Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club of the Potomac
Find
us on FacebookBig Red
My name is Sandi Shilling -Daniels. I live in Chester County PA
with my husband and three loud and fun corgi's - Katie, Haily and
Jack.
Last Sept I took all my dogs for a walk - it was a bright beautiful
day and we all had a fantastic walk. Later in the afternoon I
noticed something was very wrong with my 9 year old corgi Jack. Off
to the emergency vet we went. On that afternoon I lost my beautiful
boy suddenly to cancer.
About two weeks later someone called me who knew of a corgi who
really needed to be rescued - he belonged to a young couple with
four very young children. Long story short , they did not have the
time to put into this dog. I was told that the husband was very
against surrounding this dog to a rescue.
So I called the owner --- I explained who I was, I told him I had
corgi's for over 35 years, I had a fenced yard, lived in the country
and taught dog agility classes full time - I told him that I had
fostered corgi's in the past for corgi rescue. I went on to explain
how the rescue worked and all the great things the rescue did for
corgi dogs. I also explained that I had just lost a dog (who had
been a rescue) and was not really thinking about adopting another
dog just yet but I might be interested. I told him that I needed to
talk to my husband and we agreed I would call him back the next day.
I then asked what was the name of his dog and he told me "Jac".
That
evening I approached my husband, Richard, about Jac. Richard told me
very quickly that I was out of my mind ....but he did start to come
around, especially when I told him the dogs name.
So the next morning I talked to the owner again and I told him that
I was interested in his Jac -- I told him that I would give his dog
a few months of living with me - the dog would have to get along
with the two female corgi's I owned if he was to stay. If it was not
working out, I would foster Jac for corgi rescue for as long as it
took to find him the perfect home. The owner agreed.
A week later, off I went with my husband and my older corgi Katie to
meet Jac.
Jac was in a x-pen in a back room -- red and white corgi dog- -
leaping off all sides of the pen and the walls. This dog could leap
3 to 4 feet in the air. My initial thought was..."this is the
biggest corgi I have ever seen" -- I placed a tug toy over the pen
wall, he grabbed and almost yanked me in. We introduced him to Katie
and all was good except he had no doggie manners -- I knew that
could be fixed.
So home he came --- first thing was a bath followed by a nice walk.
He was out of his mind with excitement. The girls worked him very
hard for months on much needed manner lessons. It took two months
for him to fall asleep outside of his crate. My impression of the
dog was that he was so thankful to be part of a household and a pac
of dogs.
I called the old owner on Thanksgiving to tell him I was going to
keep the dog -- I explained that we could not call him Jac...but had
changed his name to Big Red. The owner could not have been more
thrilled.
I miss my dog Jack terribly, he died so suddenly it was very hard on
my husband and I .But I have learned that sometimes one door closes
and another door opens - always keep your heart open.
Hug your fur family,
Sandi Shilling-Daniels