There is a third member to our family and he has been with us for 4 years now, his name is Russell Jones. Russell is not named after the former drummer of my rocking high school band "Yellow Snow" (I was in so many awesome bands with Craig Russell like "Lunatic Fringe", "Mammoth Pony" and "Big Nose Kate" but "Yellow Snow" was my favorite name for a band). Instead, Russell was named after a late great artist who I will reveal at the end of this story.
Russell came to us via air mail, literally. Now I know this is an UN P.C. thing to do but we bought Russell through the Internet. There is a website out there, which shall not be named, because the chances that puppy mill dogs are being sold here are almost a certainty. It's just so freaking hard to adopt a dog in Boston, that was our first option, but the waiting list is ridiculously long. Besides, our land lord would never have signed a waiver giving us permission to own a dog, better just to spring this crap on her out of the blue.
Russell is a cocker spaniel from the dirty south, Georgia to be exact, we like to imagine that he was this happy-go-lucky farm puppy who played with kids and whistled music from "The Song of the South" (we are pretty confident he was on some sort of farm because he certainly smelled like a farm when we got him). In reality, he was probably subject to neglect and torture and being forced into some sort of puppy mill sex trade even though he was 8 weeks old. We'll never know what his life was like before we met him, but we do know he loves children and has a very personable demeanor.
The day we picked him up from the airport, Erin and I were so nervous, thinking "what have we gotten ourselves into? Are we ready for this? I wonder what he looks like?" (we did see a picture of him before we bought him, we still had no idea whether we were going to get an actual dog or get scammed like when you buy a "video camera" from some guy off the street and it turns out to be a box of rocks). I remember the moment like it was yesterday: here we are as this smelly doggie crate gets placed on the counter at the baggage claim, and inside is this timid, happy little pup who just so happened to make our hearts melt at that very instant. If there ever is love at first sight this was it.
Now granted, Russell is as cute now as ever but maybe some of his charm has worn off. You see, Russell has an issue that makes him a little less charming every day. Russell pees every time he meets someone new. It just a thing that Cocker Spaniels do I guess, they will meet you and they will pee all over the place no matter what. We've learned to bring him outside when we have visitors, but I gotta admit, it kind of turns people off when they meet him for the first time. I guess I can understand but it's not his fault, he's just so freaking happy to see you.
Now for the history of his name. Erin and I wanted to give him a human name because we're "crazy dog people" who think Russell is our son. We decided on Russell under my one condition. It had to be Russell Jones. It has always been a dream of mine that I would introduce Russell Jones to somebody and they would know who that was. They would look up at me and say "nice." I always dreamed that I would meet somebody as nerdy as me. That day has never come. Nobody has ever appreciated my in-depth knowledge of this artist or his group until now. We named Russell Jones after this guy .
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