Spark has always been a gentle dog. He was abused by his previous owner and his kids, so I paid through my teeth to rescue him. He was so afraid of people that it took us like a couple of weeks to pick him up without him crying out in fear. He was very trainable and very obedient, but a poor eater.
We took him with us wherever we went, even on our road trips. Not many hotels here are pet friendly, it is a real trouble to find a pet friendly hotel on such trips. So we often had to cancel our trips. On one of our trips we had to book a suite just to keep him in the room. The boys had their room at the other end of then corridor and Spark would dart from ours to theirs each time we opened the door. He had so much fun doing that and had so many admirers by the time we left the hotel. The staff became so friendly that some of brought him treats and many of them came out to say bye to him as we drove away.
Eating out at restaurants was another major adventure with Spark. No restaurants here allow us to take dogs in. We've never put him in a cage, so we would carry him in a cane vegetable basket, cover him with a fluffy towel and drop a ball inside. We would tell him to be quiet and he would until we finished our meal, never once moving out of his huge basket. He was such a darling and is one even now unlike Zoe who is a brat.
We once carried him on a trek up a hill, the little fellow looked out of his basket all the time having his kind of fun. He would now and then tell us that he wanted to take a leak apart from that he would never bother us. He was way to small (he would fit into my palm then) for trek and would get exhausted after a short climb and it would fall upon one of us to carry the exhausted sleeping puppy all the way.
I remember once our neighbor told us that he cried so pitifully when we went to church and that was it, he came to church with us every Sunday in his cane veggie basket. Never would he whine or cry during the service, he was such an amazing little puppy. Now, he is all grown up and likes to be a perfect gentle dog. None of Zoe's naughtiness for him. He often stays as far as he can get from her. He is such a wonderful dog but not a very playful one. He plays but calmly and gently, unlike Zoe who is boisterous. He does every trick I've taught him, what he loves most is to fetch the newspaper from the front porch and deliver it to my husband each morning. He takes the role of a delivery dog very seriously, he is so crazy about newspapers that he always wants to deliver it to one person or the other.
Mondays are his worst days as he hates it when the boys go back to the hostels after the weekend. He usually doesn't eat on Mondays, he waits for someone to comeback home. Then its like he realizes that he would have to wait until the next weekend to meet them.
The one naughty thing he loves doing is to take one of Zoe's squeaky toys and run away, but he never gets much further, as Zoe gives him a good chase. LOL they are such a strange pair. In fact I bought Zoe hoping that her energy rub off on him and would make him more playful, but he isn't influenced by her nor is she influenced by him. They are just who they are, unique dogs.
This is Spark's story!