Beyond My Couch: Chipper's Page

Chipper (2017 - 2022)

You left us way to soon . . . We miss you Chipper boy!

"No more Dalmatians, we'll never find one better than Tahoe!" Those were Kent's famous last words. It's funny how time and an empty backyard will change a person over the course of a few months. It didn't happen overnight, but eventually Kent was back on the Internet looking for adoptable Dalmatians that might be in need of a good home. He located an interesting guy in a San Diego shelter, but wasn't able to find much information about him. Allison suggested we might contact Gail, who lives in Santa Monica (she helped us get Tahoe ten years earlier) and see if she could be of assistance. Gail's response, "Why are you looking at that dog, when I have this guy you might be interested in?" As they say, "the rest is history!"

Here's the picture that got it all started

A week later we were headed back to Santa Monica this time to pick up "Buddy." We found out that Buddy was born January 26th, 2017 and had been owner surrendered because they couldn't properly give him the time and exercise a Dalmatian puppy needed. We are thankful that they realized this early on and are grateful that they had him housebroken, able to sit, and ready to play fetch.

Here we are meeting "Buddy" for the first time

One of the first things we wanted to do was change Buddy's name. After three weeks of struggling to come up with a name we settled on Chipper. Why Chipper? If you hadn't noticed, he is what is known as a tri-colored Dalmatian. This means he has primarily liver (brown) colored spots mainly on his head, but he also has black spots interlaced on his white coat. We thought, "Hey, this dog has milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips and he even has a micro-chip between his shoulder blades." It didn't hurt that he "chipped" up any piece of wood (baseboards included) that was available to him. So now he has affectionate nick names of: The Chip-ster, Chip-a-tolla, and Chip-a-rama. For those of you who watch Saturday night live, you'll get the humor.

Chipper in his newly remodeled pen
We had to "Chipper" proof the floor that he loved to dig up, daily!

It's been several months, and Chipper is finally starting to settle into his new life. It's been an adjustment for both him and us. Allison likes to say, she's had to teach both Kent and Chipper patience! We weren't necessarily looking for a puppy, but here we are training a new boy the "ropes of life." He's starting to come into his own and has developed quite the personality. He loves to run with Kent three times a week and walk with Allison on the off days. He's been learning dog obedience and how to socialize with other dogs. He's still a little skittish around strangers, but warms up to them soon enough. All-in-all he's coming around!