These Crazy Animals! Part 4: Miniature Schnauzer

     Our miniature schnauzer, Fritz, has always been a friendly dog.  We got him as a pup from animal control soon after Caleb was born.  We would take a daily walk around the neighborhood with Fritz tiring out about half way and crawling under the stroller for a ride, then he would hop out fully charged when we got to the park.  Soon he would escape our house and go to the park by himself every chance he got. Fritz soon made friends with the 5:00 dog group whose owners brought them to the park to let their dogs run.

Fritz with his "schnauzer" hair cut.
Silly little pup begging for a biscuit.

     Our backyard was a pass through that the neighborhood kids used to get home from, and they often left the gate open.  After we had to retrieve him from a shelter, we attached a tag with our street address and phone number.  We met quite a few strangers at our door bringing Fritz back from the park.  Eventually park regulars got to know him enough that they would just put in back in our yard and secure the fence.

"Squeeka! Squeeka! Squeeka!"

     Fast forward to our new home, with plenty of room for a little dog to run.  I shouldn't be surprised to find out that he had made new friends with the neighbors before we did!

     Gail and David were the first neighbors who we met at our new home.   They are awesome and have an adorable little pug named Pugsly.  We found out that every morning when Fritz was let out, he would head across the ditch and wait at their back door for them to let Pugsly out to play.  He would also get a daily dog biscuit from them.  Eventually Gail and David got a new dog - a pit named Scrappy who loves to be chased by Fritz.  When Gail and David put up a fence to keep Scrappy in, they made sure to leave a 8" gap so that Fritz can continue his morning visitation.

"Pugsly"

     We met Christie and her mom, Jenny, not too long after.  Christie had moved in a couple months after we did.  Fritz would visit her family in the evenings.  He would bark at the back door, then snooze under her dining room table.  Once on a cold wet night, he even had a nice beef stew dinner before coming home.  When we met Christie, we had Fritz with us, and her greeting to us was, "Oh, he belongs to you? We hoped he was a stray.  I even told my mom that I thought we might have a new dog."  She was so disappointed.

In need of a haircut - I guess he does kind of look like a stray...

     We have now lived here for almost three years and Fritz continues his daily neighborhood rounds.  One day Rebecca was looking for Fritz's leash.  When asked why she needed it, Rebecca said, "I'm going to take Fritz to the park." 

    "NO!" I said, "Absolutely not.  Fritz is never to find out there is a park near by!"  

"The end"