has left the pack to join his feline friends

We miss him dearly

Dover

Somerset Dover Foxcroft CGC RN

3 April 1997 - May 2012

THE POWER CORD

Dover’s life with us started with a thrill of a lifetime. He bit through a live extension cord and his jaws clamped shut and could not be released. We managed to unplug the cord and got him loose not much worse for wear. I think he borrowed one of his feline friends lives. Did he learn from the experience - naaaw, but we did.

SNAKE TRAINING

Time came when we thought it would be a good idea to teach Dover to avoid rattle snakes. The training specialist had 3 snakes either deffanged or their jaws taped shut. Dover was supposed to learn the snakes: by sight, by smell, and by rattler. When he got close to a snake he was shocked to learn to avoid them. Well, Mr. Oblivious backed up onto a snake and sat on it. Oh, well.

AGILITY TRAINING

Dover loved agility and other action sports. He was an excellent student at Country Care Pet Resort and we were very proud of him. Unfortunately his training facility performance did not translate into blue ribbons at meets. Meets had one characteristic that the training facility did not: food vendors. Dover would have a great start, get half way though a course, spy a food vendor and take off in that direction. Very embarrassing. Hence his nickname: FOODAR for food radar.

COUNTER SURFING

While Dover’s agility training did not pay off in blue ribbons it paid off in the kitchen. He had determined that there are two places where food was located: the refrigerator and the counter. While the refrigerator handle was beyond his capabilities, with a little help the counter was accessible. Dover learned that if he pushed a chair against the counter he could jump on the chair and then the counter. We tried all manner of solutions and the only one that seemed to work, sort off, was to put rubber pads on the bottom of all chair legs to prevent him from sliding the chairs around. All that did was to challenge him to more exotic approaches.

DOVER THE FATHER

While Dover never sired his own pups he was the model father for the later arrivals. As each in turn, Millie, Chloe, and Penny arrived into the pack Dover would take on the father role and would shepard them around. He would take them out into the yard and show them where to do what, keep the peace among the pack, and discipline the pups when necessary. But always he was gentle with the pups no matter how rowdy they got.

WE MISS HIM DEARLY