Choosing My Own Home

Our little Kate as occassionally happens did not mature as we expected and though she was sweet in temperament it was clear she was not going to be happy in the show ring. We then took inquiries from many different families trying to find the right family for our special little Kate. We ended up sending Kate to a lovely couple who lived just outside Washington DC, they had a dog from us before and were anxious to have another. They recieved Kate into their home and for the first day all went well. Except that Kate after looking things over decided that she really did not care for this home at all. The woman was ok - but the husband was tall and she just did not care for him. She made this rather clear by using their upstairs as her hideout. She hid under beds, sofa's and if the front door opened she shot outside like a little bullet. Her frantic owners would give chase running behind her in their pajamas down a lovely tree lined suburban street at 6am in the morning. ( They had not read the book on Parsons as that would have told them that the chase is just a part of the game ) After a week of Kate escaping at every opportunity and hiding under the furniture they thought it best to send Kate back as things were clearly not working as they would have hoped - Kate was not their dream companion and I am sure that Kate felt they were not her dream family either. So Kate winged her way home. She leaped out of her crate into our arms like we were long lost family.

We then thought well maybe we should just keep Kate with us.......but Kate had other plans.

About a week later we had need to have our semi tractor repaired and since it is a big rig one of the auto mechanics from Lafayette came down to take a look at the truck. While Carl ( not his real name ) was here he glanced over at Kate who was staring at him rather intently. He told us the story of losing his black lab a few weeks ago and how heart broken his children were and they really wanted another dog, but a smaller one this time.

Carl looked directly at Kate and asked if we had any older dogs available. He did not want a show dog, just a loving companion. Well, matter of fact we have Kate over there that would love to be in a family home. Carl went into Kate's run to play with her and she leaped in his lap which was rather uncharachteristic for Kate as not all people were her friends and she had the ability to be fairly discriminating on who she liked and who she did not like on any particular day.

So Carl left to go back to work explaining that he needed to talk with his wife and that he would be back after work to pick up Kate, at which time we encouraged him not to make a full commitment but instead to try Kate for the weekend and if she and the family did not get on together than to certainly return her to us on Monday.

The weekend came and went and I wondered about how little Kate was doing.......so we went to town and stopped by the Auto Body Shop. Carl was out on a repair call and one of the other guys that works there came out to say hi and said that it was pretty funny how Carl took that little dog home after his wife had told him under no uncertain terms that she did not want another dog and that he need not bring Kate home with him. The guys were all betting that Carl was going to arrive home with the little dog and be told to turn around and come back to town and return the dog.

But that is not what happened. Instead Carl took Kate into the house and Kate being a very smart girl went to the wife first and jumped up in her lap showering her with kisses. How could anyone resist that! Carl's wife said: ok, it is late and we can just keep her for the night, but she will go back in the morning!  That evening Kate sat on the wife's lap watching movies for quite sometime. Then the children came home and that was a whole new adventure. Kate thought the children were delightful and she ended up sleeping the rest of the night away with the youngest boy.

In the morning it was right back to the wife's lap, trying to be as charming as possible. Well, it worked quite well. By the early afternoon Carl said to his wife, well I had best get Kate back to the farm. Carl's wife then announced that there was no way Kate was going anywhere. Kate had found her new family.

So even though we think we may know best, in the end I believe these little guys are fully capable of choosing their own families.

Kate has remained with Carl and his family as a valued companion. Though in talking with Carl a few days ago they have found out that as perfect as Kate has been she does have a few training aspects that they will work on. The first one being her rather selective hearing.....definitely a typical Parson!