At the end of March I fell in love with a photo that came up in my Facebook feed. I got Bruno vibes immediately and sent an enquiry, which was so rambling and non-committal I’m surprised that Rescue Hub even replied! Three days later we welcomed a new foster pup into our home. He was “foster with a view to adopt” purely because it depended on what Butters and Ninja thought of him.
Spike is older than pups we usually foster – 6mos – so I did a week of everyone co-existing in the same spaces without actually meeting – pens, crates, screen doors and baby gates! It’s how I introduced Bruno into the pack and thankfully it was successful this time around too.
I don’t like macho dog names on boofy dogs but that’s not what we were going for with his new moniker. He’s named after one of our favourite frontmen, Spike Slawson from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. If you’re not familiar with the band, do yourself a favour and familiarise yourself!
When I collected Spike from the Rescue Hub kennels it was likely the first time he’d been separated from his brother (who’s been adopted to a home in Queensland) so he made a right racket in the back of the car for about 20 minutes – even though Butters and Ninja were in there too. When I put on MF&TGGs he stopped crying, so I guess he must love them as much as we do.
I took a long time to share his new name because I wanted to take this photo to accompany the announcement – and in order to get this photo I needed to first work on his training and also find a time that my favourite assistant / husband, Dave, was available to help. It was a big morning for Spike – he overcame his fear of the stairs at my studio, happily jumped onto the “stage”, wore a shirt that was definitely too small and then knocked it out of the park by wearing the sunglasses – what a little legend. We’ll have him playing the ukulele in no time!
Welcome to the pack Baby Spike, Spikey or Spike Alfred Slawson if he’s in trouble.
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You can follow my @ruthlessratpack account on Instagram for updates and yes, of course he’s been Embark’d so I’ll share his DNA test results when I get them back.
