History of Our Dogs

I’ve loved dogs and playing with dogs “from time immemorial”. Before I could walk, I remember sitting on the lawn of my Great Aunt and Uncle interacting with their dog, “Tiny”.

“Tiny” was the “prototype” for “dog” in my psyche. All the love, excitement, wonder, awe, and “plain good time” I felt with Tiny, registered on every level—mind, body, spirit. I continue to want that intensity of feeling and connection with my animal spirit and the “the animal spirit” that lives as my dog.

As each of our last two cockers, Dylan and Spirit, were in the process of passing, I asked each of them to let us know when they were ready to return
I said to Dylan: “Blink three times if you understand me.” He, in fact, did just that.
When I posed the question to Spirit, he looked at me with eyes that communicated: “Are you kidding? Of course I’ll let you know.” It was clear each dog understood my request.

When the time is right to begin looking for our beloved dog, a series of events transpire allowing both Susan, my partner, and me to recognize: it’s time to reconnect with our dog animal spirit.

When Spirit passed on May 19^th, my brother, Howie, called offering his love and condolences. He posed a question:
“Di, when do you think you and Sue will start looking for another dog?’
“You know, Howie, it was three months in-between Dylan and Spirit.”
“If that’s the case, you know what that date would be, right Di?” The excitement in my brother’s voice was palpable.
“Yes! It would be August 19^th, the second anniversary of Mom’s passing.”
“Right!”
“Well won’t that be interesting.” I pondered out loud, “We’ll wait and see.”

One morning in early July, Sue and I missed Spirit deeply.  Wondering if this was the time to begin looking for another dog, we decided to call the breeder from whom we purchased Spirit:
“Hi, Janet. Spirit, our 12-½ yr. old cocker spaniel passed in May. We bought him from you and we were wondering if you’re still breeding tri-color cockers.”
“Oh no. I stopped doing that about eight years ago.”
“Do you know any breeders in Southern CA?”
“No. I’ve been out of the loop for too long. By the way, who were Spirit’s dad and grandfather?”
We knew the answer to her question without looking at the pedigree line. “Jack was his dad; Cadillac Jack was his grandfather.”
“Jack was one of my all time favorites!”  Her voice sounded so warm remembering her beloved dog.
“We understand. Spirit was one terrific dog!”

When Sue hung up from Janet, we both felt each other’s disappointment.
“Well”, I said. “Guess he won’t be coming through that channel.”

After the call, we looked on the Internet for breeders in California.  Nothing showed up that generated much excitement. Sue and I began to look independently of each other. Just as I was about to quit looking, I was sent to a site called: “El Shaddai Cockers”.  I liked what I saw but I was too tired to communicate with Sue.

The next day, I approached Sue to let her know what I had found so we could explore the site together. I saw that she was on the computer and wanted to share what she had found:
“Hey, Di, I found this site, El Shaddai Cockers, and I like what I see. This family has been home breeding cockers for thirty-seven years. The pictures of their pups are adorable.”
“Incredible! I was on my way to tell you that I had just found that very site.” In recognition of what seemed to be a coincidence, my intuition was telling me: “Pay attention, something important is happening.”
“It looks like they have a new litter of black cockers but not tri-colored. Let’s give them a call.” Susan’s interest was heightened.

We called and within the hour, Sheena, the breeder returned our call.
“Hi, I just returned from church and wanted to get back to you.”
“Hi Sheena. I was thrilled by her quick response to our call. “We saw your site, ‘El Shaddai’—that’s Hebrew for God, right?”
“That’s right. We are a God-centered family so we extended that name to our dogs.
“I love it. Also, our last cocker’s name was “Spirit” and I felt a connection with the words: “El Shaddai”. He was a tri-colored cocker. I see you just had a litter of black pups. We have our hearts set on the tri-colored. But, we’d love to come and see the new litter.”
“Well, actually, two weeks ago on June 26^th, we had a litter of parti-color (tri-color cockers are called parti-color) pups. We never posted the pictures because each pup was spoken for so quickly. We still have one “handsome” boy left. Although, we won’t release them until they’re eight weeks old, you can come out and see this guy.”
My heart leapt for joy; “handsome” is one of the names we called Spirit. (He knew he was handsome.)
“We’ll be there in an hour and a half!”

Sue and I were on “high alert” as we drove up to Sheena and her family’s home. We walked in, saw the pup, and we were smitten’. We placed a down payment on our boy and then Sheena brought out his pedigree.

I watched Sue’s eyes as she took in what she was seeing: Cadillac Jack and Jack were part of our new guy’s pedigree.
We looked at Sheena and said: “This is the same line that our dog, Spirit was from—we bought him from Pearson’s Pups. We called Janet Pearson yesterday and she told us that she wasn’t breeding cockers anymore and couldn’t give us any leads because ‘she was out of the loop’.” So, we had no hope of finding a dog with Spirit’s line.”

What are the odds of finding Spirit’s ancestral line from a different breeder?? I could almost hear Spirit’s voice:
“A 100%! You asked me to let you know when I was ready to return. I am a dog of my word and coming back around through my ancestry would probably get your attention.”

Two other pieces of information led us to believe this whole experience was B’shairt, Yiddish for “meant to be”:

1. Sheena and her husband were celebrating their 37^th wedding anniversary, leaving for Hawaii for two weeks, and would not be available by phone or email.
2. If we hadn’t gone out that day, we probably wouldn’t have been able to purchase him.

“He’ll be ready to come home with you on August 20^th”, Sheena said in a matter of fact tone.

I revisited my conversation with Howie and our talk about August 19^th, the second anniversary of Mom’s passing. Upon hearing this date, I felt sure our dog, Spirit, was ready to come back around. He surely did a superb job of alerting us.

“Spiritu”, our new boy, has the same loving, playful, curious, enthusiastic ‘spirit’ as his predecessors:  Spirit, Dylan, and Tiny. Our deep love and connectedness we’ve had with all our “boys” are now extended to Spiritu.  In turn, he lovingly gives, reflects those feelings right back! “

“Ask, and you shall receive”. Truly, Spiritu, is the embodiment of our Highest Prayer Answered.

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Feature Photo of Spiritu by Susan DeBlasio