About Dexter

Dexter D. Dog  is a slightly smaller than average Border Collie residing with his family in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  He came to know his family through a wonderful volunteer organization called Animal Rescue Center of Cleveland, via petfinders.com.

A Tough Start

Little Dex began his life in rather dire circumstances in Cleveland sometime during September of 2008. Sadly, he, his parents, and seven litter-mates were abandoned and left to starve sometime during that fall – but were luckily found by a compassionate animal lover.  While she was able to rescue Dexter (who she called “Marley”), tragically the rest of his family had either passed away or were humanely euthanized, as they were too malnourished and already at death’s door.  This good samaritan nursed little Marley back to health, and then later passed him on to ARC, who then fostered him until he was ready to be put up for adoption.

The Best Christmas Present Ever!

He was adopted a couple of weeks before Christmas 2008, and has since been known as the “Best Chris tmas Present Ever”.  The Dragos, who had been looking for the perfect family pet through adoption websites, met him during one of ARC’s storefront adoption nights.  They originally went to the adoption night to meet another dog, but found that that little pup had already been adopted.  Faced with a room full of howling beagle & pug mixes, it began to look like the Dragos would be going home sans pup… until 12-year-old Matthew noticed a wiry little black and white pup sitting quietly in a corner crate, silently observing the jumble of families & wriggling, licking fuzz balls.

Mom Drago (aka Heather) picked up this skinny little thing with giant bat-wing like ears, and noticed that he was barely bigger than and weighed less than the family cat.  Marley immediately plopped his head on her shoulder and fell asleep.  It was love at first sight.

Boy Genius, Dexter D. Puppy

Within days two things became very clear… that little Marley still suffered from the effects of malnourishment (for example, his baby teeth, at 12 weeks, hadn’t even really grown in, but were little nubs that barely broke through his gums), and he was a little genius.  He barely had any accidents in the house, picked up commands nearly instantaneously, and was very loving and eager to please… eager to learn.

So… his name was quickly changed to Dexter, in honor of Dexter’s Lab, the hilarious cartoon about a boy genius with a secret laboratory who fought the forces of evil (it’s no longer on the air, but used to run on Cartoon Network). Shortly thereafter, all of his baby teeth fell out, his new teeth grew in, he fattened up a little, and grew at lightening speed. (However, even now at age two-and-a-half, he’s still a little smaller than most Border Collies, and about 10 pounds lighter.)

Friends and Enemies

He has been a pampered member of the family ever since, with playmates in the form of two kids (one of each variety, Matt and Sarah) and a cousin named Franklin – the “so ugly he’s cute” Boston Terrier.  He also enjoys the company of neighborhood friends Maggie the Bearded Collie and Riley the Beagle, on occasion, and is compelled to bark at Cocoa the Rhodesian Ridgeback who lives on the other side of his backyard fence.  He admires from afar two lovely little  female poodles that live across the street: Marzi and Sophie, who couldn’t care less.

His mortal enemy is Charlie the tabby,  now relegated to the upstairs territory of the Drago domicile, who is also known as Kawaaaazy Kat. (It’s the cat who’s the problem, not Dex.)

Interests and Hobbies

Dexter enjoys fetching tennis balls and sticks, sleeping on the couch, making new friends at the dog park, and long walks through the neighborhood.  He’s learning to catch frisbees, though, he tends to shy away from them at times, especially after he gets whacked on the nose by one. (His humans could do with some frisbee throwing lessons.) He also collects a variety of toy sheep, affectionately referred to as his “flock”, and barks with relish at dogs and horses on TV.  His latest game of interest is “go find”, a type of hide and seek game, where his family members hide his tennis ball and he has to go find it. (But why do they keep hiding it from him?  They’re so wierd.)

He does not like vacuum cleaners or lawn mowers.