This is the Daily Dog podcast for Wednesday, February twelfth, twenty twenty. I'm your host Joel Lownes and today's dog is Nova Prime, a Dutch Shepherd Greyhound mix. Nova's owner, Marissa Stewart told me how a case adia brought them together. My dog and her name is Nova, full name Nova Prime. She is the best rescue story slash goofball dog that you could think of
that came off the street. So I'm myself and I speak for my family, but we are so thankful that she decided to save herself with us because we couldn't have you been without her the past couple of years. She's so awesome. So I had been missing my previous dog for quite a few years. My old dogcar was with my ex and I kind of, you know, lost her in the separation. So I've been kind of missing a dog around and having depression and anxiety. Definitely having a pet would have been beneficial,
but it just wasn't in the cards. But one day I was coming back from my niece's soccer game and I had been really craving some Chipotle, so I was super excited to grab my salad and a cheesecasadilla. So I was on the way back home because you know, those are coveted, so I'm super stoked about it. And I pulled into our driveway and as I'm getting out of the car, I just happened to glance up the street and
there's this skinny brown hound like walking down the street towards me. And I was like, oh, oh my, I mean she's she's rather large. It was a little intimidating because there was this thing just like running towards the street towards me. But being a dog person, I'm like, oh, this does not look you know, good, Like this must be a stray.
So she kind of paused about the next house down and I immediately just sat on the floor right behind my car, on the ground, and she was kind of eyeball in me, and I was trying to talk sweet to her, and she was very unsure, but was decided to like sit and kind of peer at me. And so I did the most selfless thing I could think of, and I started breaking off pieces of said Chipotle casidia, throwing them out to her just so she could, you know, get be
more comfortable. And at the same time, I was texting my fiance in the house, and I was like, hey, can you bring out some water. There's a straight dog out here. She's really thirsty, you know. And I don't know where we'd be without technology too, because you know nowadays. But he also had seen me sit down in front of my car
on our security cameras, so he was wondering what was going on. So it took about twenty minutes for her to get comfortable enough to come over and sniff me, and she let me pet her, and then she was like, oh, I think you're okay, and she kind of like sat down right next to me and put her head in my lap and like fell asleep. And so it was like, oh, my gosh, she is the cutest thing ever. I'm looking at her, and she's she's definitely a shepherd mix. To me, looked like a malonois, but she she is a
beautiful cinnamon brown brindle. So yeah, I mean she's gorgeous. And I was like, oh, she's just skinny, and she's just exhausted, you know. I'm looking at her body and she's just skin and bones. Her little pads on her feet were like worn, like completely worn. Some of them are all skeps, so she'd been out, you know, for several weeks, it looked like. So I made the executive decision for the household into the backyard and I opened up our gate and she just like walked right
past me into our backyard sniffing around. Um found this was late October, so I'm in Arizona. So here in Arizona was still you know, relatively warm, so um, you know, there were some old towels still out by the pool, and she decided that that was her new bed and just plopped herself right down, made herself comfortable, and you know, I was just giving her water and some extra snacks. Wanted to give her a little
chance to rest. But new as a as a dog owner, Okay, we got a chipper, you know, see if she's got a chip, and we definitely am not set up to have a dog. So we got to get some food and I gotta make sure she's okay. So we went on a her first trip to pet Smart with us, and she she was so good. She so she was about I put her on the scale and she was about fifty one pounds, which sounds large, but she's I mean, she's a big like very tall German shepherd, so she should be yet
about seventy pounds. Yeah that sounds kind of fifties, pretty light for a shepherd, Yeah, very much. So, So I was, I mean, I was, I was concerned about that. So I got some food for her. She decided to pick out a toy, which she was very you know, just thrilled, little squeaky, little little squeaky bear, and brought her back home. She was chipped, we found out to a gentleman
in Las Vegas. Now Vegas to Phoenix is about six hours, so either I figured either somebody had just moved and she got out, or which is very typical here in Arizona, is people just like to dump their dogs. I mean, I think that's typical anywhere, but at least here in Arizona it's it's very common, which kind of angered me. Spent the night with us. She did spend it outside, just because we do have a roommate who is not a big fan of animals, which don't let's not get started
on that subject. But we're like where she'll just be here for a day until we find her owner. We'll figure it out. Well about one o'clock on that morning, big old monsoon thunderstorm came in. So thunder just comes in, it's pouring rain. I wake up in a panic because I'm a light sleeper, and I'm like, oh my gosh, the poor dog, you know. So I read outside and she is scared to death as a
thunder and just wet. And so I looked at my spouse. His name is Chris, and I was like, Chris, like, we have to bring her in, you know, like she she can't stay out here. It's not okay. And he's like, well, what are we gonna do? And I was like, okay, well it's going to be a two am bath. And so we brought her in the house, came for a bath. You know, she was not thrilled, she but she I mean enjoyed it too. She enjoyed the peanut butter I had smeared on the tub
for her, so big, big shout out the peanut butter. Peanut butter tricks, that peanut butter yes exist. So she she was very sad. I don't know if she had had peanut butter previously, but um, she got all clean and you know, we I just hung out with her downstairs in the living room and she basically slept and ate the next two days. I mean, she was exhausted, which I understand from being out in the
street. Surprisingly, we didn't hear from her owners, even though they had been contacted by the tip company for four days, which uh as a dog owner and a dog lover, it made me really upset. Yeah, I get something, you know, like in the next five minutes. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, oh, my god, from yeah, from wherever, you know, who knows what's going on, But my dog is found.
I'm going to contact that person. So I get this weird phone call at a couple of days later, about like ten o'clock at night, and you know, the person was a gentleman and he was like, you have Jasmine. And I was like, excuse me, I'm sorry, what like identify yourself? And he was like, oh, I think you have my dog. Her name is Jasmine. And so I was like, yes, we found her a few days ago. We're in Arizona. What's going on? And he was launched into the story how he had this litter of puppies.
So she was about just over a year old at this point. So, but he had a litter of puppies, and everybody was taken except her, but he didn't want her because they were having another baby of their own and he couldn't keep her, and how she was so aggressive and she was good with the babies, but just aggressive with everyone else in the house. He was saying that, I'm like looking at this dog who's curled up on the couch in between my two kids. And I was like, do do
you know your dog? Like what? Like she hadn't shown any sort of behavior problem at all besides being scared of like thunder. So it was just really odd. And so he was just telling us how he really didn't want her, and so he had dropped her off at in front of his mother in law's house in northern Phoenix, and I was I asked him. I said, well, when you mean dropped off, like she was in the house and maybe got out, And he's like, oh, no, I
just I just left her in front of the house. I thought my mom would would or you know, my mother in law would would pick her up and bring her in the house. Wow. Yeah, So um, okay, Like all right, well the thought process, critical thinking skills not not the best. So what you're saying is this, this is my dog now, Yes, exactly. And so I was like, well, can can we keep her? Because I mean, she's been here for four days and
she's really attached already to my family. I would love to take ownership of her because I don't want to have to send her to the pound. She's already you know, been stressed out enough by being out for several weeks. Oh. He had said that she had probably only been out for a couple hours, which I definitely called that. That was not the truth on that one, because she she was so emaciated and you could tell that she was extremely dehydrated and had I mean she'd been out for weeks. That was really
yeah, just treated her as his ownership, yeah either way. And I was like, well either way. Three hours. She got lucky because I took her in, So we're good. So he ended up relinquishing ownership. I was very smart and I had him he was doing the right thing. He sent me the name of the vet that she had gone and she was up to date on shots and that she was spayed. So he sent me the name of the vets, so I got contact info there. He sent
me an email that had like RELINQ withhing ownership. Okay, So that which was so I appreciated that. So he wasn't, you know, a total buffoon. But and so, I mean I just jumped on that horn. We I scheduled an appointment for the vet like the next day, took her in, We got all of her shots, we decided to redo all her vaccinations and stuff. And she's just been like an integral part of our family. I mean, I don't she is a total goofball. She so she
doesn't bark. I think she's only barked maybe five times in the two years that we've had her, so she's still relatively new. But she does this hilarious thing where she will snap her teeth together when she's like wanting to play or if she's frustrated, which is hilarious because like all you hear is just snap, snap, snap, and she's looking at you and wagging her ale and snapping. So she's like an alligator snapping shepherd. It's a very rare
breed. Um she's I mean, she's just she's a great dog. We I've I've done all my training with her myself. Um, we are hoping to do some scent work coming up probably next year. Or later this year. I'm planning a wedding right now, so that's kind of taking all of my focus and budget. But she, um, she's just a very She's
the best dog. She loves our family. I have friends come over um who have like little babies, and she just absolutely adores them, lets them like walk all over her, and she's I do have to say, um, she is extremely photogenic, so we love doing pictures um, and she's just she's just the best dog. I really can't imagine us not having her well awesome. And if our listeners would like to see pictures of Nova,
there are some in the show notes. Just click, just click or swipe over the show notes and you should be able to see the episode artwork and that's a picture of Nova. So Marissa Stewart, thank you so much for telling me about Nova Prime today. It sounds like a wonderful dog. She is the best. And yeah, definitely set her up. I have set up on Instagram for her, so definitely can do some following at Nerdy Noodlehound
Underscore Nova. I'm just excited to share your tail because we are excited to have her as our family and I'm just excited she decided to save herself. All right. Thanks for coming on the Daily Dog. I appreciate it. Thanks so much too, We'll have a great one you two bye. To suggest a dog for us to feature on the Daily Dog Podcast, just go to Daily Dog podcast dot com, slash appear or leave a voicemail at three
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