Spirit Too Schaeffer is a Golden Retriever with big brown eyes an a beautiful smile. Soon as the door opened, she bounded right up for the Wag-an-Sniff. Her thick coat was soft gold an she wore a pink collar.
“Good morning, Miss Schaeffer, it’s a great pleasure to meet you!”
“Likewise, Mr. Bonzo,” she replied, continuing to bounce about. “I just love comp-nee. This is my human, Toby. Come on, let’s go sit down an I’ll tell you how we found each other.”
For much of the innerview, Spirit was nose-bumping my assistant in a frenly way, and even sittin’ in her lap from time to time. (It might have had something to do with the duh-li-shus sweet potato-an-turkey snacks my assistant usually carries.)
I opened my notebook. “You have a very intresting name. How did you get it?”
“Well, Toby has always loved us Goldens. I’m his third. His first was Spirit’s Colossus, then came Spirit’s Wild Spirit. He liked the name so much he named me ‘Spirit Too.’ Get it? I’m glad he didn’t decide on ‘Spirit Also.’”
“Good point,” I agreed.
“Ackshully, Mr. Bonzo, after Spirit’s Wild Spirit went to Dog Heaven about 7 years ago, Toby was This Close to getting a pooch who wasn’t me. He’d already picked one out from her puppy pickshur, an he was all set to drive to Maitland to meet her. But (here’s the Cool Kibbles part) my human sisters an brother, Tina, Nikki an Brian, had already been doin’ some SEE-cret REE-search cuz they knew their Dad REALLY wanted another Golden, an they had found a breeder close by. They were Very Stealthy, an Toby didn’t have a CLOO. So, Out of the BLEW, he gets this mysterious call from the breeder tellin’ him they hadda lovely new litter of Goldens and they’d heard he was intrested. Toby couldn’t figure out how the breeder even knew he was lookin’, but he decided to check it out.”
“May I assume this was your litter, Miss Spirit?”
She laughed. “It WAS! SO, Toby came to check us out. There were lotsa pooches runnin’ around, anna few cats. We lived with the famly, not in kennels, an we were all very sociable. Toby knew what he wanted: soon as he spotted me, he could see I was not too uh-GRESS-ive, but not timid, either. I came right over to him. You know how all us pooches just know stuff like that, right, Mr. Bonzo?”
“Abso-woofin’-lutely,” I agreed.
“Plus, of course, I was uh-DOOR-ubble. Us puppies look like liddle golden fluffballs, with happy liddle faces.”
“Totally true,” I replied.
“Well Toby reached for his checkbook right then an there, but the breeder said it was already taken care of! It was, like, a whole year (in human) before Tina, Nikki an Brian finally told Toby it was them.”
“That is a great story, Miss Spirit! So, what’s your life been like?”
“It’s lotsa fun! Just me an Toby. Soon as I got here, Toby started my training. I went to puppy kindergarten and pooch middle school an got my agility and canine good citizen certificutts. I totally know how to do SIT-STAY, an Toby also has a whistle, in case I’m concentratin’ on some cool smell an not payin’ attention. An, whenever we go outside, I ALWAYS wait till he goes first. He also taught me hands signals, like, when he wants me to go to my room, he points.”
“You have your own ROOM? No Woof?”
“No woof! A girl’s gotta have her privacy. But sometime I don’t WANNA go, so I stare at him, but he just keeps pointin’ an I sorta back up till I’m all the way in. My favrite thing is Playin’ With BALLS. I like balls almost as much as FOOD. Almost. Toby throws ’em an I grab ’em right outta the AIR. I’m SWIFT. An SMART. Like, I know how to open doors, even the pocket ones. I get a leash walk or two every day. We walk around the lake, which is very exciting cuz there are So Many Intresting Smells, an lotsa birds an animals, like squirrels, ra-butts, an ar-muh-dillows. I wanna chase ’em, but Toby won’t let me: he says it’s not puh-light cuz they think I’m gonna Re-TREEVE ’em, an it freaks ’em out.
“I have a ton of pooch pals: like my travel companion Dieter, he’s a Dachshund. It’s fun watchin’ his ears flap when he runs. Then there’s my BFF, Philly, she’s a Boxer-Ridgeback snowbirddog neighbor from Philly-delphia. I can’t wait for her to come down every year; anna bunch more. I really like humans, too, specially Dieter’s Mom Anita; an, when we go to the drive-through at Walgreens, the humans always say hello to me; also, sometimes I ride with Toby on his job. He’s Official Driver for humans who live atta place called Quail, an some of ’em want me to ride along, cuz I’m so soft, an well-behaved an frenly.
“Oooo, an I wanna show you my new outfit!”
Toby brought out a camo vest, an helped Spirit into it. She did a couple of stylish twirls. The matching hat was also quite cute, I observed, in the 3 seconds before she flung it off.
“I don’t sneak around that much,” she said, “but if I ever do, I’ll be lookin’ GOOD.”
“Indeed,” I agreed (except nobody’d see her since she’d be in camo, I thought). “You must be pooped after such an active day.”
“I never miss my beauty sleep. But, before I go to bed, I always give Toby my paw, which is how I say ‘I love you.’”
Heading home, I was thinkin’ about how pooches an their Forever Famlies find each other. It’s sorta magic. Like the way Toby almost got another dog; if it hadn’t been for his kids’ special surprise and that mysterious phone call from the breeder at exactly the right time, that brought Miss Spirit Too and her Forever Human together.
Till next time,
The Bonz
