Impact of our cocker spaniels, and finding a lost one
By Lorna Anderson of Perham
On Dec. 30, our dog Jasper was lost! It was the beginning of a cold spell so he had to be found, and quickly. We immediately made signs to put up on West, South and East Paul Lake Drive and the 34-35 junction. We posted on Facebook. Someone suggested we advertise on our local neighbors site on Little McDonald Lake area and to check with The Retrievers (a group of volunteers) and East Otter Tail Lost and Found Animals. Jasper was a special Cocker Spaniel we had raised from birth... and we just had to find her.
History with Cockers
Glen’s first dog at eight years old was a Cocker Spaniel named Lucky. After having dogs for most of his life, he decided he wanted a cocker toward the other end of his life. Bob Belco had advertised a dog and when Glen called him, he answered, “This is Mr. B.” When Glen bought his buff cocker, it was appropriately named Mr. B, who often went along to OtterBeck Realty Office in Vergas. When Mr. B died unexpectedly at eight years old, we found it very difficult to find another Cocker Spaniel in Minnesota. Our daughter Karla said, “Maybe WE should raise them!” So we started a new venture of raising cockers.
At the beginning of COVID, we drove 800 miles to Central Missouri to get a registered female chocolate Cocker Spaniel, which Karla named Angel. We found a buff male near Devils Lake, N.D., which we also named Mr. B. Since then, North Country Cockers with Angel and Mr. B have produced 21 registered puppies going to five different states.
Many of these dogs have been therapy dogs. A mother from the Twin Cities called us to get a pup for her 13-year-old daughter who suffered from anxiety, as we were suggested by the St. Paul Children’s Hospital. We have met some very nice people through raising quality dogs. Ranger, from the last litter, went to Phoenix, Ariz., and they are delighted with him. This summer we visited a family from Wisconsin that got Dallas. We giggled when he called saying that dog would give him an extra 50 years – he was already in his 80s.
On Oct. 22, 2021, our youngest daughter, Mea, was the victim of a murder-suicide in central Montana. Her orphaned children, Tillie (9) and Vernon (7), were brought back to Perham and were taken in by their aunt Kristi Karels, while their big brother, Phoenix (18), lives with us. The cocker puppies are raised in our home and have been very good therapy for these kids and other young ones in our family. The younger kids helped socialize, name, exercise, photograph, trim, and advertise the pups.
Our Jasper, who was born in November 2023, is a four-color cocker which is very unusual, so we kept him to be our next stud and hope to get a tri-color female to breed. At six months, he helped Angel take care of her puppies by going in the birth tub to care for them or watching them when they were outdoors. We would often find him nose-to-nose with a pup or laying with them.
Finding Jasper
After two weeks of Jasper being gone, we began to fear that he had not survived the very cold weather. At 4 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12, he was caught on a video camera at a home next to Paul Miller Park by Little Pine Lake. Glen received the video and we worked with The Retrievers group suggestions. They had made up a suggested flyer, had a sample sign and five large, yellow corrugated plastic signs. We made up more and put out 12 large signs all over and also distributed over 100 flyers.
On Friday we received a call from the police that a bus driver had called and there was a dog in his bus when he came to go on his route. He said the dog would be in the bus garage, as another driver told him that he had heard an announcement on the radio of a lost dog. We were told, don’t give up! Our work and advertising had paid off after 19 days.
We went to the bus office. The office crew had not seen Jasper yet, but instructed us to go to the garage and call the dog’s name or check on a bus. Glen called for him, got on a bus, called again ... and Jasper came running. He was dirty, full of burrs, and very skinny. We are very thankful that Jasper was found. With the extreme drop in temperature over the weekend we don’t think he could have survived. We took him home, fed him, and took out burrs and bathed him. We were shocked at how much weight he had lost. We have tried to feed him in smaller amounts so we can gradually get him healthy.
I made special treats for the people who helped get our dog back. We wanted to say thank you to the community, friends, bus drivers, police, and The Retrievers for their help.
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