1994 - May 17, 2003

He was named by my in-laws, who chose the name because, as a young dog, he was on the nervous side and tended to startle easily.

Original name:  Creedence.  I always liked that name, but by the time he came to live with us, "Spook" had stuck.  We named our youngest dog Creedence after him.

We occasionally called him Spookeroo, but he mostly just went by his name.

? 1994

Probably mostly Australian Shepherd and German Shepherd.

Medium-large and somewhat stocky; he weighed around 70 lbs. (32 kg).  He had a very thick, luxurious coat that we shaved during the summer months to help him keep cool.  People frequently complimented him on his handsome face and beautiful eyes.

Spook would eat anything in sight and had a tendency to gain weight, which would not have been a good thing in view of his medical conditions (see Medical section below), so we always fed him separately from everyone else and kept an eye on him.

He had an average sort of bark and usually only barked when something was going on in or around our property - and at feeding time, when he got really happy and combined the bark with an excited "ooooo ooooo" noise.  He had a lovely, classic, wolf-like howl and enjoyed howling at sirens and with coyotes or neighborhood dogs.

Before we bought the house we live in now, we rented a place on the far east side of Tucson.  Our landlady's daughter also lived on the property, and one day she came home with a puppy she'd adopted from the Human Society.  She named him Creedence.  Since the property was not fenced, it really wasn't the best place for a puppy, so we worried about him a lot.

Things went from bad to worse when our landlady returned home from a trip overseas.  She didn't like dogs and demanded that he be put down.  Obviously, putting a perfectly healthy puppy to sleep for no reason was completely unacceptable, so we adopted him and sent him to live with my husband's family until we bought a place of our own.

Spook inherited the herding-dog brains and was bright to the point of sometimes being rather devious.  He was known to fake a limp when he didn't feel like going for a walk, but my favorite of his tricks was his method of stealing the other dogs' biscuits.  He waited until everyone had a biscuit, then dropped his and ran to the gate, barking furiously, as though something really important was happening.  The other dogs, naturally, dropped their biscuits and high-tailed it to the gate to see what was going on, at which point, Spook quickly circled back and grabbed their biscuits as well as his own.

Aside from being crafty, he was a sweet, affectionate, sensible dog, though he was somewhat suspicious of strangers until properly introduced.  He was very alert and was an excellent watchdog, and got along well with the cats (though for some reason, Orion hated him and swatted at him whenever he had the chance).

As he grew older, Spook became less and less  jumpy, but was still on the cautious side and tended to think before he acted, unlike a lot of dogs.  The only time we saw a hint of his puppyhood jumpiness was when he heard a rattlesnake rattle, which sometimes happens on our walks.  That sound caused him to jump several feet into the air and then continue to be nervous for the rest of the walk, going airborne when he heard a bush rustle in the breeze or when one of us scuffed our feet in the dirt.  Though he tended to overreact a bit, I'm glad he had sense enough to avoid rattlers.  Many dogs in this area end up getting bit.

Subluxated patellas and ruptured cruciate ligament, requiring three orthopedic surgeries; arthritis; Valley Fever; tumor on heart.  See Details.

Due to his medical issues, Spook was our most expensive animal for quite a while.  He was quite modest about this achievement, however. 

Carrying large sticks and other objects in his mouth and proudly displaying them to whoever would look; eating almost anything; kicking empty cups around the yard; and taking naps in the sun.

He was closest to Finian, but got along well with all the dogs.  He also developed a friendship with Penelope when she was alive.