Walnut’s previous life on the embattled streets of the Windy City’s South Side left him emotionally scarred and with few options. Two years ago this November, as my wife Wendy and I were returning by car from Chicago where we’d shared Thanksgiving with my daughter and her fiancé’s family, we decided to stop at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, to pick up some Christmas spirits and toast our expand family.ĭuring the sampling tour, we fell into conversation about our first meeting with Walnut, a muscular brindle pit bull that Maggie and Nate rescued from a city-run animal control center in Chicago just hours before the dog was scheduled to be put down. M aybe we can blame it on very good bourbon. Moose is living proof, she adds, that rescued animals often find their way to the place - and the people - where they were meant to be. “He seems to have the perfect personality for it - loves people and other animals. Lauren envisions him possibly someday becoming an outstanding therapy dog himself. Like his beloved predecessor, Moose is also very gentle and smart. He doesn’t grasp the whole social distancing thing,” she adds with a laugh. “They love to lie together on the couch watching movies. Gibson, who is 15, prefers to simply ignore him - which is hard to do since he’s still growing and is really one big goofball, always ready to play.” Lauren reports that Moose has become Drew’s favorite playmate. “He loves to run and tumble in the yard with Drew and Penny our younger Sheltie, though she makes it clear who is really in charge. “It’s uncanny how similar he is to Harley,” she reports. The test confirmed that aptly named Moose was a pure German Shepherd - just a very large one. In just one year, he weighs in at 85 pounds, growing so rapidly the couple decided to have his DNA tested to determine if he might have some Great Dane in him. Since that time, Moose has lived up to his name in numerous ways. “The boys,” as she calls them with a laugh, settled on the name “Moose.” Josh, who is 6-foot-8, wanted a big-dog name, and so did our son, 7-year-old Drew.” “We sat on our back deck and considered a lot of different names. The first thing the pup needed was a permanent name. “He was almost the spitting image of Harley and such a really sweet dog. “We were frankly blown away when we met him,” Lauren picks up the tale. Lauren and Josh decided to take in the pooch as a foster case. The pup had been with potential owners who, for reasons ranging from work schedules to personal allergies, simply could not give the young shepherd the kind of home he deserved. “Naturally, my question to Haley was what was wrong with the dog?”
They agreed to keep an eye out for another large breed dog that would get along with Penny and Gibson, a pair of highly independent Shelties the couple adopted over the years.Ī year ago, Red Dog Farm’s small animal specialist, Haley Garner, phoned Lauren to say that she’d found the Riehles’ next dog - a 4-month-old male German shepherd puppy that had already had three different owners. “We were heartbroken to lose Harley,” she says. Two years ago, the Riehles lost their beloved German Shepherd mix, Harley, a wonderful dog that served as a therapy dog and helped Lauren teach about animal rescue in the classroom. She serves as executive director of Red Dog Farm Animal Rescue Network, a remarkable organization started in 2006 by Garland and Gary Graham that has saved and placed, through its network of volunteers and foster families, more than 50 different species and 4,000 different animals, ranging from emus to cats, hedgehogs to dogs, into new homes. L auren Riehle and her husband, Josh, are veterans of the animal rescue circuit. A Loving tribute to the dogs that found us