The Teffts: How Sweet It Is
Carol and Gaylord at work and play

All Weimaraners Look Alike

Shadow is our Weimaraner.  He sits patiently by me every day at the computer so he deserves a place on this page. This is not a picture of Shadow, but Shadow says it might as well be since all Weimaraners look alike. He has proof of this.

One Friday, he got out of our fenced yard and went on an adventure. That day I had taken his collar off because he had a rash under his neck. Some kindly person found him running loose and turned him into a local veterinarian -- luckily to our Vet. Seeing no collar ID, the Vet, thinking to be helpful, called a client who has a Weimar that is a notorious escape artist. After being told they thought they had his dog, the client said he would pick him up   right after work. True to his word, he arrived for the Weimar (Shadow of course) who happily followed him out, tail wagging, and jumped into the man's car. Shadow was pleased to continue his interrupted adventure. Imagine the fellow's chagrin when he arrived home only to find his own Weimar contentedly ensconced and happy to have a new playmate.

In the meantime, I was going nuts. It was now evening on a Friday when I discovered our escaped fugitive.  The local "dog pound" was closed so we couldn't call them. We called the police and they had no word of a strayed Weimar. We walked and drove up and down neighborhood streets calling and whistling to no avail. Finally, we went home discouraged and fearful of what was happening to our not-street-smart clown. Later that evening, we received a call from our Vet. The  mistaken Weimar had been returned to the embarrassed Vet who had only then thought to scan for an electronic chip that some dog folks (gratefully including me) have had embedded under their dog's skin. There followed a tearful reunion. Okay, I was tearful; Shadow was ecstatic to be rescued a second time and wagged and wiggled all the way home.

The real miracle of this story is that the scanning of the chip actually returned any results. You see I had forgotten to send in the paper to the national registration and thus when the Vet checked the computer, there was no match for Shadow's ID chip. Ever the helpful fellow, he thought to check their office records and there was the match! You can bet I turned in those registration papers the next morning.