Sophie Tales: The Joy of Living with a Rescued Sheltie

By Anne Funkhouser

Sophie Tales: The Joy of Living with a Rescued Sheltie introduces the reader to the adventures of a rescued Sheltie who came to live with her new family at the age of 2-1/2 years. Sophie is a combination of Miss Curiosity, comedic scamp, gentle love bug, birdwatcher; and her middle name is play. Everyone is her friend. The book encourages others to take the risk of opening their hearts and homes to the adoption of a rescue dog who wants nothing more than to be loved by a family. 10% of book royalties will be donated to Jacksonville Sheltie Rescue.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479732654

Anne Funkhouser

Anne Funkhouser received her M.Ed. in Family Life Education and Counseling from the University of North Florida in 1989. She is a wife, mother or four daughters, and grandmother of ten who followed her Air Force husband for 20years. She has worked professionally in church ministry for 36 years, the last 23 in Marriage Preparation and Enrichment with her husband, Bob. After the loss of Cameo, the fifth Sheltie in their home, Sophie entered their lives at the right moment, a time of work transition, and continues to bring joy and laughter to their lives.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1 In The Beginning

Chapter 2 Goldilocks Was Sleeping On My Bed

Chapter 3 That Darned Cat!

Chapter 4 The Blessing Of The Animals

Chapter 5 My Best Friend

Chapter 6 A Walk With The Chief

Chapter 7 A Day Of Discovery

Chapter 8 Shopping

Chapter 9 Loud Voices And Moving Hands

Chapter 10 Sheltie Meet-Up

Chapter 11 Toy Story

Chapter 12 Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Chapter 13 The Budding Astronomer

Chapter 14 The Coach

Chapter 15 Who Me?

Chapter 16 Bells, Buzzers, And Ring-A-Lings

Chapter 17 My Backyard Friend

Chapter 18 Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

Chapter 19 Sophie And The Birds

Chapter 20 This Is My Neighborhood

Chapter 21 The Big Mouth

Chapter 22 The Protector

Chapter 23 Family Visits

Epilogue

Notes

Dedication

To Jacksonville Sheltie Rescue who gifted us with Sophie

To My husband, Bob, who encouraged me to meet our first Sheltie, Tinkerbell, and to write about Sophie’s adventures

To our four daughters and ten grandchildren who unceasingly love all animals

To all the sweet Shelties who have joined Cameo at the Rainbow Bridge and remain in the hearts of their families forever

PROLOGUE

Our adventures with Shelties began quite by happenstance. This incredible journey with six Shelties requires some explanation. A Sheltie was our first child. We didn’t deliberately go looking for one, as we had never heard of a Sheltie before Tinkerbell came into our lives. Miniature collies were advertised on a bulletin board at the Base Exchange in the first week of our arrival at my husband’s first permanent station of his Air Force career. Since he had a collie briefly as a child, we just went to look. This is a dangerous undertaking for dog lovers to do.

Who could resist the little bundle of fur? With no preparation or thought, we took this tiny puppy to the guest quarters that were to be our home until there was room for us on base. She hid under the bed out of our reach. After some coaching, she came out from under the bed to spend time with her new family. Tinkerbell quickly adapted to our little family and soon became the big sister of our new daughter, Caryn. In all, Tinker helped to raise four girls. She would tell me when they tried to leave the yard, awakened us when smoke from a closed fireplace vent engulfed the house, and adapted to our many Air Force moves.

We recognized that Tinker was ageing; thus when we learned of some Sheltie puppies, we arranged to adopt Heidi. Tinker never met Heidi; at the tender age of eight, her little body succumbed to kidney failure shortly before Heidi joined our family. It took some time, but according to four little girls, Heidi soon became the best dog we’ve ever had. A few years later, a trip to one of those mall pet shops found four little girls sobbing because the little Sheltie was by herself at a time when they, too, felt left when their Dad was on a year’s remote tour in Southeast Asia. Again, a snap decision was made; and Angel came to live with us.

Undoubtedly, Angel had experienced some bad times before joining our family. She was feisty and really didn’t like any of us for a time. Eventually, she and Heidi became fast friends; but she barely tolerated the humans in the family until Dad returned home for good. Over time, as the girls began dating, she was the one who would stand watch at the doors to make sure everyone was safely home before heading to her little bed. When Heidi went to the Rainbow Bridge, she left a grieving little Angel.

This time, Mom went looking for a Sheltie and located one in another pet store. You’d think I would have learned. I convinced myself that this little dog was locally bred and couldn’t possibly have come from a puppy mill. We will never know whether I was correct; however, Niki was an exceptional little dog that joined the family and was well-loved by our growing college-student daughters.

Niki and Angel would play tug of war with a stick at the first sign of cool weather; and as Angel aged and seemed to lose her zest for life, it would be Niki who would coax her out from under a tight space to come for dinner. When Niki became an only dog, she had grandchildren to love. She was so quick; she could lick a cheek and be out of the way before a tiny fist could grab some fur. Our first grandchild, Brenden, even learned to crawl trying to reach her. Niki loved the treats that she could sneak from little hands. And those little hands loved her back. When she was 13, her immense loving heart gave out, and eight young grandchildren cried over her loss along with their Papa and Nani. On the next visit after Niki went to the Rainbow Bridge, granddaughter Alyx demanded to know where Niki was buried and insisted that Papa make a grave stone to cover her grave. This he did and added all eight of the grandchildren’s names to the stone as ones who loved Niki unconditionally.

Losing a beloved pet four times was just too much. The puppy kisses, greetings at the door, barks when someone came to visit, and playful nose nudges were sorely missed. But time was needed before much thought was given to opening our hearts to a new bundle of fur.

During the interim, my parents moved from Maryland to our Florida town to a retirement community. Our interim months and years were taken up with helping Mom and Dad move in and get acclimated to their new community, helping Mom over a broken hip, and beginning to work in family ministry in two locations. None of this busyness alleviated missing the presence of a loving dog in our home.

As time went on, we yearned for a dog. We knew that this time it was going to be done more thoughtfully. Books were purchased, studies were made to find the right breed, and notes were shared. Of course, in the end, both of us knew that only a Sheltie would fit into our lives. However, our lives were too complicated to raise a puppy. Perhaps we should attempt to adopt an adult dog this time. What about a rescue dog? Being a computer buff, I contacted a local Sheltie Rescue only to be told that there was no adoptable dog available at this time. This is a most unusual situation for any rescue organization and something they’d all like to experience often. I was prepared to be patient, something that is quite uncommon