05/03/10

FAMILIAR: closely acquainted, an intimate associate or companion; a spirit often embodied in an animal and held to attend and serve or guard a person. (Latin:famulus-attendant)

He's my familiar.....

I met Cooper in Little Rock Animal Shelter, he was going to be put down or perhaps rescued by Airedale Rescue.  He is a crossbred dog from Airedale and Chow Chow.  When he was a pup he looked more like the Airedale part, but now since he's older, you can see more of the Chow in him.  He doesn't really look like either breed and actually looks like some kind of breed of his own.  Some people think he looks like an Otter Hound, but his ears are too short.  I just tell people he's a Cooper Dog.

He was 3 months when I first met him and I had just lost Chomski who was my previous familiar almost 3 months before.  I wasn't really looking for another dog friend, but my family found it too much to cope with that I didn't have a little hairy partner walking at my heal every minute of the day that I wasn't at work.  They would send me information on dogs that needed rescued from all over the country.  I had no concept of replacing Chomp as he was very special and I wasn't even sure I could handle even trying to integrate someone new,  especially someone that was going to be special. I eventually broke down and went to see Cooper at the local pound open day.

This is me and Coop at a Dog Show pretending we are starring in a Cricket Ad.     

I went there and got him out to spend some time with him and it became very obvious he wasn't going to leave my side.  There were lots of dogs out on the grass yard in front of the shelter and lots of people coming up to check them out.  Cooper wouldn't let anyone near me.  He was very protective from the start.  When I got up to walk around a bit he followed me and in about 5 minutes I had him walking off the leash to heal.......no probs.

                     
Here's the proof of the walking to heel and a really good sit/stay.....talk about smart!! (pics courtesy of lastchancearkansas.org)

The next person who came up to see him and  asked if they could spend some time with him......I said " sorry I'm afraid this one has already been adopted" and that was that.  I spent the whole day at the pound to make sure nothing was going to happen to him and make sure he didn't get adopted out to anyone else by mistake. I  had to leave him there Saturday night and all day Sunday, and had to pick him up first thing on Monday morning.

Cooper got his name from Davie Cooper.  Davie was for me the greatest Scottish footballer that ever lived.  His most famous tenure was when he played for Glasgow Rangers, he was very inspirational and had the support of  many of the fans from other teams even some of the Glasgow Celtic supporters would look favorably at Davie from across the local Derby and religious divide.  This was never more evident than when he unexpectedly died in 1995 of a brain hemorrhage, all the football fans from every team came and laid scarves down at the stadium in memory of him and what he did for Scottish Football.  So Cooper's name has a great story and heritage behind it.

       
                                                    This picture courtesy of The Scotsman Newspaper - Scotland's premier source of daily news

Coop adapted to life in our home very quickly and I would say that everyone likes him.  He doesn't have a bad bone in his body and has a very outgoing and friendly personality.  He's also very intelligent and learns stuff very quickly.  The one thing that I noticed about Cooper is that he can almost pick up stuff with his paws.  Not really sure what this means....but it's freaky when he grabs you and pulls your arm towards him.

I spend a lot of time with Cooper, and people kinda let on that they think I spoil him, or treat him like a "human".  The truth of the matter is that I just treat him with respect and the friendship he deserves.  I came across a little verse or so that does a not bad job at explaining it......it's called "MY DOG".  This was even more pertinent after Cooper's brush with death.

Cooper knows that this is his home for life and that he is forever part of my family.  He never leaves my side and sleeps at the bottom of my bed every night, just in the same position Chomski did.  They say that people who have great relationships with their animal friends have a better quality of life and live longer........guess I should feel lucky.........thanks Cooper