The "Tippi Topanga Julia Canaday Woods" Story

It was an ordinary day.  And, we just got to see the newest member of LDub's family, Tippi Topanga Julia Canaday Woods.  She's a real beauty and was born April 22 of this year.  My final clue for you would be she has an implanted chip to help if she gets lost.  

Tippi Topanga Julia Canaday Woods

Well, if you haven't figured it out yet, Julia or Jules, as she will probably be called, is a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard dog or sometimes may be called a Catahoula Cur.  My son Derek and his wife Barb, along with my grandson Caden, picked her up from a foster home on August 17th in Ijamsville, Maryland.  The Catahoula is a member of the herding breed and was used in the south to kill boars and round up feral pigs and cattle.  It was bred in the Catahoula Parrish in Louisiana, thus it's name.  The Catahoula dog is believed to have originated from the Nordic Wolfhound, being introduced some three to five hundred years before the Spanish arrived, however, no one really knows for sure.  Neat looking dog that could very easily not be seen in the wild because of it's camouflage markings.  The dogs are usually a tricolor of brown, black and white.  Julia is primarily black and brown with some white on her breast.  Her eye color is brown, but quite a few of the breed, with more white on them, may have one blue and one white eye with a marbled effect in them.  The more white on the dog, the more chance is that it will affect the dogs hearing with the possibility of deftness.  The actual history of Julia is not known, but it is thought that after the dog was born it was taken to the Blue Bonnie Rescue in Virginia. From there it was placed in a foster home in Ijamsville, MD.  My daughter, Brynn, who lives in nearby Urbana, coached a youth softball team and knew that one her players' parents had this rescue dog and also knew that her brother Derek and his family were looking for a new dog, preferably a rescue dog.  She told Derek and on a recent visit to her house, they all visited the Canaday family to look at the dog. 

Julia with her new family

Derek, Barb and Caden fell in love with her the instant they saw her and the adoption process began.  They had to fill out an application with the rescue and then a phone interview took place with a house visit by the Blue Bonnie Rescue to Derek's home in Lancaster.   Questions such as how often will you be able to exercise the dog, how many dogs have you had in the past, and what would make you decide to get rid of her.  Evidently they answered all the questions positively, since they picked the dog up shortly afterwards.  Julia slept most of the way from Maryland to Pennsylvania on the trip to her final home.  She just loves to cover you with kisses and even though it was our first visit with her, she warmed up to us quickly.  Won't take long for her to blend in and be a member of the family.  Oh yeah, the name of Julia was picked by my grandson, Caden.  A favorite of his.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.