Celebrating Our Clients Peggy and Bruce Spaccarotella!

Mar 04, 2015 · Shawn Finch, DVM

Next in our client stories is the Spaccarotella family. We love Peggy and Bruce and their pointer dogs!

Tell us about your family – humans and pets!

Bruce and I currently have four pets, three dogs and a fish. We have Duffy, an eight year old German shorthaired pointer, Gretta, a four year old English pointer and Maggie, a three to five year old German shorthaired pointer and a betta fish who retired with me this summer.

Duffy

Gretta

Maggie

Duffy, Gretta, Maggie

Betta Fish

What do the people in the family do for a living and for fun?

Bruce is a train conductor, and I am a recently retired Montessori preschool teacher.

Bruce's son lives in North Carolina and is a dog lover and rescuer himself.

We use to travel a lot and especially enjoyed visiting the Gold Coast in Florida in October because storms and hurricanes stir up treasure, and it washes ashore. Bruce was an avid scuba diver, metal detector and treasure hunter. I loved walking and reading on the beaches. He and a nephew went diamond mining this fall.

Now we enjoy our time at home, reading and spending time with family (my brother and his kids, Bruce's brother and his kids), rock hunting and gardening and, of course, our hounds.

Maggie, Gretta, Duffy

Tell us more about the pets you have had in the past and the pets you have now.

Bruce grew up as a military brat, living abroad for most of his life. He is retired military. When he lived on the east coast, his family had horses, dogs and cats.

I am from Omaha and always had a slew of pets: dogs, cats, fish, turtles, chickens, mice, newts, birds, anything I could talk my mother into (or could sneak in the house with a good sob story behind it).

My first fish and me...I love fish...he is in a restaurant mayonnaise bowl. My mother brought it home from work. She was always a little afraid of animals, but my biggest enabler!

Skeeter, my very first dog. Not such a good experience, but we loved her anyway. She was a bit skittish, stand offish and a little nippy.....a cocker spaniel :)

Duke..beagle extraordinary, had a stroke once and vet put him in a sling on wheels and he stayed at the clinic with them for three days...lived about five years after that..total of twenty-three years!

Troubles...nuff said :) ... a wonderful cat who started out with a different name but earned this one quickly.

Troubles again...He was a fun cat.

I had Casey for two weeks short of twenty-five years. A doctor found him under some bushes at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute (use to be on UNMC campus), and I worked at Meyers Institute. He was about four weeks old, and we assumed his mom probably was transporting him somewhere else and he got left behind. When he passed on, Bruce had him cremated and put in a pretty blue urn. Well, I never found the right place for the urn in the house , so I buried him in his favorite place in the back yard...Forward seven or eight years...I came home from the store and Bruce said, "guess what he dug up now?" (That would be Duffy Shovelpaws as he is known to those who love him.) Well, Casey is back in the house now and sits next to Tucker's memorial box.

Surrey...rejected by the breeder, too large, off color, puppies not perfect either, then to a friend of mine, who said she barked too much, then to me. GREAT dog, gentle, sweet and only barked when needed.

Surrey again! She got out and was lost for about three weeks (around the 4th of July). I went to the Nebraska Humane Society every day, sometimes two times a day. This was before chipping. And even though she had an ID tattoo, the pound only had a dead book where dead animals were listed. She had lost her tags and was covered in beatles and all sorts of stuff, so the vet suggested she be shaved to avoid getting mange or anything else. She loved it, so every spring I would get her shaved, and they would tape a little pink bow to her head, and I would have a 90 pound chihuahua.

Surrey again...beautiful dog.

Ivan the Terrible. Ivan was a stray in the rail yard in North Platte, and a friend brought him to me because he knew I loved black and white cats. (I have had three over the years.) Ivan survived the beginning wash in a dishwasher and many, many, many other adventures in life. Another great cat!

Buddy the Brittany was my Dad's dog.

Casey Cat and baby Buddy (my Dad's dog). He stayed with me during his first summer for training.

When my Dad died, we of course took Buddy.

Buddy the Brittany

We had had several "hunting" dogs as I grew up, and they have always been my favorite. I love their spirit, intelligence and the attachments they make with their people. So, when Buddy passed over the Rainbow Bridge at sixteen years of age, we did not get another dog right away. (We still had the big fluffy tabby, Murphy.)

Old Buddy with a Milkbone on his nose. He would fall asleep, and we would come home and put the treat on his nose, and maybe an hour or so later he would wake up. He died of congestive heart failure at sixteen years of age.

Murphy. Went to the NHS to get a cat, he jumped out of the NHS's persons arms into mine, and when I brought him home, he jumped out of the cardboard box into Bruce's lap and NEVER left Bruce's side. He died suddenly and was only with us for six years.

Bruce and Murphy

Murphy

Bruce and Murphy...He was our favorite cat...He seemed to come to us at a time when we were both having some physical problems. I always thought he was our "angel " cat sent to be with us when we needed him.

Murphy...such a beautiful cat, very regal.

It always felt kind of strange, since it seemed like we always had one cat and one dog.

So Bruce and my nephew went to get another Brittany, since I love them, and it was Duffy. This is NOT a Brittany, silly man! To him they looked the same. German shorthaired pointers are a wonderful breed, needing lots of exercise, training, interaction with their people...so smart and so loving, the perfect hunter's companion, yet the perfect family pet for a family who understands their needs.

Duffy and Axel..our youngest nephew, he helped Bruce get Duffy and spent his childhood years at our house after school...Duffy is CRAZY about him still.

Baby Duffy...and he still sits on Bruce's lap :)

Our love for this breed led us to get involved in Great Plains Pointer Rescue, and that is where our last three family members have come from. I think we are the worst foster parents and best foster failures.

Tucker was only with us for a couple of years. He was one of our all-time favorite pets. Such joy he brought to us for the short time he was with us. He was eight to ten years old when we got him from Great Plains Pointer Rescue and had had a rough life. You could see his troubled past on his poor little body, and he had gone through the rescue twice before us, but his spirit and quirky ways were so endearing. He was our foster for four days, then ours :)

Tucker

We feel so lucky to have provided him with a loving home and lots of spoiling in his last few years. After he had passed, we felt like we couldn't go through that again, but after just a short time, we realized we wanted to do it again because of Tucker. There are a lot more "Tuckers" out there...and they needed us and others to foster and/or adopt.

Tucker

Then came Gretta. Our Gretta seems to have an unusual amount of fears and was most likely a breeder. Although still cautious, she is becoming less and less fearful of the new and unknown. At home she is a precious free spirit, always up for playing, loves the outdoors, a magnificent pointer (be it a turkey or butterfly) and a loving lap dog.

Gretta

Last is Maggie, a rescue because of a divorce. Gorgeous, regal Maggie is keeper of the toys, guardian of the house and always talking.

Maggie

The City of Omaha, in their wisdom of limiting a household to three dogs, says we are done! Rescue is really the way to go. Most of the animals in my photos throughout the years were rescues...I just didn't realize it until the last few years. Most came from the Nebraska Humane Society or from someone who didn't want them.

Tell us about when you first met the Gentle Doctor team or a story about the team others may not know.

We first met the Gentle Doctor team when we changed vets just to have one closer to home. What a win/win that was for our hounds and us. And then the daughter on one of my friends and co-worker joined their team, even better. Everyone at the clinic is so professional, compassionate and caring, and we always feel that our people needs are being met as well as our furbabies’ needs. We were so blessed to have them there when our sweet Tucker was ready to pass over the Rainbow Bridge and knew that it was as hard on them as it was on us. And I know that each and every pet and owner who goes through this with them receives the same genuine and heartfelt care...This is when their "angel wings" come shining through.

Tucker

Again, we were blessed when Duffy became so critically ill four and a half years ago, and I thought we were losing him. They diagnosed an Addison crisis...a diagnosis often missed until too late.

Duffy

His Addison's disease is under great control with medication and great care, and he is his "true to his breed" self :) He had surgery for a cancerous mass this past summer and was back to his ornery self after the anesthetic wore off.

Duffy

Then Maggie has some hair loss problems. Gentle Doctor has checked out all the serious issues that could be associated with hair loss, and she has none of these, so we are all working on why she is losing hair randomly. We will have only had Maggie for eleven months, so maybe a turn around is in the future. She was on a bad diet and had not been up to date on her immunizations for a long time and who knows what else.

Maggie and Gretta

Maggie, Gretta, Duffy

Do you have wisdom about any medical conditions that you could share with someone who is perhaps just starting to walk their pet through a similar situation?

There are several groups for dogs with Addison's disease that offer great support and answers to questions. JFK and my aunt Winnie had Addison's, so I knew a little about it, but never knew dogs could get it. Anyway, Adogs is one, and on Facebook there is a page for Addison’s disease in dogs.

Duffy, Living Well with Addison's Disease

Is there a shelter or rescue group that is dear to you that you would like us to help spread the word about?

Great Plains Pointer Rescue...this is our passion now. When we just had Duffy, we wanted to do something, for someone...had no idea what. We were both working and didn't have a lot of time, but time at home we did have. So we thought, "we would be great fosters." So many pointers are gotten for hunting and then abandoned (no hunters we know do that...they love their dogs), or many families are not aware of the needs and uniqueness of pointers. Well, we are bad fosters, but great adopters.

Duffy, Maggie, Gretta

Gretta

Maggie and Gretta

Is there anything else we should include in your story?

There was really only a short period of time about eight years ago when we did not have a pet, and it was so strange. Pets offer so much companionship and social support, they are entertaining and fun, they are loving, they help children make important and caring connections with something else other than humans and increase that awareness and longing to make a global commitment…and most importantly, they are here and need us.