My First Pyr

Volunteer Rebekah Manning

Stella with her dad

When people find out that I foster for a breed specific rescue for a not very popular dog breed there are always questions about why, and how I found out about them. Unlike most fosters for GPRS I didn’t stumble onto a post asking for volunteers, or know someone who was already involved in the rescue. I grew up on a sustainable farm in central New Mexico tucked into a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. It’s not uncommon to spot rattlesnakes, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, and even the occasional bear. My parents were worried about my safety in the fields and so they actually found a working pyrenees puppy who needed a new home, and she became my own guardian. Tia came to us when I was a few months old as a 4 month old ball of fluff. She connected easily with us and our other two dogs. She followed me everywhere, slept at the foot of my bed, and followed us to the fields and barn everyday learning to watch over her charge and alert if anything was out of place. By the time I was a toddler my mother would send me to the fields with Tia, and knew I would be safe. Tia was a masterful escape artist, often attempting and succeeding with climbing over, digging under, and running through fences. Try as we might there was no keeping her secured in a yard unless she was patient and dutifully by my side. When I was 8 I was stung by a bee. Tia dutifully stood over me as I was gasping for breath barking to notify anybody who could hear that something was wrong. She saved my life that day. Tia lived to be 15, succumbing to a kidney infection that would not go away despite multiple rounds of treatment with antibiotics and steroids.

Two years ago when my husband and I bought our first house one of the first things we did was put up a tall secure fence. We started fostering for GPRS not long after that. We have since had 11 fosters, and one foster fail. Stella, our pyrmanent resident pyr in the photo at the beginning of this post reminds me a lot of Tia, especially in the goofy way she cuddles on the couch and often herself tries to escape the fence. My husband and I don’t live in the country, and are far away from most dangerous wildlife, but Stella still performs the duty of a normal pyr carefully watching over our newborn son, and often alerting when there is something wrong. I hope when my son looks back on his childhood that he holds his furry companion in his memory with the fondness and love that I have for Tia.

We have many dogs in need, if you would like to volunteer for Great Pyrenees Rescue Society visit our website here.