Josie, Abby, Maggie and Siren...

Our Four Dals

My husband and I adopted our first Dalmatian in 1991.  Chloe was with us for a little over 8 years before she died of cancer.  Our hearts were broken and it was only because we saw our male, Siren, on TV in Boise, ID that we even considered another Dal.   We went to Boise and saw him and loved him immediately and got to bring him home a few hours after he was neutered.   Soon afterwards a friend of ours who was a Marshall from Huntington, Oregon advised his sister-in-law had a Dal that was dropped off at her house and would we be interested.  Of course we were and we added Sadie to our home.  We lost our Sadie one day in June, when we came home from work and she was lying dead on our couch.  She was about 13 years old.  Again our hearts were broken, not only ours…Siren’s was too.

We waited for a bit, but didn’t feel like we wanted to wait any longer.  I started checking around the Boise area again, but there were no Dals.  I contacted Portland, OR and was told that unless we lived within 40 miles of Portland we could not adopt.  I checked in California and received the same answer…we had to live within a 40 mile radius of Sacramento.  Needless to say, we were rather dejected.  We weren’t looking for a puppy, we wanted an older dog... they are harder to place.

I got on the internet and found Dalmatian Rescue of Colorado…Colorado, my home state.  I emailed Beth and explained our loss and that we wanted to adopt an older dog.  Oh my goodness…  I opened a door!   By the first part of August we were meeting Laurie in Reno, NV to pick up our first, Abby, then we met Paige in late August in Colorado to pick Josie up.  We thought we were done adopting, but Beth called in February on a Friday, asking how close we were to Caldwell, ID.  Their shelter had an older Dal that was going to be put down on Monday if they could not get her adopted.  My husband and I agreed to foster her so that she could be put on the website for adoption.  By Saturday, as she lay on my husband’s lap while he read, he looked up at me and said to call Beth…Maggie was home.  

Siren is very happy with the girls and they all get along very well together.  They each have their own idiosyncrasies.  Josie was afraid of my husband for about a year and a half.  We worked very hard at getting her to feel comfortable with him.  She will now come to him and snuggle with him too.  She and Siren are our smilers.   The other two do not smile.  I have tried many times to get a photo of Josie smiling, but as soon as I bring out the camera she shies away.  Absolutely does not like to have her picture taken…especially smiling, and she has such a pretty smile.

Abby is our “wild” child.  She is so much fun, so full of energy.  She is really good with kids and is the one we take with us for the Fire Department parades… (I forgot to say that my husband is on the local Fire Department).  She loves to ride and is not afraid of the sirens.  She sticks her head out and barks “hello” to everyone, especially the other dogs.  She has a patch over her left eye and everyone loves to take her picture or ask to have theirs taken with her.  She’s a ham.

Maggie is a much older girl and is perfectly content lying on the couch with her “dad”.  She is definitely a “daddy’s girl”.  She still has some get up and go in her, but doesn’t like to ride on the Fire Trucks or be around all the kids... one or two is fine, but when there are several she doesn’t like it.

Kathie and Kevin H.
Ontario, OR

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