This is the Daily Dog podcast for Wednesday, February twelfth, twenty twenty.
I'm your host Joel Lownes and today's dog is Nova Prime, a Dutch Shepherd
Greyhound mix. Nova's owner, Marissa Stewart told me how a case adia brought
them together. My dog and her name is Nova, full name Nova Prime.
She is the best rescue story slash goofball dog that you could think of
that came off the street. So I'm myself and I speak for my family,
but we are so thankful that she decided to save herself with us because
we couldn't have you been without her the past couple of years. She's so
awesome. So I had been missing my previous dog for quite a few years.
My old dogcar was with my ex and I kind of, you know,
lost her in the separation. So I've been kind of missing a dog
around and having depression and anxiety. Definitely having a pet would have been beneficial,
but it just wasn't in the cards. But one day I was coming
back from my niece's soccer game and I had been really craving some Chipotle,
so I was super excited to grab my salad and a cheesecasadilla. So I
was on the way back home because you know, those are coveted, so
I'm super stoked about it. And I pulled into our driveway and as I'm
getting out of the car, I just happened to glance up the street and
there's this skinny brown hound like walking down the street towards me. And I
was like, oh, oh my, I mean she's she's rather large.
It was a little intimidating because there was this thing just like running towards the
street towards me. But being a dog person, I'm like, oh,
this does not look you know, good, Like this must be a stray.
So she kind of paused about the next house down and I immediately just
sat on the floor right behind my car, on the ground, and she
was kind of eyeball in me, and I was trying to talk sweet to
her, and she was very unsure, but was decided to like sit and
kind of peer at me. And so I did the most selfless thing I
could think of, and I started breaking off pieces of said Chipotle casidia,
throwing them out to her just so she could, you know, get be
more comfortable. And at the same time, I was texting my fiance in
the house, and I was like, hey, can you bring out some
water. There's a straight dog out here. She's really thirsty, you know.
And I don't know where we'd be without technology too, because you know
nowadays. But he also had seen me sit down in front of my car
on our security cameras, so he was wondering what was going on. So
it took about twenty minutes for her to get comfortable enough to come over and
sniff me, and she let me pet her, and then she was like,
oh, I think you're okay, and she kind of like sat down
right next to me and put her head in my lap and like fell asleep.
And so it was like, oh, my gosh, she is the
cutest thing ever. I'm looking at her, and she's she's definitely a shepherd
mix. To me, looked like a malonois, but she she is a
beautiful cinnamon brown brindle. So yeah, I mean she's gorgeous. And I
was like, oh, she's just skinny, and she's just exhausted, you
know. I'm looking at her body and she's just skin and bones. Her
little pads on her feet were like worn, like completely worn. Some of
them are all skeps, so she'd been out, you know, for several
weeks, it looked like. So I made the executive decision for the household
into the backyard and I opened up our gate and she just like walked right
past me into our backyard sniffing around. Um found this was late October,
so I'm in Arizona. So here in Arizona was still you know, relatively
warm, so um, you know, there were some old towels still out
by the pool, and she decided that that was her new bed and just
plopped herself right down, made herself comfortable, and you know, I was
just giving her water and some extra snacks. Wanted to give her a little
chance to rest. But new as a as a dog owner, Okay,
we got a chipper, you know, see if she's got a chip,
and we definitely am not set up to have a dog. So we got
to get some food and I gotta make sure she's okay. So we went
on a her first trip to pet Smart with us, and she she was
so good. She so she was about I put her on the scale and
she was about fifty one pounds, which sounds large, but she's I mean,
she's a big like very tall German shepherd, so she should be yet
about seventy pounds. Yeah that sounds kind of fifties, pretty light for a
shepherd, Yeah, very much. So, So I was, I mean,
I was, I was concerned about that. So I got some food
for her. She decided to pick out a toy, which she was very
you know, just thrilled, little squeaky, little little squeaky bear, and
brought her back home. She was chipped, we found out to a gentleman
in Las Vegas. Now Vegas to Phoenix is about six hours, so either
I figured either somebody had just moved and she got out, or which is
very typical here in Arizona, is people just like to dump their dogs.
I mean, I think that's typical anywhere, but at least here in Arizona
it's it's very common, which kind of angered me. Spent the night with
us. She did spend it outside, just because we do have a roommate
who is not a big fan of animals, which don't let's not get started
on that subject. But we're like where she'll just be here for a day
until we find her owner. We'll figure it out. Well about one o'clock
on that morning, big old monsoon thunderstorm came in. So thunder just comes
in, it's pouring rain. I wake up in a panic because I'm a
light sleeper, and I'm like, oh my gosh, the poor dog,
you know. So I read outside and she is scared to death as a
thunder and just wet. And so I looked at my spouse. His name
is Chris, and I was like, Chris, like, we have to
bring her in, you know, like she she can't stay out here.
It's not okay. And he's like, well, what are we gonna do?
And I was like, okay, well it's going to be a two
am bath. And so we brought her in the house, came for a
bath. You know, she was not thrilled, she but she I mean
enjoyed it too. She enjoyed the peanut butter I had smeared on the tub
for her, so big, big shout out the peanut butter. Peanut butter
tricks, that peanut butter yes exist. So she she was very sad.
I don't know if she had had peanut butter previously, but um, she
got all clean and you know, we I just hung out with her downstairs
in the living room and she basically slept and ate the next two days.
I mean, she was exhausted, which I understand from being out in the
street. Surprisingly, we didn't hear from her owners, even though they had
been contacted by the tip company for four days, which uh as a dog
owner and a dog lover, it made me really upset. Yeah, I
get something, you know, like in the next five minutes. Yeah,
exactly. I'm like, oh, my god, from yeah, from wherever,
you know, who knows what's going on, But my dog is found.
I'm going to contact that person. So I get this weird phone call
at a couple of days later, about like ten o'clock at night, and
you know, the person was a gentleman and he was like, you have
Jasmine. And I was like, excuse me, I'm sorry, what like
identify yourself? And he was like, oh, I think you have my
dog. Her name is Jasmine. And so I was like, yes,
we found her a few days ago. We're in Arizona. What's going on?
And he was launched into the story how he had this litter of puppies.
So she was about just over a year old at this point. So,
but he had a litter of puppies, and everybody was taken except her,
but he didn't want her because they were having another baby of their own
and he couldn't keep her, and how she was so aggressive and she was
good with the babies, but just aggressive with everyone else in the house.
He was saying that, I'm like looking at this dog who's curled up on
the couch in between my two kids. And I was like, do do
you know your dog? Like what? Like she hadn't shown any sort of
behavior problem at all besides being scared of like thunder. So it was just
really odd. And so he was just telling us how he really didn't want
her, and so he had dropped her off at in front of his mother
in law's house in northern Phoenix, and I was I asked him. I
said, well, when you mean dropped off, like she was in the
house and maybe got out, And he's like, oh, no, I
just I just left her in front of the house. I thought my mom
would would or you know, my mother in law would would pick her up
and bring her in the house. Wow. Yeah, So um, okay,
Like all right, well the thought process, critical thinking skills not not
the best. So what you're saying is this, this is my dog now,
Yes, exactly. And so I was like, well, can can
we keep her? Because I mean, she's been here for four days and
she's really attached already to my family. I would love to take ownership of
her because I don't want to have to send her to the pound. She's
already you know, been stressed out enough by being out for several weeks.
Oh. He had said that she had probably only been out for a couple
hours, which I definitely called that. That was not the truth on that
one, because she she was so emaciated and you could tell that she was
extremely dehydrated and had I mean she'd been out for weeks. That was really
yeah, just treated her as his ownership, yeah either way. And I
was like, well either way. Three hours. She got lucky because I
took her in, So we're good. So he ended up relinquishing ownership.
I was very smart and I had him he was doing the right thing.
He sent me the name of the vet that she had gone and she was
up to date on shots and that she was spayed. So he sent me
the name of the vets, so I got contact info there. He sent
me an email that had like RELINQ withhing ownership. Okay, So that which
was so I appreciated that. So he wasn't, you know, a total
buffoon. But and so, I mean I just jumped on that horn.
We I scheduled an appointment for the vet like the next day, took her
in, We got all of her shots, we decided to redo all her
vaccinations and stuff. And she's just been like an integral part of our family.
I mean, I don't she is a total goofball. She so she
doesn't bark. I think she's only barked maybe five times in the two years
that we've had her, so she's still relatively new. But she does this
hilarious thing where she will snap her teeth together when she's like wanting to play
or if she's frustrated, which is hilarious because like all you hear is just
snap, snap, snap, and she's looking at you and wagging her ale
and snapping. So she's like an alligator snapping shepherd. It's a very rare
breed. Um she's I mean, she's just she's a great dog. We
I've I've done all my training with her myself. Um, we are hoping
to do some scent work coming up probably next year. Or later this year.
I'm planning a wedding right now, so that's kind of taking all of
my focus and budget. But she, um, she's just a very She's
the best dog. She loves our family. I have friends come over um
who have like little babies, and she just absolutely adores them, lets them
like walk all over her, and she's I do have to say, um,
she is extremely photogenic, so we love doing pictures um, and she's
just she's just the best dog. I really can't imagine us not having her
well awesome. And if our listeners would like to see pictures of Nova,
there are some in the show notes. Just click, just click or swipe
over the show notes and you should be able to see the episode artwork and
that's a picture of Nova. So Marissa Stewart, thank you so much for
telling me about Nova Prime today. It sounds like a wonderful dog. She
is the best. And yeah, definitely set her up. I have set
up on Instagram for her, so definitely can do some following at Nerdy Noodlehound
Underscore Nova. I'm just excited to share your tail because we are excited to
have her as our family and I'm just excited she decided to save herself.
All right. Thanks for coming on the Daily Dog. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much too, We'll have a great one you two bye. To
suggest a dog for us to feature on the Daily Dog Podcast, just go
to Daily Dog podcast dot com, slash appear or leave a voicemail at three
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