About Scooter

Scooter joined our family in October 2006 after our friend, Mary, told us about him. Mary was on the board at the Highland Animal Shelter, a 'no-kill' shelter in Highland, Illinois, and she told us they had just received a small, pug mix, male pup that was about six months old. He had been found 'dumpster diving' behind the Highland Kentucky Fried Chicken and was turned in to the shelter. We had recently lost one of our dogs due to old age and were looking for another to fill the void in our hearts and be company to 'Little Dog', our pug mix who we love dearly.

We went to see Scooter on a sunny Saturday afternoon. When we got to the shelter, about a forty-minute drive from our house, they told us that he was out ‘in the van’ getting surgery… in other words being neutered by a vet who travels in a mobile surgery van. We told the shelter employee that we had driven forty minutes to see him and she said she would go out to the van and see if he would be able to visit with us. A few moments later, she came in with this little tan dog in her arms. My wife looked at him and asked the employee, "does he give kisses?" This is an important consideration in her mind! Although still a bit 'dopey' from the sedative, he leaned toward my wife, and with great effort, gave her a half hearted 'kiss' on the cheek.

We told the employee that we would discuss adoption on the way home and 'might' be back for him the next morning. On the ride home, Kathy asked me what I thought about the dog the shelter had named 'Tucker'. My reply was, "well, I guess he's kind of cute... but he's just a plain old tan dog... nothing special." I don't know what I was expecting... maybe some kind of exotic, pure bred dog? I'm not sure.

After sleeping on it overnight, we decided to send our daughter Sabrina and her fiancé Chris to Highland to look at him and see what they thought. Kathy told them, "If you think he's a good dog, go ahead and bring him home." After an hour or so had elapsed, she asked me, "Well... do you think they will come back with him?" I replied simply, "I don't know." My wife's intuition, however, told her there was no doubt that 'Tucker' would be joining our family.

Later, as Sabrina and Chris pulled down the road and turned into the driveway, our anticipation ebbed. The door opened and out he came, tugging at his new leash, checking out everyone and everything he could find.

How he came to be known as "Scooter" Libby...

Almost immediately after arriving at our home, my wife said, "Well, what are we going to call him?" I said, "I don't know... don't you like Tucker?" She said she wanted to give him a name of OUR choice. Soon thereafter, she said "what about 'Cooper'." I responded, "Tucker, Cooper' what's the difference... that's okay with me." So he was renamed 'Cooper' or, as I often called him, "Mr. Cooper." 

That name stuck for about one week.

Then, one day as the two of us were watching our new addition to the family run like the wind across our neighbor's farmland toward their house a half mile down the road, a new, and more appropriate name came to mind. He was running back and forth a mile a minute and making large, sweeping circles on the barren November soil. He was so far away, that all we could see what the trail of dust he was kicking up... much like the Road Runner cartoon character. We both laughed out loud to see the antics that were taking place before our eyes. I said, "look at him... he's really scooting around." This happened around the same time that the presidential aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby was the subject of network news on a daily basis. I said, "Let’s call him Scooter!" My wife agreed and the rest, as they say, is history.

Our Little Survivor...

The recent attempt on his life by a band of Coyotes was Scooter Libby's second brush with death. Just a month or so after we welcomed him into our lives, he was hit by a car and, remarkably, survived... virtually unscathed!

I'll never forget the night that I got a call from Sabrina as I was on my way home from work. It was about 10pm when I got the call on my cell phone. She said, "Dad, now I just want you to know that Scooter is all right, but he was just hit by a car." My heart sank, for I had become so attached to this little boy so quickly I couldn't stand the thought of him being hurt in any way. He had endeared himself to everyone in the family like no other dog had done before. My emotional state was verging on frantic and, even though Sabrina had assured me he was okay, I couldn't wait to get home and see my little Scooter. I was expecting the worst, but when I got home, he was wagging his tail and seemed his normal happy self, although momma was pampering him like the baby he still was.

What went wrong that night...
It seems my daughter and her fiancée had taken the dogs out for their last 'tour of duty' when a car came down the road. We live in the country and it isn't practical to fence our yard, so we had always let our dogs run free. Scooter made a bad judgment that night and got in front of the oncoming car. Chris and Sabrina heard a sickening 'thump' as the car made contact with Scooter's fragile, little body.

Remarkably, he was pushed UNDER the car and as the car's driver slowed to see what he had hit, Scooter made his escape out from the back of the car. He did a lap or two around the house, returning to the waiting arms of Sabrina and Chris. He suffered a small nick on his forehead, just above his right eye, another similar scuff on one of his elbows, and yet another on a shoulder.

We all hoped that he had learned a lesson from his first brush with death, but he still chases cars when the mood strikes him.

What kind of dog is he?

After some discussion and a bit of internet research, we concluded that Scooter is a Pug/Jack Russell mix. There has been a lot of buzz over the last few years about so called 'designer dogs'... you've probably heard about 'Labradoodles' (Lab/Poodle mix); Cockapoos (Cocker Spaniel/Poodle mix) and scores of others with similarly creative monikers. My wife and I kicked around the possibilities and tried 'Russ-ug' and 'Pussle', the latter somehow conjuring up disgusting images. We finally settled on the term 'Jug' and felt that we had come up with a smart, new breed name.

Then one day, many months down the road, I was surfing the web late one night, when, for some reason, I just decided to search the web for 'Jack Russell/Pug mixed breed dogs.' What my search turned up was quite a surprise. I discovered a site devoted to the 'Jug'. Fascinated by the pictures of cute little guys and girls which looked very much like our little Scooter, I found a link to send photos to the web master. Soon thereafter, three of my photos, along with a story of how we found him, was posted on the web site and is still there to this day, with Scooter holding the honor of front page feature dog! A similar mix of Pug and Beagle dogs are referred to as 'Puggles' and this group has recently been declared an official breed by the AKC. So far the Jug has not been awarded this prestigious position, even though some breeders are getting four to six hundred dollars for their Jugs. Eventually, I fine tuned the name, for the sake of humor, and decided that we would tell people he is a 'hook-tailed, snaggle-tooth Jug.’ (We might have named him 'Elvis' had we known he was going to develop that snaggle tooth. Can't you just hear him saying "Thank you... thank you very much."?)