Jan 29th 2009

Today is my Moms 73rd birthday. A few months ago she completed the San Antonio Marathon! It was also her first attempt to run a marathon. My mom (Joanne) is really an incredible person. She always excels at anything she puts her mind to doing. She has taught me to always keep going, never to lay down and quit.

I've had a few inquiries about Freddy. Freddy joined my family around Christmas 2008. I spent weeks, looking for a dog to buy in the newspaper. While looking for a dog that was, easy to train, medium size, non aggressive, intelligent. Going through all the Retrievers, Schnauzers, Greyhounds, ect. , none of the hundreds of dogs really appealed to me.

Until the picture of Freddy appeared on one of the online ads.

The Ad read "Free Dog"! and described Freddy as 1/2 Australian shepherd and 1/2 Golden Retriever??? I called the number and the owner didn't have much good to say about Freddy. Apparently his teenage daughter decided to move in with him and his new family, and his spiteful ex-wife bought the girl a dog, just before she changed parents. The owners new wife forbade Freddy to live in their house, unless he stayed in the crate. And since Freddy was an expert at escaping their fence, he had to be chained during the day. The father needed to get rid of Freddy, in order to keep the peace, and was more than grateful to unload him on me.

I was in the process of moving, when the family showed up with Freddy. The first thing Freddy did was bark and growl at me as soon as he got out of the car. I immediately noticed that Freddy was indeed an Australian Shepherd cross, but the other half is obviously ROTTWEILER , not "Golden Retriever".

So as the nice country family left my apartment, I remembered what the owner told me on the phone: " The last guy to take this dog, brought him back the same DAY! Please just take him to the pound if Freddy doesn't work out." Freddy was trying to bust out my front door to escape and would snarl at me if I tried to pet him! My reservations about Freddy was at an all time low.

So picture me, in an apartment halfway moved out and BUSY, while trying to figure out how to get out my own door, since this crazy mad dog was occupying the kitchen, And to top it off I wasn't sure how to get the dog to my new house in a snow storm. The only thing I was sure off, is that I probably wouldn't survive trying to lift this beast into the cab of my truck.

My son started bribing Freddy with pieces of hot dog until he could actually grab the leash handle. I told Logan to walk the dog to our house and don't worry if he escapes on the way.
Once Logan and the psycho-mutt left, I jumped in the Hell Bitch and drove to the house.

About 20 minutes later my son and Freddy arrived and things began to change. We left Freddy in the utility room with the backyard door open. Freddy scouted around the back yard for quite some time and his mood seemed to improve. Then we let him in the main house and he checked it out for a while, until Freddy walked up to me and started licking me on the hand. It took an hour before he seemed pretty comfortable with his new setup and owners. While Freddy and I were sleeping on the ground that first night, he reached out with his paw and we shook hands. Freddy was smiling with delight. Since then he has been my best friend!

The Rottweiler half makes him heavy and strong. Look at his leg muscles in the middle picture. His biceps are ridiculously large as well. He takes pleasure in opening doors, just pushing them until they open. I think he should unload freight for a living. Freddy is between 9 and 11 months old. He weighs around 60 but seems to grow more every day. He is also well behaved, potty trained, and won't jump on the counter or get in the trash when I'm in the house. I think the girl trained the dog well. I trained him to do a few things too. He returns on command even when distracted or in action. I've never had a better dog in my life.