My Gorgeous Guy Jake

by Catherine
(Seattle, WA)

Jake checks the back yard

I got Jake from a rescue Aussie organization a little over a year ago. The same weekend I brought him home, my Dad died. I had to return Jake for a week as we flew back for the funeral.

Jake is a special dog in many ways -- he is smart, spunky, intelligent, cuddly and naturally agile, gracefully leaping over anything in his path including our cats. But he also has helped me so much with the hard year since I lost my dear Dad.

Jake came to the rescue organization at about 1 year old, starved and flea ridden. He weighed 20 pounds at most and when the rescue worker let him out the first time, he was so weak that he fell over. I have some pictures of them from that time: he is a spine with fur. He was fed back to health by the time I adopted him but at that time was also a frightened and worried dog. I could tell he had been mistreated too: he was so afraid of tall young men with baseball caps, and cowered the one and only time he had an accident in our house (due to me not understanding his whining to be let outside) as if he expected a beating. I look now at my confident handsome boy and cannot believe how far we have both come in 13 months.

We are in beginning agility class, where Jake does well, and he has also learned many tricks: high five, shake, roll over, play dead, sit pretty, get it, park it, etc. etc. He is my running and walking buddy and my joy.

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