In March 2005, my husband and I heard from our neighbor about a dog in foster care with FFN that looked like our lab/dalmation mix Sasha. Having 3 cats and one six year old dog already, we were hesitant that it would be a good idea. Could we give the love and attention to all our pets and would our dog Sasha be upset if she had to share us? I looked at the FFN website and saw a picture of “Glaze” a 5 month old lab mix who was cute as a button, all black with a white spot on her chest. I could not resist and my hubby could not either when he saw her picture. We went through the application process and Nina, her foster mom, brought her to our home. Glaze looked a little different than her picture, she had blonde highlights and her feet were really big (but we didn’t care). Sasha immediately took to “Glaze” and they went running around the yard together. Then, my husband Nate threw a tennis ball to Glaze and she caught it. Nina was so impressed that Glaze did this as she never played with a ball like that before. We were all teary eyed when Glaze left, it was hard to let her drive away to go to another prospective owner. We were chosen to adopt Glaze and we renamed her Stevie Nicks Newcomer.

At home, it took some adjustment to get Stevie used to having to let us know to go out and we taught her to use a jingle bell at the door (she was very smart). Sasha stopped licking her belly bald and was just so happy to have a buddy. Sasha shared her food bowl, treats and our affection and didn’t mind one bit. Our cats were another story. Stevie really chased them and would bark/howl like crazy about them. She was so fixated on them. When we took her to the vet, the vet pointed out that she was probably more Plott Hound than a lab mix. We were like, “what’s a plott hound?”. We did research and found that they are hunting dogs for wild boar and bears. This shed some light on the reason she was so focused on our cats (and bunnies, and birds, etc). We thought she just had to get used to our cats, but we eventually had to use a baby gate to give the cats a safe zone upstairs. It was very challenging to live in two separate areas and not have our cats be able to participate as much in our daily lives. We felt a lot of guilt because the cats were there first, and we almost gave up many times. FFN was there to support us, especially Chris Allen who I work with, she listened and coached us along the way. Amy Powell was a great resource at Doggie U and we took Stevie there for training (or us there for training I should say). We learned the leave it command and the penny can worked sometimes with Stevie to leave the cats alone. We still could not take the gate down, but we were committed to Stevie and loved her so much we could not live with ourselves if we gave up on her. It felt really good to know we provided a good home to a dog that had a rough start. Plus, even when she was bad, Stevie was just so darned cute (Plott hound faces are adorable). Adoption felt so good and we wanted to remain true to our commitment.

A year ago, we decided to take our baby gate down. We diligently worked with Stevie and things had improved with her excitement level, plus she was getting older and I’d heard hounds take about 3 years to mature. Guess what? Something miraculous happened. In the past couple months, Stevie and my one cat Bojangles snuggle together on the sofa, and Stevie is really gentle with him and he rubs into her with affection. She now realizes the cats are a part of the family. I am hopeful by Christmas that at least one more of my cats will begin to trust Stevie and be able to enjoy sitting by our fireplace and Christmas tree this year. Stevie has been a joy to be in our home especially for the last year. I wonder if we’d given up, and I think about all the joy we’d lose in our lives. Stevie is such an affectionate, cute (and unique), and well behaved dog. She is so well behaved with my little nephew Lex and she has trained my older dog how to be so as well (she used to be afraid around kids). How could I live without Stevie if I’d thrown her away like her prior owners? I can tell you that there is no greater feeling of happiness than to hug Stevie, look into her eyes and know how much she appreciates the good life that she has. I never knew what a plott hound was, but now I’m proud to say I have a unique dog with what we call a “three stooges” howl, we call her “curly” when she does that. I now encourage others to adopt plott hound mixes (prevalent in WV and the Carolinas) because they are really good with kids and are very smart (just check into their cat history, but I can tell you that issue can resolve with time and patience). Recently, I noticed “Abby Gal” on the pet listing and she looks a lot like my Stevie and could possibly be a plott hound mix. I’d really encourage anyone looking for a pet to consider Abby Gal or other Plott Hound mixes, or any pet through Furry Friends! They are a wonderful organization and they really work with the new parents to make sure it’s a good match on both sides. What they do for these animals makes such a difference and I proudly recommend others to “Save a Life, Adopt a homeless Pet”. I’d like to thank Robin, Nina, Chris, and Amy Powell (Doggie U) for all your assistance with Stevie’s adoption and transition into our household. I always knew I was an animal lover, but I learned a lot about patience and diligence to improve myself to be an even better mommy to my “kids” (my babies: Sasha, Stevie, Bojangles, Geoffrey and Sabrina).

Best regards,
Tammy (and Nate) Newcomer – Proud Plott Hound/Lab Mix Parents
Mount Wolf, PA