February 2008: My wife and I have rescued two German Shepherd dogs, a male and a female.
Just after Christmas, we heard about them from a neighbor. They were “hanging around” a sawmill in a rural area south of Ebensburg. The owners of the sawmill had tried to identify their owner, but were unsuccessful.
My initial reaction was negative - “we already have two dogs - they’ll be filthy and snarly —” so Beth deserves all the credit for rescuing them.
When I first saw them, I changed my mind immediately. They are beautiful, friendly dogs. And, as we took them home and learned more about them, I was glad Beth insisted that we pick them up. Amazingly, they were relatively clean, housebroken, and free of both intestinal worms and heartworms.
Our initial plan was to get them checked out by our veterinarian and then find a good home for them. But we are thinking about keeping them, with the only unresolved problem being some socialization issues with our two dogs, Greta and Katie.
Beth insisted on naming the male Shepherd “Phoenix” because, like the mythical Phoenician bird, we are helping him to rise from homelessness and slow starvation. It’s a stretch, I know, but when Beth names a dog, there’s no changing her mind. She named the female “Sedona” because it’s another city in Arizona and Sedona is, after all, a woman’s name.
Who owned these dogs? Probably we will never know. They are wearing collars, but have no name tags, licenses, tattoos, or implanted microchips. They are magnificent animals, however, and I am grateful to my wife for being relentless about rescuing them.
UPDATE: Phoenix has been adopted by a wonderful family from Johnstown. Both he and Katie, our Saint Bernard, are “masters of the universe,” and neither would back down. Our house is more calm now.