I’ve enjoyed writing this year about my family’s volunteer dog rescue activities and about the extraordinary efforts of so many big-hearted people who work every day to help save four-legged lives and to ease the burdens of the two-legged folks who operate and manage animal shelters and rescues.

Slinky with Tasha and Santa

There are endless ways to volunteer to help in animal rescue. You can transport, foster, volunteer to walk dogs, donate supplies, donate funds or simply elect to adopt the next time you seek to add a pet to your family. I hope you’ll consider getting involved if the idea appeals to you, and I’m always willing to talk to anyone about ways to support animal welfare efforts.

In the final installment of On the Road with TCB, I thought I’d bring the subject a little closer to home and tell the stories of the rowdy, adorable, fun and fuzzy co-occupants of our home.

Any discussion of the Blakney-Rogers ark must begin with Caesar, a precious terrier mix also affectionately known as C-Section, C-3PO, C-Note and C-Biscuit. Caesar is the grand old gentleman of the abode. At the startling age of 21 years, and despite his now-limited eyesight and hearing, Caesar remains vibrant, loving and ready to eat all the snacks in the house.

Caesar

Caesar has a wonderful backstory of survival and resilience to accompany his noteworthy longevity. His path involved at least two stays (that we know of) at Young-Williams, the local animal shelter in Knoxville, back before it achieved its current no-kill status. We can trace his life only as far back as his first known stint at the shelter. Caesar was then adopted by a young woman who was a college student and her friend/roommate who was in law school at that time.

Caesar lived happily for several years with these young women. However, when they both ended up getting married to spouses with allergies to dogs, neither could keep the precious boy. They worked out a friendly adoption with a church friend where Caesar transitioned to a happy life with a new owner. Alas, his new owner fell extremely ill and could no longer care for him. Despite her efforts to find an adopter, Caesar again found himself at Young-Williams.

Enter Tasha and our then-teenage daughter Katie. We locked eyes with him in his sad little corner of a kennel and it was love at first sight. That was December of 2013, and he’s been with us ever since. The adorable underbite is just an added bonus to his loveable, scruffy face.

Ralphie

Next up, meet Ralphie, aka Ralphie-Rogers, Ralberto and PotatoHead. Ralphie is the sweetest, lovable, big old dummy you’ve ever seen. He looks like the Grinch if the Grinch were part boxer and part undetermined-scruffy-terrier-something-or-other. He is the strangest mix of boxy head, buggy eyes, beard and terrier coat. Even if you wanted to make another Ralphie, I don’t believe you could. Ralphie is also a survivor, and at an estimated 11 years of age, he is turning gray and contending with a bit of arthritis, but otherwise showing zero signs of slowing down.

Ralphie was initially adopted from a shelter in Louisiana. However, the initial adoption turned out not to be a good fit and the family sought to return him. When he was returned, the family took him to a different facility than the one from which he had been originally adopted. Unfortunately, that shelter was a high-kill one, and he likely wouldn’t have made it out alive but for a kind soul who overheard his plight and pulled him directly into a shelter that had more capacity to hold him.

Hold him they did. Ralphie spent approximately two years waiting on another adoption. Though he was a shelter favorite, an adoption never came and finally Ralphie was accepted into Walking in the Sun Rescue (a group I’ve previously written about in this column and for which we regularly drive rescue transports).

Back in July of 2015, Ralphie was finally pulled from the shelter and placed on a transport. As our luck would have it, his route brought him through East Tennessee and we were his scheduled drivers. Once we met him and heard his story, we decided he didn’t need to go any further north than he’d already been, and Ralphie became the next addition to our menagerie.

He is my shadow. I don’t make a move in our house without Ralphie knowing about it and typically following me. You would be hard-pressed to find a more loveable goofball than Ralphie Potato Head Ralberto Rogers. He is just the best.

Next up is Slinky, aka The Slink, Slink Master B, Slinking Ain’t Easy, The Slinkinator. This boy is full of spunk, attitude and downright joy. We refer to him as the mayor of our local dog park because he’s never met a dog he doesn’t like. He is a cuddly bundle of adorableness, though you better think twice if you presume he might share his treats with you. Slinky is what is commonly referred to as a “shorkie,” though I didn’t know that was a thing until we met him. He looks like a cross between a shih tzu and a yorkie, but honestly, it’s anyone’s best guess what’s going on in there to make the Slink Master B. The Slink carries a stick everywhere he can, has a favorite stuffed raccoon we call “Slimy,” cocks his head at an extreme angle when you talk to him and loves to fearlessly play with dogs about four times his size at the park.

Slinky, like the others in our family, is one heckuva survivor. As a puppy, Slinky lived in Alabama. One day, his owner decided he was done with him, so he decided to take him for a ride out in the middle of nowhere and toss him from the window of a moving pickup truck. A kindhearted motorist who saw this unfold stopped and picked the terrified little guy up and took him to a vet. He had suffered a hairline fracture in his leg from the fall but was otherwise physically unharmed.

The amazing folks at Rescue Hearts of Alabama then took him into their rescue, treated his injuries and got him healthy and well for transport to the Northeast. Much like the Ralphie story, Michael and I were destined to drive his transport and he was destined to end his journey with us and our family in Knoxville. He’s been with us since May of 2020 and he luckily seems to have no memory of the traumatic steps it took to get him to us. I’m convinced Slinky was meant to be with us all along, but he just had to find his way through some bumps to make it happen.

Frankie

Our final addition is a recent one. Frankie (aka Francis, St. Francis of A-Pee-Pee and additional future nicknames to be determined) joined our family only a couple of weeks ago. Frankie is 100% a foster fail. You’d think by now we’d know better, but apparently we don’t. Through Knoxville-based Recycled Best Friends Rescue, we fostered Frankie along with his sweet mom, Foxy, and his four siblings over a period of several weeks. We had zero designs on adopting a puppy. In fact, we generally prefer adopting more senior dogs because 1) they are easier and 2) they are more often sadly overlooked in shelters or rescues. But Frankie is a special little guy and he stole our hearts. He also absolutely bonded with our old guy Caesar and brings out the puppy in him. We all now joke that we suspect Caesar thinks we got him a puppy. And, if that makes 21-year-old Caesar happy, well then, we can all live with that.

Frankie is a fuzzy little ball of promise and potential right now, just like every other dog should get to be. He’s expressive and funny and a bit adorably clumsy. We all already love him and look forward to making him a part of our family for many years to come.

So, there’s the story of the four doggos living with the Blakers at this time. We also have two rather moody cats who stick around despite our rotating cast of regular and visiting dogs. They demand attention periodically, treats often and generally do as they please. Still, we love Phil and Pearl too, and as you might have guessed, they are also both rescues with stories of their own. Unlike the dogs, however, they keep their secrets to themselves, and we are largely left to guess at what they went through to find their ways to us and our ark of animals.

We’ve loved, cared for and been loved back unconditionally by many animals in our home over the years, some for a long time and some for only a brief time, but they’ve all meant a great deal to us. They’ve each left a little bit of joy with us, and I hope we’ve done that for them too. |||