Today is my beloved Trevor's 2nd birthday, so I thought it would be a good day to tell his story and make a small plug for a charity that is now very close to my heart.
Trevor's story starts in mid-June, 2009, as an unnamed dog in Charlottesville. All of this story, as improbable as parts may seem, is true.
Amanda was a foster for the Internet Miniature Pinscher Service (IMPS) a nationwide miniature pinscher rescue. One morning she heard scratching as she walked past her door. She'd always joked that her home seemed to have a 'bacon signal' because random dogs would always show up at her house. That morning, however, when she opened her door she found two miniature pinschers who weren't wearing collars. She let them inside, called the local shelter to let them know that two untagged dogs had appeared at her house, and that she would foster them until someone came looking for them. She then called IMPS to let them know she was now unexpectedly fostering two dogs.
After inspecting the dogs, she came to a few conclusions. The dogs had been out for a while. The male was a puppy. The female had recently weaned a litter, and the male was most likely part of that litter. She then gave them temporary names: the female was the mom, so she would be Mama. The male... well, The Hangover had just come out, and Carlos was the first name that came to mind.
A week and a half went by, and Carlos and Mama were making themselves at home with the other dogs at Amanda's house. Then she finally got a call from the local shelter. A man had called asking if any min pins had shown up. The shelter passed his phone number along, and Amanda quickly called. A woman answered the phone.
Amanda: "Hi, I heard that you lost some min pins. How many are you missing?"
Woman: "Oh, those must be my son's! I don't know how many, he keeps them all out in a pen in the woods."
Amanda was horrified. However, luck and the law were on Carlos and Mama's side. It turns out that in Charlottesville you forfeit the rights to your pets if they go missing for 11 days and you don't look for them. It also turns out that this was the owner's first attempt to find his dogs, and they had been with Amanda for 11 days already. They were no longer his dogs, and were now up for adoption by IMPS. As the end of June and the beginning of July rolled in, she began working on getting Carlos and Mama adopted. Unfortunately, at least 1 adoption fell through.
Meanwhile, John and I had been having a whirlwind of a month. At the end of June we had a successful home inspection, and IMPS approved us to adopt. We decided we'd start looking for a dog when we came back from our honeymoon. On Saturday, July 11, 2009, we came back from Jamaica, and on Sunday, July 12 I started emailing about dogs. I saw an adorable black and tan female pup, about 9 months old, and asked if she was available. Sadly for me, she had just been adopted. However...
"Have you two looked at Carlos and Mama?"
We hadn't. We took a look at their posting, and John thought that Carlos was the cutest thing. We had a few questions though... well, one big one. Were they a pair? We were not prepared for 2 dogs. It turned out that they were available to adopt separately, so we agreed to meet Carlos and Mama on Wednesday and find out who we connected with better.
On Tuesday Mama found her forever home, so it became clear that we would just be meeting Carlos, and if things worked out we'd be taking him home right away. We got to the park where we were supposed to meet, and Amanda walked up with about 5 leashed dogs.
And we saw those ears.
Game over.
We only had one question before we took him home: How attached is he to his name? "Not at all. He's had it for a month and hasn't responded once."
This was good, because we weren't a fan of 'Carlos.' Our top choice was Gibbs (like this guy). Carlos didn't want to be Gibbs. It was alright though... we had a long, long list of potential names, and a long drive home.
As we drove, we tried names. Constant, Julian, Henry Jordan Wintringham IV (he actually cried when we tried that name, sorry J). Then I remembered the song that had been stuck in my head recently: Magical Trevor.
"Trevor?" He looked up. This had happened before, but he'd quickly lost interest.
"Trevor?" He twisted. This was the first time he'd responded more than once!
"Trevor?" He got up in John's lap and...
"Trevor?" ...jumped into mine. This was bad because I was driving. We pulled over so I could give him back to John, but after four responses it was pretty clear that we had a name.
Once we got Trevor home, we set up a vet visit to get him up to date on any shots he didn't have, and found out from the vet that the age estimation IMPS had given us was correct. Trevor was between 9 and 10 months old. We chose a date about 9.5 months prior to be his birthday. September 27, 2008.
So now we've had our sweet little guy for a little over a year. He's the best dog I ever could have asked for, despite his early chewing/housetraining issues. He's sweet and funny, cuddly, and oh-so-loving. He's an awesome footwarmer at the end of the bed on cold nights and the best walking partner a girl could ask for.
Now my charity plug: IMPS is a fantastic organization. I know a lot of people want to adopt a pure-bred puppy and think that this is impossible through a rescue. This is untrue: Trevor is pure min pin, and we adopted him as a puppy. (Darcy's a mutt, but we adopted her as a puppy too). They aren't that uncommon either... I've seen a lot of dogs under a year old on the IMPS webpage. The rescue fee helps allay not only the cost of your dog (remember, this dog has been living in someone's home at their expense for a while) but other dogs that have health issues in foster care.
So please help this fantastic organization: Go to The Animal Rescue Site, enter shelter name: IMPS, and state KY. The votes will help bring valuable funds to IMPS, which will not only help dogs like Trevor, who was picked up off the street by IMPS, and Darcy, who was taken from a shelter, but dogs like Prince, who has been in IMPS care for almost year and suffers from chronic dry eye. He will need eye drops for the rest of his life, and IMPS has been funding his care for a while now.
Anyway, all of that to say: Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet little boy. I couldn't have asked for a better dog.
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