Jake

Jake arrives at the Cruz family

by Jamie Cruz

My wife and I recently adopted our very first Kerry Blue Terrier. Thanks to Carl and Jaimie Ashby of Blu-jac Kerry Blue Terriers in Greensboro, NC, we were given the opportunity to add Jake to our family. We are very fortunate to have him. Jake is from a long line of champions and his grand-daddy is probably the most influential Kerry Blue of all time; none other than Torum's Scarf Michael, also known as "Mick". Just as a coincidence, we first heard about Kerry Blues while watching the 2003 Westminster Show, where Mick won "Best In Show". We immediately fell in love with the breed and its good looks, attitude, athleticism, temperament and way of going. From that moment on, I told myself that someday, when the time is right, we will get a Kerry Blue Terrier. The "right time" finally came this year when we decided that since we don't have any children, our 'kids' will have to be our pet dogs. We now have two; Jake, who is 4 years old and our 14 year old Miniature Schnauzer, Brittany.

Jake is a very loving and affectionate dog. He is always ready to give you a hug or a kiss. He is quite a bit more active and restless than Brittany, who sleeps most of the time now that she is older. We call Jake our "Energizer Doggy" since he's always on the go and seldom stops to take a break. So far, the only time that I've seen him voluntarily lie down was when he decided to play with one of his toys.. but .... this "quiet time" only lasted for about 3 minutes!!!

Jake is quite intelligent and perceptive. It did not take him that long at all to figure out our routine at home. He already knows when meal time, exercise time and bedtime is. Since he is still a bit rambunctious, we have to put him in his crate when we eat and he patiently and ‘quietly’ waits until we are done with our meal. At night, he realizes when it’s bedtime and he willingly goes into his crate. When it’s raining or cold and snowing, Jake knows that he needs to wear his coat before he goes outside.

Oh, yes… the snow. You see, we live in the southern part of North Carolina and we normally don’t get any snow at all.. or if we get a little bit of the white stuff, it’s almost totally gone by noon the next day. This past week, however, around 10 inches accumulated on the ground. It started snowing on Friday afternoon and by the time I got home from work, the backyard had turned white. I hurriedly changed my clothes, put my ‘snow gear’ on and then joined our two dogs in the backyard. Apparently, this was the first time Jake had ever seen snow. He would look up and follow the flakes as they floated to the ground and then he would take a few bites of snow here and there. He must have been thinking to himself “Great! I’m standing on a Giant Ice Cream Cone!!!”. Anyway, he expressed unbridled joy and exuberance as he ran around the yard. We then played fetch and he returned his toy ball to me almost all the time. Well, one time he was momentarily distracted when he noticed one of our neighbors walking her dog on the other side of the street. No, he didn’t bark at all. He merely watched them walk on by. Then, he happily returned to his playtime.

A dog like Jake fits right in with our lifestyle. We try to be active and health-conscious and having Jake has motivated us to take regular long walks around our village. Once we get rid of the extra pounds that resulted from all that Holiday feasting, we will probably graduate to jogging and I’m sure Jake will have no problem keeping up the pace. We are also planning on taking our two dogs whenever we go out of town and we can drive to our destination. Jake does really well staying in his crate during car rides and I feel that exposing him to different places and environments will be good for his natural curiosity and adventurous spirit.

All in all, everything is going great during our ‘adjustment’ period. Our only slight regret is that we did not get a Kerry Blue much sooner. Just think of all the fun and love and enjoyment that we missed out on!