Bugstrider - I was browsing through this thread and love all the pics of your Schnauzer.
A few years ago, we had to put one of our dogs down. His name was Diablo, a coonhound-doberman mix, we had adopted several years prior. What a good dog he was! But we still had our Schnauzer, Smokey, who we bought as a puppy and was maybe 5 years old at the time. After several months had passed, we decided it was time to find another dog to keep Smokey company. My wife looked at the shelters for a while but nothing really came up.
So one afternoon, completely out of the blue, I suggested that maybe we should look for another Schnauzer, not a puppy but an older dog to adopt. I got on-line and searched and only a single ad came up within a few hundred miles. It was for an 8-year old female that had been neglected and taken back by its original owner. I contacted the owner and she said she just placed the ad that day and I was the only one who responded.
The next day, I went to meet with the owner and her dog. I brought Smokey with me to make sure the two of them would get along. It was a couple of hours away and as I was driving, I realized that it was in the same general area as where I bought Smokey as a puppy 5 years prior? I remember it well, because it was a horse farm and the lady had one of her horses stolen the night before!!
We met at a mini-storage facility that the person adopting out the dog owned. The dog was scrawny looking and shaved down. Her name was Fancy. The lady said she was so matted, that she had to shave her down. And she had a couple of good sized lumps that didn't look great. So I got Smokey out of my truck to see if they would get along. He does not do well with other dogs until he really gets used to them. He gets aggressive and growls and barks. But this time, he briefly sniffed Fancy and then just sat down next to her as calm as could be. No growling, no barking, no excitement at all?! It's the first time that EVER happened.
I told the seller that coincidentally I had bought Smokey only a few miles from here 5 years ago. She said that her mother had sold a litter of Schnauzer puppies about 5 years ago. I asked if her mother had a horse farm. She said yes. I then asked if her mother had a horse stolen about 5 years ago? Her face turned pale and she said yes. I said I bought Smokey from your mother the day after her horse was stolen! She looked at me, now with tears in her eyes, and said Fancy is Smokey's mother ...
Now what are the odds here? 5 years after I buy Smokey, I decide on a whim to search the internet for an adult Schnauzer for adoption. I've never done that before. I find 1 ad. The ad was placed only 2-3 hours before I found it. I'm the only one to respond to the add. And the dog turns out to be Smokey's mother who is in desperate need of a new owner to take care of her. Some things are meant to be and beyond coincidence or rational explanation.
Fancy had a series of health problems that we attended to over the past 2 years. Her and I bonded and she was never more than a few feet from my side. When I left for the day, she sat in the window sill for hours waiting for me. When I pulled back in the driveway, she would be sitting in the same spot. She almost never napped during the day. She was always active, like she was making up for lost time.
Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with Lymphoma in November 2016 and was given only a few weeks to live. She made it 3 months, before we ran out of options and we had to have her put down about a month ago. It was heart-breaking to say the least. It was a short 2 years while she was with us. She was a good dog
This was a few days after we got her. She's the small one. Her son Smokey is a big boy and the vet always told us he was too big for a miniature. We found out that Fancy had been bred with a Standard Schnauzer.
