July 19, 2015 Fluency Blog Day 17

My mom has always had this thing about wolves, and I have to agree they are awesome creatures. I've had the opportunity to be around a couple of wolf hybrids, one of which is my moms. His name fits him perfectly...Timber.  He is 98% wolf, but they couldn't adopt him out as that, so he is micro-chipped as Husky. He is one gorgeous creature, and you couldn't find any other dog that is more gentle and loving. He is awesome.

Mom raised Australian Shepherds for many years, so when our last one was getting old and we knew he wasn't going to be around much longer, she decided that maybe it was time to ease a new dog into the family so that it didn't feel like we were trying to replace him. It wasn't long after the Joplin tornado, and the humane society had put up a Facebook page to help adopt out those dogs which had been lost, displaced, or had to be giving up because the families just had no where to keep them due to damage or loss of homes. She had been watching it, thinking she might find another young Australian Shepherd. She finally decided to make a trip to Joplin to see some of the dogs that were being posted which people had donated money toward spay and neuter and would not cost anything for the ones adopting them.

When she got there though, she just didn't find one that clicked. She is a shepherd/collie/stock dog type person, and they just didn't have any of those when she got there. She was about to leave when one of the ladies that worked there said there were some over on the other side that weren't quite ready to be adopted, either because they hadn't been there long enough, or they were being treated for some reason. So she took mom over there, and as she walked past this empty cage, from outside through the pet door, came Timber. She said he came straight to the gate and stood up and stuck his nose through the wire for her to pet him. She knew immediately what he was...and as much as she would have loved to have him, he just wasn't what she needed, so she left.

She made it to the lobby and no further, turned and asked the lady if she could go back and see him again. She said the lady smiled and took her back there again, with the same thing happening as before...Timber stood up on the fence and gave her that look…

Again, she talked herself out of it and made it as far as the pickup, but found herself going back once again to get him out of the cage to see how he would handle it. That was all it took. They had already bonded with that first glance the first time they saw each other. She said it was like he knew she was the one. To this day she says that she didn't pick him, he picked her to be his caregiver. Their spirits are as one...it was meant to be.