~1986 - April 4, 2001
Spock was what is termed a "rescue dog" – we rescued him from a bad life. He was found wandering around in Wylie, Texas, and had been spotted around town for about a month. The woman who took him in said that someone in town had been poisoning dogs, and Spock was "just too nice to die". She did not have a fenced yard and was unable to keep him, so her sister (who belonged to the same club as us) said she would take him and try to place him. She brought him one morning when we were "running dogs" – training for sledding. He ran with our dogs (we only had 2 at the time) and got along well with them, so he came home with us and became Zvezda’s Captain Spock, C.D. (due to his resemblance to the character from Star Trek).
Spock was somewhere between 1 and 2 years old when he came to live with us. During the course of Obedience training with him, his reactions led us to believe that he has been abused in his lifetime. We also noted some structural problems in his body that indicate that he was hit by a car or perhaps came out of the back of a pickup and allowed to heal without veterinary attention. He walked funny and his jaw was not on straight. After that one day where he ran with our dogs, he refused to ever run away from the truck again. We could walk him up the trail and hook him up for the trip back to the truck and he would run just fine, but he would not willingly leave his "sanctuary". He was a good example of a dog that does not enjoy sledding, so we did not force the issue. He was a big goofball and the best puppy-sitter one could ever ask for! He loved to play and bounce around the backyard just as happy as he could be.
Since we did not acquire him from a breeder he came with no registration papers, so we applied for an "Indefinite Listing Privilege" (ILP) number so that we would be able to show him in Obedience. In order to do that, we provided proof that he had been neutered and affidavits from long-time breeders stating the opinion that he was pure-bred. We did show him in Obedience, where he earned an Obedience title of Companion Dog. Because of his structural problems, we chose not to try for upper level Obedience (which requires jumping) and he retired to earn his "Bed Dog" title.
