Rocky

Well here it is, almost a year and a half since my post about the loss of our beloved Redbone coonhound Quigley. Unfortunately, the breeder we had gotten him from had passed away shortly before Quigley died, and there was no one else in Arizona who bred Redbones. As it turned out, we had a long time friend and breeder of Treeing Walker Coonhounds, who not only lives in the Tucson area, she also “happened” to have a bitch that delivered a set of 8 pups the same day that Quigley died.

Well, that pretty much sealed the deal. Could God have been any clearer with His timing and direction? We went down to visit them when they were about 5 weeks old, and they were SOOO cute:

When they were 8 weeks old we returned to make our selection of little Smooth Running Rocky (his official name). You’d think with him being a coonhound and all, he wouldn’t be that different from our Redbones, but he is. He likes to sit up on his back legs and lift his forelegs before him. None of our dogs have ever done that. (He especially likes to do this in the morning when I’m still in bed. Puts his forepaws on the side of the bed as if telling me it’s time to get up.)

I’m tempted to say he grew like a weed, but the comparison doesn’t do him justice. Here’s a more current picture taken on one of our many walks.

He’s funny and smart and needs lots of exercise which is good for us, too. As far as tricks, it only takes about one iteration (plus a tasty treat) and he’s got it down. Blows me away. He’s also incredibly soft (his coat, that is) and barely sheds at all. On the down side, as of yet he can’t be left in the back yard for long or he’ll start digging holes. In fact if we don’t have him on a leash when we take him in the back yard he’ll almost immediately start digging. We are hoping he will eventually outgrow this behavior… in the meantime we take him on lots of walks both around the yard, through the neighborhood, on a lengthy path along Tucson’s Rillito River, and, perhaps his favorite, a little known and sparsely populated local canyon where he can be off leash without running into cars or other people.

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