Meet Harley

After 10 months of grieving and healing over the loss of our Buddi we decided that we were ready for another dog. We've been looking for a dog for a couple of months now. We went and looked at a couple of American Cockers but things just didn't click. We even seriously considered a miniature Schnauzer, but decided against that as well. Buddi was just such a good little poster-child dog for American Cockers we decided we wanted to stick with that breed.
ordon started looking on KSL's online classified for Cockers. He sent me several links of cute little dogs. One of the links was broken, so I looked at the KSL ads and saw that they were having a pet adoption event at the American Fork Pet's Mart. We decided that it was worth a trip up there to see who was there and if any of those little friends needed to come to our house.
We are almost immediately drawn to the cage with Harley in it. The Lost Paws lady came and took him out on a leash so we could get better acquainted. I won't say it was love at first sight... but I knew immediately that this little boy needed to come home with us. He showed right away that he had some training and I had to ask myself again, "How did someone let this wonderful little dog get away from them?"
So we filled out the adoption request, had him micro-chipped, paid our adoption fee and brought him home.
Harley is parti-colored (in his case, brown, carmel and white) American Cocker. He, like Buddi, is small for his breed, only 18 pounds. He is longer legged and longer in the torso than Buddi and (sorry Buddi) smarter! We don't know how old he is. The LP people had him listed at 7-9 months, but his teeth had so much tartar build up that the Vet thinks is likely closer to 4 years.

His first night in his new home he showed quick learning skills on how to use the pet-door (remember this is a cat-sized door) and when it was bed time he went right into the crate when I tapped it and told him to go in. We have been on several walks (on our warmer days, you know, the ones in the 20's!!) and he walks quite well on the leash. He comes when called and let's see... loves to harass Simba. And Simba likes him just about as much as the last little interloper who decided to invade his territory!!

One of the happy things about Harley is that his previous people didn't introduce him to the pleasures of human food so his is not a begger-dog. We are so pleased with this lack of interest that we will not spoil him with table treats and hand-outs. And the other thing that I DEFINITELY won't teach him is how to jump up on the bar stools and eat at the counter with us. (Can you say Buddi-the-bread-snatchin'-dog??)

We are looking forward to many happy years with our newest little family member.