What had happened was....
Many years ago I went to school in Fresno and met my friend Erinn.* She had a super cute dog named Sarah. Sarah would come and illegally visit me in my apartment. She was known for her Houdini abilities to get out of anywhere and could jump up into your arms from a dead sit on the floor if you tapped on your chest. She was awesome. And so it happened that I ended up coming back to Apple Valley to teach and Erinn was going off to basic training for six weeks and I said I'd watch Sarah. Sarah spent much of her time escaping from my house in Victorville. I felt bad for her because she was by herself all day long and I knew she'd be leaving soon, so I went to the animal shelter and picked out a puppy who had one ear sticking up and one out to the side. My sister named him Clark and my cousin who was 2 at the time cemented his name by calling him "Cark, Cark." Thus began the Clark and Sarah years.
Clark spent much of his young puppy weeks being drug around the yard by latching onto Sarah's collar and she would pull him around. They spent many a happy hour escaping from that yard. Then, one day I got home from work and found a paper stapled to the front door saying "This house will be auctioned in 30 days." Needless to say, Clark, Sarah and I frantically packed boxes and moved to the house on Cibola which had, among other things, an entire back yard filled with goat heads. Clark and Sarah got very good and picking thorns out of their paws. We had many an adventure there, like when I bought $150 worth of plants for a garden and built raised beds and came home to find that Clark had eaten every single plant. I'm not afraid to admit that I cried. Clark and Sarah also spent several a happy hour escaping from the house on Cibola. Then Erinn came home from basic training 11 months later and decided Sarah was better with me and left her. We were there about a year when I tore my right ACL (again) doing yoga. (Yes, yoga.) So Clark, Sarah and I decided to move back home with mom and dad while I saved up some money to buy a house.
My mom and dad's house was like Club Med because Sarah had a man in the house and tortillas, and cheese and hot dogs on demand. But we were there about a year when we moved into this house. My first business as a homeowner was to chicken wire the fence. Which I did, wiring the chicken wire to the fence about every foot or so. It only took Houdini about 1 day to pull the chicken wire away from the fence and escape into the neighbor yard with Clark on her heels. I fixed that problem and then Clark and Sarah and I had happy times until I went to France and they moved back to my mom and dad's. Sarah was not happy when I got home from France.
After France it was quite peaceful for about a year and then I started having a string of animal related rescues. There was the dog I found walking and since I didn't want it to get hit by a car, I carried it all the way back home. Then there was the dog, "Chiller," I called him who showed up at my house. He was here for three days and I would have kept him, but when I called the animal control they had already had him reported lost. As it turned out he belonged to my student and had walked miles to my house.
And then it happened. One day I was sewing and Clark and Sarah started barking like crazy and when I looked out my door there were two puppies at the gate. They were pathetic. You could see every rib; every bone, but they were like "Hey, you gonna let us in?" And I did. I fed and watered them and they ate more in two days than Clark and Sarah in a week. I briefly considered taking them to the animal shelter, because I knew that four dogs was crazy. But when I got home they were so lovey that I thought maybe this is a sign and I should keep them. I gave them people names and a much needed bath. Earl was smaller than Clark and about half of Randi's size. I called Pete and Steff to see if they could help me get them adopted. We took pictures. They destroyed shit. We took more pictures. They destroyed more shit. Josh bet me that I wasn't going to be rid of them by Christmas. They destroyed more shit. Christmas came and I had to buy lunch. Randi got adopted and then unadopted the next day. (That's what happens to bad girls-unadoption.) They grew like weeds.
And so that is the history of the Saratoga Animal Shelter and how I got four dogs.
Clark and Sarah enjoy life while I was in France.
Randi on day one.
Earl on day one.
(*For the full Erinn story you would have to ask Jack or Damien who are two of the only people who have ever met her. She is a legend.)
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