Spunky Decker Rat Terrier

Spunky is a Decker rat terrier. He looks like one of the RCA dogs. When he was younger, (he's 6 months in this picture) people thought he was a dog like Frasier's or Wishbone (the actor who performs various classic novels for children on TV), but they're Jack Russell terriers. As he's gotten older his ears have started to stand straight up. They should be straight up by the time he's an adult without ever having been cropped. His tail was bobbed before I got him. He's got the softest fur.

The rat terrier's were brought to the United States by Theodore Roosevelt who used them for hunting. The Decker's were bred by a man named Decker to create a larger rat terrier.

Whenever he's outside and sees a bird, dog, or cat, he's instantly on the alert. If I'm walking him, I have to drag him away because he wants to go chase them. Despite his love of nature or at least chasing it, he's not fond of the rain. In order to make him go potty in the rain, I had to get him some rain booties for his paws. I think his disdain of the rain comes from the water making him too cold because he's got such low body fat and short hair.

I picked Spunky up at farm about 20 miles from where I live. I got to see his mom, dad, and older brother. Originally I though of getting the puppy that looked like the dog on the Little Rascals that was all white with a black patch around its eye. Spunky was a much bolder puppy and came to me rather than whine like the other one.

Spunky is generally obedient-- to the best of his ability. He's usually in a rush though. His major offences are putting his paws up where they shouldn't be and going where he shouldn't. He'll get down when you tell him to, but he frequently does it again a few minutes later.

He's the spew master 9000 when he's riding in the car. Of course he was perfectly fine on his first trip home, but not since. So far, car sickness medications haven't done any good. He really doesn't like to get into the car carrier (we really don't like to have to put him in there), then he drools, urinates, and deficates not necessarily in that order. We have to make several stops on our way to the destination to clean him and the carrier up. Since DJ gets sick to his stomach by all this (and so do you after reading about it), I end up cleaning.

Fortunately I discovered his car sickness goes away if he's not enclosed by the glass windows of the car. When we took the top off the car and put him in the carrier it was no problem. The dissonance between what's happening visually (i.e. the stuff outside the car is going past) and what he's getting from his other senses was the source of his car sickness.

He's one of those dogs that gets attached to one person (i.e. me). He always has to know what I'm up to. If I go up the stairs, he has to go up to see what I'm doing. He's an extremely quiet dog and doesn't even bark during play time. He will bark at strangers though especially if Otto gets them started.

His favorite activities were playing catch and running around the house being chased by Otto. During play time, he's very paw expressive. He waves his paws in the air inviting you to come play with him. When he went up the stairs without permission (usually to find something to chew on), he would lower his head and ears and paw at me for forgiveness. Of course he'd go right up there again 5 minutes later if I didn't watch him like a hawk. He's also very trusting, he will lay on his back in my lap. If I try doing the same thing with Otto, he can't wait until he's right side up again.

Unfortunately, Spunky's friendly nature got the best of him one day. He saw the neighbor walking their pit bull and wanted to go see him. He was so excited he broke the chain to run and greet a new friend. The pit bull would have none of that and instead tried to attack him. Spunky was too quick for the pit bull and the only injury he sustained was some bleeding paws from rubbing his foot on the ground trying to escape from his leash so he could see the pit bull. Unfortunately Mr. Otto was being walked with him at the same time and wasn't so lucky. He received a nasty bite on the head which has healed just fine.

After this incident I knew I couldn't keep Spunky around since I'm sure he'd have another encounter with the pit bull again given half a chance. I knew that I'd have to do something to the neighbor and their dog that would put me in jail if not the electric chair if Spunky was attacked again. He is much too quick when excited for me to catch him in time.

I had to find a new home for him. I tried the rescues for a few months, but didn't get any responses. Giving up on that, I advertised on Yahoo Pets and had a flood of people who wanted to come see him. I ended up giving him to a large family with kids and a large back yard.

Putting him in their truck and walking across the street to go inside was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. I haven't seen him since because I don't have a way to contact the folks who have him now. I hope he's okay. I think about him on a daily basis still and hope to see him again some day.

It turns out my friend has been holding out on me. He knows some people who know where Spunky is. He ended up telling his brother that he knew where he was so he figured he'd better tell me before his brother did. I was not pleased that he kept the status of Spunky's location and welfare from me.

Anyway, Spunky's been doing fine and apparently he's now a mascot for a little league team because he kept chasing their baseballs during practice. I'd still like to see him on my birthday, but that's up to his owners. The important thing is that he's safe and happy. It's good to know that I gave him to the right folks.