Do to some odd circumstances I recently "lost" my little Min-Pin co-pilot that's been with me for the last 6 years. I've mentioned him several times in posts and most of the guys I've flown with on-line, knew he was always with me during my flights.
At first I wasn't going to try to replace him, but then realized just how big a void there was in my home not having a furry lap while flying and a little smiling face looking up at me when I got home. Let alone the benefit a small loyal animal companion has on my high blood pressure.
A few weeks ago I started searching the internet for a new pup. I started out wanting another Min-Pin and even contacted a local AKC breeder that has a litter of champion bloodline Min-Pins due in August. I looked at Min-Pin Rescue Groups, but never saw anything that hit me.
Then my searches just turned into looking for a proper "Lap Co-Pilot" sized pup. Over the last week I boiled it down to about three dogs at several west Florida no-kill shelters that I wanted to look at. This mornig I headed up to a shelter just south of Tampa that had a small Jack Russell mix that looked cool in his pic. When I got there, I learned that his whole family, 3 generations had been dumped. I looked at all of them but nothing seemed right.
I was getting ready to head home torn between thinking that I didn't really need a dog and disappoinment that I wasn't going home with one.
Right as I was about to leave I spotted this little guy calmly sitting off in the corner watching all the comotion of the other dogs being shown. He had an air of calm about him and a look of real wisdom in his eyes. It took about two minutes in the cage with him to realize he was exactly what I was looking for.
His name is "Peanut". He stands maybe 12" tall at the shoulders and weighs about 10 pounds. As small as he is, he has fairly beefy paws and a docked tail making him resemble a small stuffed bear. On top of the very unsually brilliant rusty brown color pattern, he's got piercing bright green eyes. Not a clue as to what breed he is, but it does look like there may be a little Min-Pin somewhere in his lineage.
He has sort of a sad story. He was brought to the no-kill shelter as a new born pup and was adopted out pretty quickly to a family. Something happened with the family's situation and they ended up dumping him back on the shelter. He's spent a good part of his 2.5 years in the shelter.
I promised the girls that work at the shelter that had all grown so attached to him that I would leave him named as is.
So here's the official unveiling of my new flight sim co-pilot "Peanut". In fact he's already hard at work, sound asleep in my lap as I'm on final into "MM54".
I'll try to get some action full body shots tomorrow. Tonight's all about bonding and napping.
At first I wasn't going to try to replace him, but then realized just how big a void there was in my home not having a furry lap while flying and a little smiling face looking up at me when I got home. Let alone the benefit a small loyal animal companion has on my high blood pressure.
A few weeks ago I started searching the internet for a new pup. I started out wanting another Min-Pin and even contacted a local AKC breeder that has a litter of champion bloodline Min-Pins due in August. I looked at Min-Pin Rescue Groups, but never saw anything that hit me.
Then my searches just turned into looking for a proper "Lap Co-Pilot" sized pup. Over the last week I boiled it down to about three dogs at several west Florida no-kill shelters that I wanted to look at. This mornig I headed up to a shelter just south of Tampa that had a small Jack Russell mix that looked cool in his pic. When I got there, I learned that his whole family, 3 generations had been dumped. I looked at all of them but nothing seemed right.
I was getting ready to head home torn between thinking that I didn't really need a dog and disappoinment that I wasn't going home with one.
Right as I was about to leave I spotted this little guy calmly sitting off in the corner watching all the comotion of the other dogs being shown. He had an air of calm about him and a look of real wisdom in his eyes. It took about two minutes in the cage with him to realize he was exactly what I was looking for.
His name is "Peanut". He stands maybe 12" tall at the shoulders and weighs about 10 pounds. As small as he is, he has fairly beefy paws and a docked tail making him resemble a small stuffed bear. On top of the very unsually brilliant rusty brown color pattern, he's got piercing bright green eyes. Not a clue as to what breed he is, but it does look like there may be a little Min-Pin somewhere in his lineage.
He has sort of a sad story. He was brought to the no-kill shelter as a new born pup and was adopted out pretty quickly to a family. Something happened with the family's situation and they ended up dumping him back on the shelter. He's spent a good part of his 2.5 years in the shelter.
I promised the girls that work at the shelter that had all grown so attached to him that I would leave him named as is.
So here's the official unveiling of my new flight sim co-pilot "Peanut". In fact he's already hard at work, sound asleep in my lap as I'm on final into "MM54".
I'll try to get some action full body shots tomorrow. Tonight's all about bonding and napping.
