Jack Russell Story Jack Russell Story
Story Name: How Trouble Saved My Life
From: Nancy Woodside
My Jack Russell Story:
The year was 1981, I had just come out of an eight year relationship that was not only abusive, but also included a heavy drug addiction. I had hit rock bottom. There was three months of lonely solitude. I was depressed and not eating. I dropped to 118 pounds on my 5’10 frame. I was in so much emotional pain I didn’t think I would live. I knew in order to survive that I would need to make some changes in my life. Then on September 16th of that year I woke with an idea. Being my birthday I would go to the dog pound and bring home a new friend, this would be my birthday present to myself. It would be my way of starting over, a clean slate.
I arrived at the pound and went inside to see what was available. In the first cage I came to was this little tiny dog. She was white with brown spots. Her legs were so short that her back end had to sit like you would if you were sitting side saddle. She had one ear that was “broken” and one ear that stood straight up. Her eyes were big, sad and brown. She was adorable and at once I knew this is why I had come. I didn’t want to dismiss the other dogs there, after all I had only looked into the one cage. As I walked from pen to pen but my mind kept going back to that first little pup. I rushed through the rest of the kennel and back to that first cage becoming so afraid that someone might take her before I could get back. The notes on the cage listed her as a beagle mix. Twenty minutes latter I walked out to my car with my new friend.
Two days after we got home the little pup got sick. I took her to the Vet and he gave me medication for her and told me to get some children’s cherry cough syrup, I could also offset it by getting her into the bathroom with the hot water running to produce steam, therefore breaking up the congestion in her chest. He gave her a fifty-fifty chance to live. SHE NEEDED ME!!! When I asked him what kind of dog she was he said, “Oh, a terrier mix.” I decided not to name my small friend, in case she didn’t make it.
I spent every hour of the next few weeks by her side. Her coat under her throat was red from the cough syrup. She coughed a lot, so much that it was hard for her to catch her breath, I thought she was going to die. I would hold her and rub her neck hopping to calm the cough. Finally the third week she started to get better. I was so wrapped up in her that I had forgotten my own problems. I knew in order for her to survive I would have to be healthy and so I started to take better care of myself. It took a full two months until she was well enough to be a puppy. My little friend would make it !! I was ecstatic! ! It was then I realized that I too would make it. I had put on five pounds and was on the road to recovery. I would name my friend Trouble, that is what her name would be.
It wouldn’t be until she was three year old that I would learn she was a Jack Russell Terrier. I ran into a breeder on a camping trip, she had a dog that looked just like mine, except Troubles tail hadn’t been cropped. When I saw her dog I scooped up Trouble and went to her campsite and said, “Hey lady! You have a dog that looks just like mine!” her response was “Yea, do you know what you have?” “Oh,” I replied, “She is just a mutt I got her from the pound”. “No she’s not, she is a Jack Russel Terrier”. My three year search for her breed had finally ended.
I always knew she was something special, and I am convinced that if she wouldn’t have come into my life when she did that I would not be here now. Trouble had been in my life for almost sixteen years and I have lots of stories about her I would love to share.
Thanks for reading Troubles story.