Scooby Wins The Lottery

My childhood nickname was Scoob. In the spring of 2014 my husband David and I bought what we dubbed “The Scooby Van”, the perfect road-trip vehicle. Then in mid-March of that year we lost Travis, our 17-year-old border collie, the love of our lives. But by August, our hearts had healed just enough to think about adopting again. I went to AAC’s website one morning and there he was. The photo was labeled “Scooby”.  He was the cutest puppy I had ever seen. Once I convinced my husband to take a quick glance on the website, from his desk that busy Monday morning, I heard dead air on the other end of the line, then, “Oh yeauh.  Go get him”. We knew it was meant to be and by the end of that day Scooby had loaded up into the van and he was headed home with us to Victor!

The story goes that Doc Heather had gone to the Wind River Reservation to rescue some puppies and out from under a trailer popped a skittish, tri-colored puppy, no other siblings, just Scooby. Heather asked, “Hey, can I take him too?” Thankfully for us all, the answer was yes and after a stint with a foster family, he was ready for adoption. (I’ve never found out who fostered him but if you are reading this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the love you gave him in those first weeks!)

Scooby had the biggest paws we had ever seen and needless to say, he grew and grew and grew, finally settling on 75lbs.  He was curious but always quite cautious. Whether from his first weeks under that trailer or inherent in his genes, his go-to emotion is fear. He could have so easily turned into a bad dog, a fighter, a biter.  But gradually he began to trust us and after some puppy training and lots of lovin’ he has turned into the perfect, sweetest, best doofus ever!

I work from home so he is my constant companion.  He has great neighborhood friends to wrestle with and he goes for lots of walks in the woods. He sleeps on the bed with us each night and never worries about where to get his next meal. But what he loves most of all is when we are all loaded up in the van, just the 3 of us and we are off for another one of our van adventures.  He’s chased the seagulls in the surf on the Pacific coast and swum in the Columbia River Gorge. He’s camped in Moab and hiked in Glacier.  And he’s even been on a ferry to Chelan, WA. He’s always ready to see the van doors swing open and to hear those words, “Load up!”

Thanks to AAC, our hearts are healed and Scooby, well, he won the lottery!