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| Name: |
Asher
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Age: |
Three months old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Catahoula Leopard Dog |
| Home: |
Waco, Texas, USA |
This
is Asher, whose name is Hebrew for Happy/Blessing. We named him Asher with
him as a hope for 2011, a happy 2011, a year full of blessings.
A lot of things lead to us adopting our little blessing. The month before
was pretty tough, we lost my husband's remaining grandfather, our home was
robbed just before Christmas and we lost one of our beloved cats, Sherwin.
After all our tough luck, I found a litter of Catahoula/Boxer puppies in
the Hood County Animal Shelter from PetFinder.com. I couldn't resist! I
asked my husband if we could get one. We talked about all the different
things we would want in a dog; watch the house, go on walks/runs, a
companion when one of us was gone, etc. My husband specifically wanted a
male to replace our male cat, I didn't really care as long as I got a dog.
And he didn't want a white dog, of the three male puppies in the litter
two were 80% or more white. Pup seven was the only male that wasn't. We
also liked that he had a blue eye, well sort of it's mostly blue with a
brown patch to the far right.
Well, that next Monday I called the Shelter to ask about the puppies;
seven weeks old, ready to go home and Free. {wait...free?} Seeing that my
husband had just left, like two hours before, for a class retreat out of
town for the next week, I texted him telling him about the puppies yet
again! This time he asked "Are you going to get one?" I said "Can I?" and
his final response was "Sure". At that I left work and began my 1.5 hour
drive to Granbury, Texas. As I left Waco, I called the Shelter again to
let them know I wanted one of the puppies and that I would be there at 1
pm. They were worried at the shelter that I would not make it and the
puppy I wanted would be gone, because they were all first come first
serve...
I arrived at 12:45 but they were closed until 1 for lunch. Only one other
puppy had been adopted that day, a polka dotted female. As I peered into
the kennel full of ten wiggly, polka-dotted puppy bodies all I could think
was YES! Asher was sitting in the middle of the bunch of pups. He was the
only male that was Gray and Black, of the three males in the litter.
I loved him as soon as I got him in my arms. All four pounds of him. I
spent the first week with Asher, teaching him crate training, house
breaking and learning to not chase the cat. We went and picked up my
husband that next weekend, he was very excited to see me and meet our new
pup. Since then he loves to spoil him by letting him sleep on the couch
with him while he works on homework and classwork.
Asher loves to chew on ropes and bones and fingers too! He really loves
playing with my parent's eight-year-old lab mix, Evee even though she
weighs 70 pounds! We love to go on walks at the park, watch the ducks and
soak up all the love from everyone else at the park. On February 4th, we
had a good deal of snow fall in Waco. I was so excited to take Asher's
photo in the snow! He had so much fun running around and playing in it!
But his little feet would get cold and he would want to go in to warm up
but then immediately want back out to play!
Asher is a Catahoula mix, we have to say mix because we really aren't sure
what his parents were. Catahoula Cur or Catahoula Leopard dogs are the
same just different names. They are named after the Catahoula Parish in
Louisiana, were they supposedly originated. The story goes that when the
Spanish arrived in the 16th century they brought Mastiffs and Greyhounds
which bred with the Native Americans domesticated dogs. And when the
French arrived in the 18th century they told stories of the Native
Americans strange looking hunting dogs with "glass eyes". Overall, no one
really knows the origins of the Catahoula, which continue to make it an
interesting breed.
He is about fourteen pounds and three months old now. He loves playing
with my parents' lab mixes, Cocoa and Evee. And he has learned the our cat
Charlie is for snuggling with not chasing, well, we are still working on
the "not chasing" thing!
See more images of Asher!
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