Happy Tails
Angel, the toy fox terrier
by Susana G.
“What a cute little rat terrier!” gushed the old lady at the Petco store, and Leslie Bardon, her foster mom, cringed. But she smiled kindly and softly retorted: “Actually, she is a toy fox-terrier, not a rat-terrier!”
“Oh,” responded the dog browser, “but she is so cute.,..,” and walked off to the next pup like many others had done before at the sole mention of the word “terrier”.
Eleven-month old Angel had been waiting four months to be adopted. When Leslie started fostering her, she noticed right away that Angel demanded a lot of attention, constantly testing them with no-no behaviors such as chewing on a plant when a family member was on the phone or pooing in front of them to see what they would do.
An experienced terrier mom and foster mom, Leslie knew Angel required structure, to be involved and challenged, and to have “love, lots of it...” So this generous foster took Angel to Total Puppy Class at Dogworks, in Eden Prairie, footing half of the bill. “I could tell she was smart from the beginning but I was so flabbergasted with how well she did in class!”, Leslie said, adding that the attention-seeking behavior stopped.
And “she was the best snuggler! She would crawl up underneath her boyfriend Danny’s sweatshirt and fall asleep”. To this day, he misses their snuggle-time together. “There was something about that little girl that made you laugh. She is a clown and OMG … a kissing fiend!!! You would say ‘kiss’ and she was right there!”
Leslie wanted Angel to go to a home that knew the breed, Angel’s needs for training and agility, and could give her the attention she deserved.
That’s when Sherri came along, right before Halloween. “She was sooo interested and excited in Angel and she had previous experience with terriers, so she knew the temperament, and she had a back yard!”
Sherri had lost her beloved Jack Russell four years earlier. When her boyfriend Jeff moved in with his lab Roxanne, Sherri thought Roxanne would like a playmate. She talked to her boys, Andrew and James, who were absolutely for it. But the nearest Jack Russell candidate they found on the Web was in Chicago…!
Then Sherri happened to see Angel’s picture on the Web and liked her. But when she saw Angel’s YouTube video, following her foster-brother Butch and playing with him, dodging in and out of human legs and chairs, that was it!
Angel was comfortable with Sherri and her family from the beginning. “But, being a terrier, Angel is high strung, high energy,” Sherri says. “She and Roxanne carouse around all the time, Angel’s whole head can fit into Roxanne’s mouth. The boys carry her around and she sleeps with the little guy. And Jeff also likes Angel, except when she jumps on his desk, steals his glasses and takes them back to her kennel! And Roxanne is so good with her! Angel runs around in circles in the back yard, and gets underneath Roxanne’s legs! She is very loved in my house,” she adds.
This win-win situation was made possible by the generous hearts of the volunteer foster, the loving new forever family, Pet Haven and its big hearted volunteers and, last but not least, by the kisses and antics of one more little angel who now has a better life.
