~July 2004 - January 10, 2007

We considered the name Geneva when we were thinking of names for Calypso, so it was fresh in our minds when this little dog turned up.

None.

Possibly around July 2004.

When we found Geneva, we guessed that she was about five months old.  Our vet guessed eight months.  She didn't grow for the longest time after we got her, but then she had a late growth spurt.  We were never sure exactly how old she was.

She appeared to be mostly German Shepherd, but we aren't sure what else she had in her.  

When she came to live with us, Geneva weighed about 45 pounds (17 kg), making her our smallest dog.  She stayed that size for quite a while, then had a rather abrupt growth spurt.  She ended up weighing about 75 pounds (34 kg) and was the same height as Brittany, Creedence, and Lily.

She had a fairly nondescript, German Shepherd-sounding bark.  She tended to bark incessantly on occasion right after we got her, but after she settled in, she usually only barked when something important was going on (e.g., cows walking near our fence, helicopters flying overhead).

Chris went to the General Store to pick up some bird seed one Saturday in July and saw Geneva standing near the entrance of the store.  He watched people come and go for some time, but no one took her.  She attempted to get into one man's truck, but he just kicked her aside.  A Border Patrol agent informed Chris that the dog had been there for a long time and had pretty obviously been abandoned.

The Border Patrol agent expressed an interest in adopting her but couldn't take her, since he was on duty.  Chris agreed to let her stay at our place, and the agent said he'd call on Monday.  He never called.  We planned to take her to the Humane Society the next day, but when that time came, neither of us could do it.  She seemed right at home and fit in so well...

Geneva didn't have a mean bone in her body.  She liked everyone she met - dogs and people - and was always happy, playful, and energetic.  Being a younger dog, she acted like a puppy most of the time and loved to play nonstop with the other dogs.  She was also - with one notable exception - unusually sensible for a young dog and was fairly obedient.  Who knows why her lousy owner abandoned her.

On several occasions in the summer of 2005, the dogs spotted a rattlesnake on our property.  They usually stand around a rattler in a circle at a safe distance and bark their brains out until I move it.  Oddly, Geneva didn't participate in this activity, preferring to keep her distance.  We aren't sure whether she was really frightened of snakes or was just more sensible than the average dog.  She didn't appear to be frightened when this was going on; she seemed more like she thought the whole thing was a waste of time.

None.  I don't think I'll ever be able to accept what happened to her.  Aardvark had a terrible habit of digging under our fence, then taking Geneva, Lily, and MacKenzie with him, gallivanting around the countryside.  We'd made several adjustments to the fence to discourage this behavior and finally, in December of 2006, we added a strand of barbed wire at the base of the fence, staked down the lower edge, and added an electric fence around all three acres.

All this, however, did not prevent the dogs from bolting through the gate one day when someone was leaving.  That evening, the other dogs returned as usual, but Geneva did not.  We called and searched and got up during the night to look for her, but it was in vain.  The next morning when we resumed the search, we discovered that she had made it to what passes for a main road out here and had been hit by a car and killed instantly.

I can accept old age and illness and such, even if it's hard to take, but this shouldn't have happened.

Playing with Creedence and the other dogs, hanging out on the front porch, and riding in my car from the gate to the parking area when I came home from work.

She began playing with Creedence (aka Aardvark) right after Chris brought her home and routinely played with Brittany, MacKenzie, and to some extent, Bobby.  She was a bit wary of Lily, who for some reason, felt the need to express her dominance when it came to Geneva and could be bossy and hostile on occasion.  The two did play on occasion, however.  Aardvark was always her best friend and it took him some time to adjust after she died.

We didn't realize how much energy she added to the group until she was gone.  Things just aren't the same without her.