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| Name: |
Willy
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Age: |
One year old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Saint Bernard
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| Home: |
Jackson, Michigan, USA |
This
is William Rupert Wallace (commonly known as Willy). Willy arrived in
this world as a big surprise to his breeders, who are a very nice farming
family. His mother was not supposed to have puppies that year but apparently
his father (Atlas) and mother (Lily Bella) had different ideas from their
humans about when she should have puppies. Willy and his litter mates arrived
in June 2011 to a shocked family who quickly had to prepare a space for the
mother and her pups. The family had wanted to breed their Saints but not
until the next year, but it all worked out for the better that she ended up
having puppies in 2011.
After the passing of our Golden Retriever in November of 2010 our home was
rather lonely. We had our cat Neo but a house just isn't a home without both
a cat and dog. In January of 2011 my mum, my boyfriend and I started looking
at different breeds of dogs that would fit into our family. We tossed around
the ideas of a Beagle, a Weimaraner, a German Shepherd, another Great Dane
(we'd had one in the 90's for just five years before he passed on), and a Bull
Mastiff. After researching all those breeds and all the unfortunately common
health problems that come with them we happened upon a website about Saint
Bernards which were listed as generally healthy dogs with a life span of
about ten years. We all agreed on the Saint Bernard idea. From there on it was
a difficult journey. The closest reputable breeder was up in Frankenmuth, MI
which is quite a drive from Jackson. We looked further and found breeders
down in Indiana and in the Upper Peninsula and even in Ohio but they all
wanted about $1500 or more, plus they would not ship the dogs. Just when we
were about to give up hope on getting a Saint, we found a breeder in our
county. We tried contacting them but it didn't end up working out as they
never responded. Disappointed as we were we started considering another type
of dog but then fate took a turn.
One day in August my boyfriend brought home a local newspaper (which we only
pick up once in a great while) and as I was reading the classified ads I
noticed a small ad for Saint Bernard puppies. We immediately called the
number given in the ad, asked about the puppies and the price and were given
a day we could come out and pick one up. It happened that fast, all in a day
we were on our way to bringing Willy home. On August 16th, 2011 we went out
to pick up our puppy. We'd wanted a male, preferably with short hair. Well,
as it turned out, Willy was the only short haired male left in the group and
he was just adorable. All the puppies were of sound body and the parents were
beautiful, jolly beasts. After we started talking with the family about their
dogs and such, we discovered that they were friends of a friend of ours,
which was yet another odd turn of fate. (Then later on in the year my mum
learned from one of their family members the story of how Willy and his
litter mates came to be, which seemed to fit perfectly with the odd twists of
fate we had already experienced). When we finished conversing and had
gathered up our little bundle of 24 pounds of fluff we headed for home knowing
that he was going to fit in quite well with our family and he has.
Willy is now a jolly, giant beast that weighs in at roughly 170 pounds and is 32
inches at the withers. He's a remarkably intelligent dog with a sense of
smell that is equally remarkable (he can smell the pizza on its way in the
pizza guy's car from about a block away from our house). His strength is
truly something to marvel at, he can pull a sled, by its rope, with his
teeth, with a 155 pounds man in it. We plan on teaching him carting when we've
saved up enough for a freight weight harness and a small wagon and he no
doubt will do quite well with that. Already he knows how to garden, he is
capable of pruning small plants with his teeth, digging holes (on command)
and removing brush. This is the first dog we've had that will prune plants
and put sticks in a pile. All this jazz sounds almost like goofy
exaggerations but they're not, he really does these things. Everything about
Willy is special, everything.
See more images of Willy!
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