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(Editor’s Note: This is part of our ongoing “Pets of OMP” section here on the Gazette. Have a pet you’d love to see featured here? Email me some high-res pics, along with a paragraph or two about your pet – [email protected]. Today’s featured pet is Roxie, the Party Girl and BARK Ranger who lives at Paula Kelley’s farm in Old Mission. Read on for Paula’s story about Roxie. – jb)
This is Roxie (aka “Rocky Reindeer”), one of four dogs who live at the Kelley farm in Old Mission. Like Maverick – read his story here – Roxie also comes from Almost Home Dog Rescue of Ohio (AHDRO).
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Roxie came to live with me when she was two years old. She was picked up as a stray in Ohio and placed in a kill shelter before AHDRO found her. According to the AHDRO director, Roxie was difficult to place and was returned to the rescue group twice – once because she liked to chew on shoes and once because she had too much energy.
When I adopted her, she was wild and out of control, but full of enthusiasm for life and quick to catch on. The AHDRO rescue facility is located in a big city, and I remember when I first brought Roxie home and took her for a walk, all she did was look up at the sky and the tops of the trees. It was as if she had never been outside in such a large area. To this day, her chief pleasure is running around her big backyard, and it brings me joy to see her so happy.
In July, Roxie will be 11 years old, and she’s still going strong. She races around the yard with the rest of the pack and enjoys chasing the crows out of her airspace.
Roxie is a party girl and always needs someone to play with, which I think is why I have three more dogs. I’ve also discovered the reason collies have those prick up ears – it’s to hide the devil horns. Roxie has taught the other dogs all her bad habits, and when I yell at the other dogs, Roxie will just smirk and prance away in satisfaction.
For several years, Roxie and I volunteered at Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes as a BARK Ranger to help keep people and other dogs away from the piping plover nests on the lake shore. Roxie also did some additional work at Sleeping Bear, helping me out with Preventative Search and Rescue at the dune climb. She was a big hit with all the kids and helped to educate visitors about safety before exploring the dunes.
As with all my other dogs, Roxie is an experienced traveler, and her backpack has many patches on it from the parks we have visited. The farthest place she has traveled with me is Pea Ridge National Battlefield in Arkansas, but she has hiked in at least ten different states.
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SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
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Thank you again for “transporting” me from British Columbia, Canada to Old Mission for a little while. today Looking forward to my next visit with my family there in May.