Patty thanks for telling the story about your Beni. I can't thank you enough for rescuing him.
My story goes like this... I was looking for a companion dog for my Springer mix named Shemp. I started researching different breeds and came across the Shiba Inu with the help of a friend. Since I was looking for a dog different than I had before this breed was perfect. I was first going to obtain a puppy from a breeder here NY but then came across a link to Shiba rescue.
I found a breeder/rescue person here in NY and sent her an email. She replied back that at first she didn't have any rescues but they always came in and she would keep me in mind. A couple of weeks later she wrote and told me about a Shiba that was named Haiku. He was a stray found in Brooklyn and had some hip problems so he wasn't perfect but she worried he wouldn't find a home. She sent me a picture and it was all over from there! I drove to her place and adopted Haiku and once I returned home I changed his name to Keiko. He and Shemp became friends but it didn't last long as few a weeks later Shemp died from a tumor that had ruptured his spleen.
I wrote my rescue contact about a week later and told her what happened. I said I would rescue another Shiba, a female this time if one came her way. She said it was mostly males that came into rescue but if one did she would let me know. Some months later she wrote and told me about a Shiba named Penny. She lived in Dutchess County was most likely living in an abusive situation being unspayed living in the same house as an unspayed female. The people didn't understand the Shiba Inu and put her into rescue. Valerie(my contact)said she had some agression issues but she would work with her with her own dogs and try to bring her around. Some weeks later she emailed and said she woulf be ready to go. Once again I drove to Val's this time with Keiko for that meeting. Penny was a little agressive but settled down a little and under Val's watchful she thought it would work out... so I took her home with me. Once home I again changed her name from Penny to Toshi.
Tragedy then struck the following year as Val was misdiagnosed with bone cancer. I hadn't heard from her for a while and contacted another breeder friend of mine. After a few calls to some other people she called with the news that Val was dying. Val's daughter in law found a couple of emails of mine and wrote asking if I would be interested in adopting one of Val's own dogs since now they too had to go to rescue. I told her I would if she had male left for adoption. She put me in touch with a Sharon Roble in PA who was handling the rescue of Val's dogs. She told me about Beni who was 5 years old at the time and she was worried with him being older that he might not be adopted. As it turned out Beni was one of Val's favorites... her stud dog who had quite an impressive career on the show circuit. His full name is CH High Ridges Beni Tatsumaki.
I was told that when Val found out I was taking Beni that she smiled knowing Beni would be safe. So one day before the first anniversary of my adopting Keiko... I made the drive to meet two of Val's friends and pick up Beni. Sadly two weeks later Valerie passed away. About 2˝ years ago Beni was diagnosed as having primary glaucoma and I have been doing everything I can to keep him sighted for as long as I can.
Well that pretty much brings you up to date on my guys. Hopefully the others will come forth to tell their stories.
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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
