Friday, November 9, 2012

OSKAR The Alpine Tow Dog



Here is Oskar’s story as reported by Marnie. She has added a couple of pictures.

Oscar was adopted from FFAA about 5 years ago by Joerg and Beate while they were residing in Nutrioso, Arizona. Joerg and Beate already had a beautiful Australian Sheep Dog, also black and white, named Kiene (which is German for King).
They called Laurie, told her what they were looking for and made an appointment to pick out a new friend. Kiene was allowed to pick out his new friend and they called him Oskar. Oskar was just a puppy at the time and then after about a year and a half his family had to leave for Germany. While they had him they taught Oskar German as well as English.
Oskar’s companion Kiene died and he was alone except for Joerg and Beate. Joerg hiked all the time around Escudilla Mountain and took Oskar with him; they both loved the outdoors. Then the German government decided Joerg and Beate had to return after living here for 10 yrs. They asked me and my husband, Wayne, to look after Oskar until they returned. That didn’t happen and we added Oskar to our family.
It was a challenge at first since my Wayne did not want another dog! Our other dog, Boss Dog, was old and died a couple of years after Oskar came to us. The loss of Boss Dog for Wayne was hard, but Oskar filled the void and helped him through it. Now they are inseparable. He goes on almost all tow calls and he and Wayne are almost inseparable. Oskar has bonded with both of us. Oskar sleeps with us and loves the outdoors. He started out as a forty-pound dog and has bloomed into 80 pounds of love. When he stands on his hind legs he stretches out to almost 5 feet in height. So I hope you enjoy these few pics as this boy, Oskar, has had a few transitions in his life and has adapted wonderfully since he’s been with us. He loves to play ball and not only fetches but will throw it back to you using his head and tongue, pushing it out of his mouth toward you. He is so dang smart, it’s scary. He’s learned to recognize most words that pertain to him and what he likes to do, even if we quietly mention the word so as not to get him all excited. We’ve had to resort to spelling! OMgoodness, I hope he doesn’t learn to spell!
Oscar is the official Alpine Tow Dog and goes on almost every tow call with Wayne. He sits up on the front seat of the big ol’ truck with its big ol’ window and he “owns” it. We are going to make him a T-shirt with the logo embroidered on it.
Marnie

MARCO UPDATE



Marco and his family are very happy. He moved to Farmington about a year ago. Check out these smiling faces.

Suzie adopted Nov 7, 2012


She has moved to Glenwood with a young couple. She may eventually move to Canada. Alice and Drex fell in love with Suzie on the internet and she seemed to love them as soon as they arrived to meet her.  

PUPPIES ARE GETTING HUGE



The day they were born, they seemed so tiny. Madonna is a great mama. She is allowed free time several times a day. Laurie lets her out in the morning and when she is done taking care of business and walking around for a while, she gets Laurie to put her back in the pen with her puppies. You can see they are thriving.

ROCKY UPDATE



I am not normally someone who would put clothes on a dog, but it's chilly here! He just loved this the minute I put it on him. And he loves the furry soft throw on the couch, too. So nice to have a dog again! -- Thank you all – Kris

PRINCESS RETURNS



Princess returned to us on Nov 3. She just couldn’t get along with an older, blind dog in the family so she came back. You can see by the smile on her face that she was delighted to be back with all her old and now some new friends. She immediately became a free-time dog and fit right in. Welcome home Princess.

LOUIE UPDATE



Hello, I thought I would give you an update on how Louie is doing. He is such a wonderful hound! :) My family and friends that met him fell in love with him! We notice he loves to go on walks so in the morning we take a 15 minute walk, when the weather is nice. But so far its been nice. When we get off work, the first thing we do is walk him. Our evening walks are usually about 30 minutes. But he sure loves to smell around. Our cats are adjusting to him. At first they were a little scared but now, I think they are getting use to him now they know he won't bother them much. He is such a great dog. He is very mellow and certainly melts quite a few hearts here.  

October arrivals

BELLA,
Pronounced the Spanish way. We think she is a Boxer mix. Beautiful!

Rowdy came from the Mountainaire area.

Quinn is quite small. We think he is a hound/beagle mix. Interesting thing is he has a problem with his ankles like our Bruce has. We saw Bruce go over to the pen to visit with Quinn. I guess it was nice for Quinn to have another dog that understands the physical problem but seems to be having a very happy life.

Sharon & 5 of Madonna's puppies.  Aren't they cute!

SARAH ROSS OUR ARTIST



Sarah is doing most of the painting around here. Every time I get to FFAA I see something new. She is continuously working on the mural and has now added a welcome sign. She has been painting gates and posts and other things. We are quite colorful now. Here is a picture showing the new colors.