Or when a cat had kittens ... yeah. We had a beagle once. Stupidest dog we've ever owned. Not stupid, really, but just kept running every chance she got. Until she met up with a car. I mean, my parents put up a fence just because of that dog. We couldn't keep her in.

    I'm rambling, aren't I? Apologies.

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    1. Our beagle that we had when I was a kid used to run away all the time too. It's a beagle thing - they gotta have a fence, and they gotta be on leash. They will follow their noses until it does them in. He also got hit by a car. But he had cancer - so we always said he threw himself in front of that car.

      You're not rambling! Or maybe you are - but I like to ramble too.

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  8. Woof! Woof! Great precious story and Golden Thanks for sharing. LOVE the name. Mon did not have a shelter dog but plans in the future ... Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

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    1. Yeah - that was a good name, huh? And unique! I never met another Lazar Wolf, that's for sure!

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  9. what a sweet sweet post, my dog isn't from a Shelter, but Cody is!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! It was fun to walk down memory lane.

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  10. Great story. Thanks for sharing! Loved the pics!

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  11. Aw, I loved to read that story! You sooo have a "type" :) a great type it is! :) Thanks for being you!

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  12. What a sweet story...Thanks for sharing...don't really know where my childhood dogs came from...they just appeared...like the min pin my Dad pulled out of his coat pocket one day who lived to be 18 and was my mom's 3rd kid...never did know where he came from

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    1. WOW! 18!! That's impressive. I've never had a pup make it past 12. Hoping to hit a ripe old age with Rita.

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  13. What a sweet trio of girls! You're right - they do share similar features! We had a beagle mix when we were young, who was such a little sweetheart!

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  14. Well, as you can see by my blog, I've got a thing for Australian Cattle Dogs and special needs ACDs, so I totally understand being attracted to a certain type of dog! Blind pup Breeze was listed as an ACD mix but as she has grown, not seeing much of that. Doesn't matter though!

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  15. Such great pictures! Loved reading your story too about how you got Lazar the Beagle! :)

    My Mum had a rescue Jack Russell when she was young named Rolly and that was it, she was already hooked on dogs, but he sealed the deal! :) After him they've been Golden Retrievers and now me the Beardie, she moved up in size like you did!

    Hope you're having a fun day :)

    Your pal Snoopy :)

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  16. What a pretty dog, and she looks like a great pal. We had a black lab mix when I was growing up, we think mixed with a beagle or something, now that I think of it I'm not sure why beagle but that's what I remember. He was much like Lazar in coloring but had shorter legs and a stockier body. We named him Happy and he was the best companion growing up!

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  17. Amazing post! The pictures are beautiful and I love hearing about shelter love stories! Lazar was a lucky dog to have personalized tires! She was also beautiful. My beagle Luna is a rescue too and she is my first.

    Jessica and Luna from Beagles and Bargains

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