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At this time my husband
was transferred to Virginia with the Navy and took Jo with him. Here
I was for the first time in many years, chowless. Now I knew what it
was like to feel the "empty nest" syndrome.
In
December of 2007, a friend mentioned there were Chow puppies in the
paper for sale. I had been looking into another adult Chow rescue
possibly, as I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with "puppy"
syndrome in the middle of the awful winters here (well,
to me they are!)
But the lure of puppy breath was too strong to ignore and knowing
there is no other type of puppies as cute as chow puppies,
I decided to make the call.
When I got there there
were six puppies left to choose from, but only Black and Creams. I
have only had Reds and Cinnamons, so wasn't sure I would be coming home
with a puppy or not.
to ld
myself the color should not matter and so I decided to give them a
chance. Five of the puppies ran up to me and greeted me with open
paws, so to speak.
I noticed one black puppy
had himself plastered up against the side of the house refusing to
come near anyone, even the owners. I inquired about the shy one and
the owner literally had to sneak up on this pup to catch him. I was a
little worried about this, especially since the owner told me they
did not socialize the puppies nor handle them as they didn't want the
puppies to "become attached to them". Like I said, this
worried me. Chance was an extremely shy Chow, and even after all the
socializing he got, he never came out of it.
I figured
if I chose this little guy I would have my work cut out for me
again. But once I had him in my arms, my decision was made. He was
coming home with me!
I
was worried
he might
get placed with a family that would not understand him and I couldn't bear
the thought of him not being treated the way he deserved.
Holding him in my arms I
already had his name formed. So now I would like to introduce
"Carla's Calm Before the Storm",  "Storm"
for short but also lovingly known as my Rag-A-Muffin.
Luckily for both of us he
outgrew/overcame his shyness pretty much on his own, since where I
live there isn't a kennel club close by for us to join.
I took Storm everywhere to
socialize him. We would have puppy play days in my back yard with
friends' dogs. He gets along well with others and enjoys terrorizing
the Greyhound. Since Jo's a retired racer, he never learned how to be
a dog, but with Storm around he quickly learned how to run and play
and well, just be a dog.
We are huge NASCAR fans
and travel to several races a year in our fifth
wheel. I do believe my Rag-A-Muffin is a Carl Edwards fan like me.
He really enjoys all the walks through the campgrounds, meeting all
types of people and dogs along the way.
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Here he is with Moe, a
little Pom Pom he met in Darlington, then again in Charlotte and Dover. |
He also met Ernie the
Saint Bernard who camps behind us at Dover. |
For a Chow he loves the
water and has no qualms about getting all messy, but I think the part
he likes the best is when I give him a full body rub down with a
towel to dry him off when he comes in.
We don't know how much
longer we will be living in Maryland and finally getting to go back
down south,
which
I can't wait to do.
So for now Storm is just
allowed to be himself and enjoy life as he sees fit to do. My heart
is full again with him here with me.
Storm was born on
Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. Here he is posed for pics
and, no, I did not take him out in public like this.
As a growing pup he still
enjoyed his milk!
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Here he is at Anne Marie's Garden
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. . . and then at Christmas! |
And of course he loves the snow.
. .
Look!!
I have my own panda bear!
So for now we are just
enjoying our lives together!
Thanks for visiting!
Carla & Storm
April 2010
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