Jack & Nuts are Jack Russel Terriers. Nuts came first when my best friends dad passed away. No one wanted the dog because he was a huge pain, ran away all the time and frequently did his business in the house.
I finally broke down and said I would look after the dog until a suitable home could be found. We went on to talk about other things and there was no more discussion of Nuts. When I went to leave that evening, guess who was in the passenger seat, along with his bed, his bones and his food, there was Nuts. Meanwhile my friend had called my young teenage son and told him “mom has a suprise for you”
That was May of 2003. About five years later Nuts was starting to slow down and get fat. My husband e-mailed me a picture of Jack from our local animal shelter, he wrote “Nuts needs a brother”. I called the shelter and was told that Jack had a hold on him and was going to a good family. I thought, well that’s fine then. Several weeks went by and for some reason I went back to the shelter’s website and there was Jack, so I called again I was told Jack still had a hold on him but we could come and visit on Saturday if we wanted. I told my husband, why would we want to visit a dog we can’t have. Never the less, when Saturday came we took the 30 mile ride to the shelter to see Jack.
We took him for a walk, he was skin and bones and had a bad case of kennel cough. We fell in love. Back at the shelter we asked the girl there to please call the people with the hold to see if they still wanted Jack. She said there were actually two holds, she called the first one and they told her they had purchased another dog and did not want him anymore (nice of them to call). Then she called the other person who had the hold and she said she still wanted Jack, so sadly we left.
Less than two hours later my cell phone rang, it was the shelter, it seems the other person didn’t want Jack either, he was ours. We wanted to collect him right away and get him out of there, he had been there so long, but they said we had to wait until he was nutered. So we paid for the surgery and waited for a call. As it turned out the vet could not put him under because of the kennel cough. So I begged, please let me take him home and get him well, I promise I will bring him back to the vet when he is better. They let us go.
Now Nuts loves people, but never got along with other dogs, so I was alittle worried. I brought Jack into the house on a leash and showed him around, to my suprise Nuts didn’t seem to mind, maybe he sensed that Jack was sick and needed love, they got along from the start.
Jack kept us up for 3 or 4 nights coughing and finally got better. Luckily Nuts did not catch kennel cough, which the vet said was a real possibility, even though they both slept with us.
We came to realize that Jack had been mistreated and most likley beaten. My daughter said one day “you know if you yell at him he pees on the floor” She was right, if you as much as rasied your voice to him he would cower down and pee out of sheer terror, it was so sad. After 4 years we still don’t yell at him no matter what trouble he gets into.
I guess it was about a year after we got Jack that Nuts started losing weight rapidly and was thirsty all the time, as I suspected he had developed diabetes. We had all kinds of tests and Nuts had to stay at the vet all day for 5 days, at least we got to take him home at night.
It has been several years now and Nuts has gone blind from the diabetes, but Jack keeps him going, Nuts gets two insulin shots a day and Jack does not like it at all, he barks and carrys on when we give Nuts his shots. I guess he thinks we’re hurting him.
They fight with the rope toy and try to both get through the dog door at the same time when they hear somthing in the back yard, it’s hilarious.
I kow that someday I will be faced with losing one of my boys and I cry just thinking about it, they have brought so much to our lives. Yes, Jack Russells are a handful and not for the faint of heart, but the joy these animals bring can not be measured or equaled by anything.

— Wendy from Florida