Jasper! Our New Family Member

Introducing Jasper!  Affectionately known as Jasper, Jibby, Buckwheat, Zydeco.  Its a long story!

Okay, let’s try and capture this in an understandable way!

When we lost Disney, friends in the Bichon community rallied.  Most specifically our friend Myrna.  The sympathetic outpouring for Disney’s loss was world wide.  Sincerely!  Myrna wanted to make sure that our void was filled in some way and helped us  by suggesting a 1 year old Bichon named Tom Tom.  We never met him, he looked sweet and we came to the realization that our lifestyle needed to begin with a young puppy that would start their life in the strange world of travel that we live in.  In other words, become accustomed to being on the road 365 days a year where their home was our motor coach and adventure was a walk in a new place every day.

It was hard turning down Tom Tom.  We felt though that it was best for him.  Myrna did not have a great prognosis for a puppy from a quality breeder for at least a couple more years.  In fact, most people that we talked to said that it was taking them 3 years to get a new Bichon.  Disney had introduced us to the Bichon community and he was the inspiration for our entire pet product line.  Little did we know how much Disney’s story and the impact of our products would have on the Bichon community.

Just a few months ago, Myrna called and said that her breeder near Dallas was going to have puppies and if there was a boy, he was ours.  We literally cried.  Not knowing if there would be a boy, we were optimistic.

Our friend Sarah in Austin Texas gave us a book about dog energy titled, “Guardians of Being” shortly after Disney’s death.  It was inspiring and we also realized much of why we were missing Disney so much.

July 24, 2010 there were two girls and one boy born to Spicy and Little Bit in Van Alstyne Texas.  Driving through Canada, passing Jasper National Park, he received his name.  In Texas, Jasper means a “dandy.”

From that date, we amused ourselves by adding sub-names to him as a sort of way of passing the time until we would meet him and his family.  For short for now he will just be Jasper.

Our schedule has been crazy as usual.  And when Jasper was born, we were on a hectic schedule that found us ending our time on the Oregon Coast headed for Northern Cal and then on to Austin Texas with lots of stops in between.  Bob was finishing his book and getting publishers moving.  We have the Women’s Confernece in Long Beach at the end of October, so timing was with the gods and we were able to schedule a personal pickup to meet Jasper on October 13th in Texas.  What happened from there was more than remakable.

We think we know what it is like for people to adopt.  On the 12th, we had finished in Austin. The next day with a 5:30 am departure we booked north toward Dallas.  We found a truck stop near Van Alstyne to park the coach and excitedly we made the truck stop a few minutes after noon.  Around 225 miles was the first leg of the day.

We have been corresponding with Marlene, the breeder, who graciously provided us with pictures and commentary of Jasper’s development and now the day arrived to meet her, her husband Marvin and the brood that she calls family.

When we pulled up to their wonderful home, Marvin was on the phone and welcomed us with a smile and sparkly eyes.  He motioned us to enter and when we did, all hell broke loose.  Bichon’s everywhere barking at us and welcoming.  Marlene emerged with Spicy on a cart.  She knew we were coming for her baby and she was not happy!

Things settled in quickly and we went into another room to meet Jasper and his remaining litter mate, sister Star.  Miley pup had already been sent to her new family in California.  Marlene said that Jasper was a thinker and not much of a kisser, but when Bob first held him, it was a love fest.  A quick lunch, some details and we were off into the car headed back to the coach and the meeting of Jasper and his Cat companion Isabel.

We have captured much of the first 72 hours on video, but the synopsis is that when we brought Jasper into the coach, our world changed in a wonderful way.

We brought Jasper into the coach and set his carrier down.  Isabel kitty jumped from her perch in the front window and went right to the mesh door of the carrier.  Hmmm, she thought….looks like Disney, but not the same smell.

They were fast friends from the start!

The transformation of Jasper has been remarkable and in the first 48 hours, he was now in New Mexico just west of Albuquerque and was nearly semi-potty trained. (In this picture, Jasper is not flushing out a pheasant, but peeing where he should…at a rest area!).   He has a new funny looking “sister” that stayed up all night for two nights to make sure he was Okay while Jasper’s new humans sleep through the first night.  Not a peep from Jasper, but Isabel wanted to make sure he was Okay.

As we headed into Arizona on our way to LA, Jasper is now a fully engaged part of the family looking for the next adventure around the corner.  He is a new and big part of the Grizzly family at SeeLevel.

Film at 11….or when we can add it to Jasper’s World!

[mappress mapid=”16″]