The Saga of Coop! Part 1: Lost and Found

Back in 2008, I was working at Pearson Education in Chandler, Arizona. I was renting a room in a house, and decided that I needed a dog. Specifiaclly I was looking for a St. Bernard. One of those fluffy mobile pillows that carries rum.

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Somehow, that transitioned to me getting in contact with the Phoenix Poodle Rescue. They had a Muttly Terrier that needed a home, and we set up a house visit in early September. They showed up with two dogs.

The Muttly Terrier was friendly and about 15lbs. Notch was a 35lb. Mutt they had found just the previous night wandering North West Phoenix. When they found him, he was covered in fleas and ticks. He came right on up to the guy with his tail wagging away. They called him Notch due to the small notch missing from one of his ears.

At the time, The housing depression was just beginning to recover, and the Obama Recession was right around the corner. A lot of people in the phoenix area were walking away from their unaffordable homes, and leaving the new puppies chained up in the backyard when they left. These became known as 'Forclosure Puppies'.

They believed he was a forclosure puppy that had gotten out, probably fighting himself under a fence, and losing a chunk of ear in the process. It still seeems the most likely origin, as him being a bait puppy would probably have resulted in his death, or at best being seriously maimed.

So both Notch and the Grey Terrorier were brought over. They had given Notch a flea and tick bath, and he was super happy and very hyper. I took one look at him and said to myself "That's a pit bull head." I knew that finding someone to take him would be difficult, as renting restrictions were (and probably still are) obsessively harsh about pit bulls. Since I was renting a room in a House however, I thought those didn't apply to me. So I grabbed him up.

I named him Coop. In my spare time he got walked, which involved me putting a rope around his neck and hopping on my bicycle. He was a super zoomy pup, and that's the only way I could keep up with him. I also played a game which I call 'Mess with the bureaucrats' and got him his own Social Security card and a Visa Credit card. My dog's credit score was better than mine pretty much right away. He's been my best friend for almost ten years now.