“Spicy”

From her birth, Spicy provided us one surprise after another. Whether it be her deep red color, the fact that she grew so big, that she aspired to be pack leader, or that she was the first to volunteer to be the 'demo dog' when Jennifer was teaching dog training classes.

Spicy inherited a mix of personality traits from her parents. It is from her mother, Polliwog, that Spice derived her two great loves: food and puppies.

Spice was the consummate puppy care professional and governess. She guarded pups, cleaned them, herded them and tirelessly played with them. But she was not above partaking of their food... "Oh is that beef? I really shouldn't...alright, maybe a just a mouthful... or four."

From Jett, she got her size, her dark eyes and lovely head. Spice was easy on the eyes. Also like her father, Spice was a calm presence during quiet times. She shared her father's suspicion of strangers although Spice extended that suspicion to strange dogs also. However, just like Jett, once Spicy got to know a new person, she often quickly became their best friend.

Spice was a more serious dog than her parents and less silly. Actually, she might have been our most serious dog. She had strong guarding inclinations. She guarded any pups, the yard, the pack and any valuable toys.

Normally, she was a quiet dog, but when danger arouse, say, like when a blue jay or rabbit (or other similarly ferocious herbivore) was within 40 yards of the yard, she let them know who was on watch.

In spite of her love of obedience and teaching classes, Spice had her independent agenda and was willing to try to get things to go her way. Since her own way wasn't always our way, that was sowing the seeds of a dog getting into "trouble." This sounds bad, but more than anything it is an indication of intelligence and a smidgen of strong will. While often annoying, they are good traits for a dog to have.

We went through the same thing with Penelope. Spice easily achieved high marks in the Rally-Obedience ring, and though not the fastest dog, always enjoyed her running time on both the straight and oval tracks and some lure coursing for fun.

While she did like things her own way, she also loved to work and thrived on showing off how smart she was!

A mom of several litters and ‘nanny’ to many others, a rattlesnake bite survivor, and always a calm, steady presence in the household (unless their was food to be stolen), Spicy will be missed.