Otis

Our australian shepherd

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Otis was our wonderful Australian Shepherd dog. We got him on Sept 3rd 2000 from the SPCA and he lived with us till his death on Dec 17th 2005. He was a wonderful boy to have around. Very friendly and eager to please, always loving visitors and herding people from in front when we went for walks. He loved everyone and some people more than others. He would literally jump for joy when he met some people and had a lovely way of making certain noises that would let you know what he wanted. He always would sing for joy when we got near to a walking place by car! He always sensed that excitement was about to happen for him!!! He was the first pet we got.

We thought we had chosen Otis. We went along to the local SPCA and took Otis out for a walk. We then decided that without a doubt Otis was the one we wanted. We were unanimous about it. After adopting him and taking him home we discussed the day and I commented "you have good choice when it comes to finding dogs." To which he replied: "you have good choice. It was your choice. " It seems that neither of us had taken the dog for a walk that we had previously decided on when looking at the dogs in their cages! Otis had chosen us and we were very happy about it!

About six months after adopting Otis we decided to go find him a dog companion. We found a lovely dog at the SPCA and took her out for a walk. She was lovely! She was friendly and couldn't stop showing her affection for Otis. She kept licking his ears! However, he thought just the opposite and didn't like her fussing over him. He looked intimidated and afraid. We put him back in the car and took her back inside. Then on our way out we just popped into the cat room to see the cats and kittens there. One grey little cat caught our attention. We got her out and petted her. We looked at each other and said "I wonder if Otis would like her?" We brought Otis back inside and put the little grey kitten on the floor beside him. Otis loved her! She loved him! We adopted her.We called her Snuggles.

Just over one year later we got Jaxx who taught Otis about chasing cats and about eighteen months later we got Ben our black cat. Otis had a real family now to take care of and herd.

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