Oreo
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With us since November 17th, 2016
Oreo's Story
A little over a year after getting Tiffy, Twix was noticeable getting sicker and sicker. She passed at the beginning of August and we swore we were off getting a new dog for a while. Well, life has a way at throwing you a curve ball. My wife and I both follow the Arctic Rescue facebook page, which is likely a bad idea to begin with, but we had seen a post shortly after Twix's passing with a little baby puppy that looked just like Twix.
We ended up going out to visit the place where she was being held, which was essentially a husky ranch up in the mountains. The mom's name was Jazzy (pictured below) and she had three puppies (Salsa, Disco, and Tango) which were all born within a shelter in California. As we get out of the car these three little tiny huskies come running up to us and they were the most adorable things ever. We immediately fell in love. Out of the three we really were torn between the two black and white ones. We eventually picked "Tango" because of her spotted nose reminded us of Twix so much, she was our Twix reincarnate. Unfortunately we found out that Jazzy died from distemper about a month after we got Oreo but luckily it was not passed on to Oreo and she has been a healthy pup ever since we got her.
The puppies were born about September 17th or so, based on Arctic Rescue's estimates, so we had to wait nine weeks in order to take them home. You don't want to take a puppy away from its mother too soon. So November 17th comes around and I go out to pick up "Tango", which we renamed Oreo. It is the first time we have ever really gotten to name a puppy because I usually don't want to change their name too much. Her full name is Oreo Cookie Lehane and she had gotten much bigger than the last time we saw her. She barely fit into the box I had her in and kept trying to crawl out during the hour drive home.
After getting her home we started to acclimate her to Jackson and Tiffy. Jackson could really have nothing to do with her and generally ignored her. However Tiffy and her got along great. They were sisters from day one. Oreo would come up and try to chew on Tiffy's leg or ear and Tiffy would wrestle her to the ground. As Oreo got bigger and bigger these wrestling matches we less one sided and eventually Oreo grew up to match Tiffy in weight and size. They are roughly equal competition now.
The one thing that always puzzled us about Oreo was who was the father. We knew she was half husky because we saw her mom. The wife and I, after looking at lots of dogs on the internet, assumed that the father must be pitbull but we were never really sure. Well, it turns out that Disco, Oreo's brother in the litter, was adopted by one of Arctic Rescue's head people and a friend of ours. Disco was renamed Tango and had his DNA tested because she was curious about the father as well. It turns out that yup, we were right. Oreo and Tango are both 50% husky and 50% pitbull, or pitsky as we like to call her. This also ties into her ears. When we first got her both ears flopped. But over time one ear started staying up all the time while one flopped. We had hopped they would stay flopped but eventually both ears have stayed up all the time. He brother Tango is even worse and his ears were absolutely huge on his head. Comparatively, Oreo's ears were not that bad.
As Oreo started to grow up, we learned the hard way that we never raised a puppy before. By the age of 5 or 6 months old, she was able to jump over our four foot fence in the backyard. And the biggest problem with that was that she would not listen to us at all. Trying to get her to come back to me after she escaped was a brutally vain effort. She would never come when called and each time she got out she would wander further and further away from home. At least we lived on a golf course so she wasn't in much danger of getting hit by a car when she ran away, as long as she stayed on the golf course. One time when she got out I couldn't find her anywhere. Turns out she had fallen into one of the golf course ponds, which didn't have any water in it at the time. However, she was unable to get out due to the plastic coating placed on the bottom of the pond. So at least she was contained that time.
In order to combat her not listening to me, we eventually took her to doggy school when she was old enough, which I never had to do before. But afterwords she listened like a champ, however she would still jump over the fence, especially when we weren't looking. I ended up getting a shock collar, but even then I had to catch her jumping over the fence for it to be effective. I caught her once and was able to shock her, which worked for a while, but eventually she was at it again. I eventually was able to install an invisible fence which has worked like a charm ever since. We don't even need to put the collar on her anymore because she has finally learned to stay in the yard. Our biggest issue was when her and Tiffy went on an adventure within a National Forest, ending up a couple of miles away at another campground. Luckily a ranger had found them and went looking around to the different campsites trying to find their owner.
She is our Twix incarnate though. She sleeps on the bed with us, although she doesn't keep my feet warm like Twix used to. She more likes to sprawl out across the bed instead of sleeping in her husky ball. She also has no fear of anything. We never had a rescue who didn't remember her previous life. She has no fear of anything or anyone. She also loves everyone just as a puppy could do, with lots of teeth and tongue. She will gladly go up to anyone and make a new friend, which she can sometimes be a bit overzealous about, but she means well.
Some Pictures of Oreo
Pictures are roughly in chronological order
Oreo's earliest puppy picture when she went to Arctic Rescue at about 2/3 weeks of age along with her brother, sister, and mother.
Oreo with her brother and sister. Oreo is in the middle.
Here is Jazzy, Oreo's mom. She looks like a skinny Tiffy!
Some baby Oreo pictures from Arctic Rescue
Meeting Oreo the first time when she was about a month and half old.
Bringing her home for the first time.
