Back in August of 2007, I offered to foster a VERY pregnant GSP named Miley. By the time she got to our house, she came with nine 1-day-old puppies! And surprise—all the puppies were black. It was the day before school started (I teach middle school) and that litter was raised by a village of NorCal GSP Rescue volunteers. My daughter was seven at the time and she picked one of the puppies to keep. A word to the wise—if you foster a litter of puppies, at least one is staying! We kept Hot Spot. (How he got his name is a story for another time.) Sadly, our time with Hot Spot came to an end this week when he was diagnosed with a tumor that bled into his abdomen.
We are heartbroken and missing our sweet dude. During his nine years, he was our “Best Boy.” He tolerated many, many foster dogs. I always introduced a new foster to Hot Spot first—he was a pro at doggie body language. Hot Spot and I competed in Rally obedience together. When he was young, I could feel the energy coming up the leash and could tell that he was barely keeping himself under control. When our trainer said we were going to compete off-leash, I laughed. But we did it and Hot Spot ended up being ARCHMX Hot Spot RVX3 (AOE) RL3X3 (AOE) RL2X4 (AOE) RL1X5 (AOE) RA CGC.
More important than an alphabet soup of letters, Hot Spot was our buddy. He was ready for any adventure and willing to do anything we asked him to do. When we were at the emergency vet on Sunday, my daughter said fostering that litter of puppies was the best thing we ever did—the craziest thing, but the best thing. I have to agree.
Please give your woofies an extra hug tonight and I’d like to thank NorCal GSP Rescue. Without them, there wouldn’t have been a Hot Spot.
-Cathy
