Name: Jinx (13 y/o), Tobias (12 y/o) & Maya (2 y/o)
Family Members: Parents: Chris & Beth, Human Siblings: Nick, Devyn, & “Foster son” Destin
How long have Jinx, Tobias & Maya been in the family? Jinx has been with us for 13 years, Tobias for 11 years and Maya for 5 months.
Professions: Chris – Site Manager for Peace Dragon Program in Iraq. Aviation Contractor. Beth – Full time housewife and mother, former real estate agent. Nick – College Student and retail work. Destin – College Student and retail work. Devyn – Student and a handful.
Location: Hiram, GA. (Paulding County)
Nicknames:
Jinx: Jinxy, Jinxy Doo Doo, Do-Dos, Baby Do-Dos, Sha-boot-a-quay
Tobias: BoBo, Tatanka, Beef-a-low, Beef, Eddie, EddieSpaghetti, Special Ed, Eddie BoBo, Tobowsky, Big Boy, Wookie Tookie
Maya: Mia Maya, Mymy, Baby Girl
Jinx
Tobias
Maya
5 of the best words/phrases that describe these three?
Jinx: 1. Attitude 2. Spoiled 3. Little Girl Complex 4. Whip Tail 5. Stubborn
Tobias: 1. Mama’s Boy 2. Willful 3. Big Baby 4. Intimidating 5. Loving
Maya: 1. Sweet 2. Sassy 3. Trouble 4. Snuggler 5. Instigator
What makes each of these pups unique? When Jinx starts wagging her tail, you better not be in contact with it. It honestly feels like someone is giving you a whipping with a switch. She practically bends herself into a horse-shoe shape when she gets happy and starts to wiggle and wag. Jinx was our alert system when one of our older dogs (Liberty) would have seizures. No matter where you were in the house you could hear Jinx start to whine and growl. Usually when we located her, she would be sitting near Liberty while in full seizure, alerting us that we needed to get to her.
Tobias GRINS. When he is excited and happy, he pulls his lips back and gives this ALL tooth grin, and snorts. When most people first see this, they step back thinking he is going to bite them. Not the case at all. He is a lover, not a fighter. Well, he is a fighter of sorts. Tobias was diagnosed with Lymphoma in February 2016. After one month of Chemotherapy, he went into remission. He finished Chemotherapy in July and is still in remission.
For Maya, it's her ears, OMG her ears show off her personality so much. Plus, she is the most agile dog we have owned. Fantastic jumper, so we are very glad that she doesn’t realize she could clear our 5ft fence.
That sweet Jinx face.
Tobias sunbathing
Maya striking a pose!
Rescue Stories: Our vet knew we had a soft spot for the Pit Bull breed. We had assisted with a rescue of an mistreated female pit, and then subsequently brought a male rescue home with us to join the 2 female dogs we had at the time. So….. they called my husband asking if we would foster a pit bull puppy that they had “snuck” out of the Cobb County shelter. (At the time, Cobb County euthanized pit bulls because they did not have the resources to rehome the breed.) My husband agreed, and went to pick Jinx up. She was so small and so cute !! Needless to say, “foster” never happened. At that time we had our adopted male Pit Bull (Goliath), and a female “foundling” Pit Bull/Vizsla mix (Liberty).
Little Jinx in her forever home.
For several years, we owned and operated our own business of cleaning out foreclosed properties. One of our workers happened to see Tobias running down the edge of Powder Springs Rd in Marietta. He pulled over and Tobias jumped in his car. He brought the dog to us, because he knew we already owned Pit Bulls, and he thought we could help with this one. Our worker could not keep him, so the dog stayed with us. We tried to find his owners, but no tags, no microchip, and no response to “dog found” postings. So, Tobias joined our pack, bringing our total to 5 dogs at the time.
Tobias, from the streets to a comfy couch.
We had stepped outside our front door to say good bye to our neighbors who had joined us for dinner. As we stood talking in front of our house, Chris spotted a dog just walking down the street. He whistled to the dog, and she hesitantly crossed the ditch and made her way to us. She was very shy, but submissive. She was COVERED in fleas, and had deep scratches on multiple places of her body. She did have on a collar, but there were no tags, and no microchip. She was slightly underweight, scared, and later it was determined that she was full of hookworms. After posting her picture on multiple lost and found sites, with Paulding Animal Control, and shared on Facebook, no one ever came forth to claim her. Chris even walked her twice a day around our area to see if anyone would recognize her. Nothing. We could not believe that someone was not looking for such a sweet, gentle dog. After 1 week, we decided that Maya had found a new home with us.
Home Sweet Home for Maya!
What is your favorite pastime as family? With Jinx, it's as simple as calling her silly names and watching her wiggle herself into the shape of a bow.
I (Beth) absolutely LOVE to snuggle with Tobias. If he is near me, he wants to be touching me in some way. Tobias will go through anxiety during storms, or going to the vet. If he lays down beside me, I tap out the beat to the song “Tusk” on his chest, and he calms down. He also has a VERY UNIQUE way of expressing himself when he is stressed. He “talks” and actually sounds like Chewbaca from Star Wars. Hence the nickname of Wookie Tookie.
Watching Maya RACE through the yard, jumping up on retaining walls, and then zipping under bushes. Maya is not content to just sit beside you unless she has plenty of room. If space is limited, she will jump into your lap, and lay all 50 lbs across you.
What is life like since you rescued these three pups? It had been a LONG time for us since we raised a puppy, and BOY did this throw our lives into controlled chaos. The only way we could get Jinx to sleep quietly at night, was to put her under the covers of our bed with us. Needless to say, she has been SPOILED ever since. Jinx also has a bit of a Napoleon complex. She has always been the smallest dog of our pack, but she has always had the most attitude. We had to stop giving our dogs chew bones and toys because Jinx wanted to fight everyone over theirs. If possible, she would get them ALL in a pile beside her, and if any of the dogs came over to get theirs back, they would get attitude and teeth. Jinx will forever be a handful, but she is our “baby.”
Never a dull moment when around Tobias. He has no clue how big he is, and he just LOVES people. He snores, he “talks” in his sleep, he has the world’s worst gas. LOL When we first found him, he had no idea how to get up and down stairs. Needless to say, teaching him was quite an experience. When he started down, nothing better be in his way, as braking was not an option. To this day, he still hurries down stairs.
Maya was limited to our basement for the first few months she was with us. She was very rambunctious and Jinx was not too keen on the idea of a “new” pack member. Maya was always with a human, or placed temporarily in her crate when alone. We discovered she has a nasty habit of chewing ANYTHING when she is bored or left alone for even a short amount of time.
The dogs saw each other every day at feeding time and we were extremely careful to make sure there were no traumatic incidents for dogs, as well as the humans. Maya has brought more laughter into our lives with her antics. We have been living with/caring for elder dogs for several years and were used to lazy house dogs. Maya is definitely going to keep us on our toes, and give back some spunk to our “old folks (dogs).”
Photographers Note: Meeting these three pups was such a joy. I was greeted by the grin of Mr. Tobias, the reserved sniff of Ms. Jinx and the puppy energy of baby girl Maya. Such a fun dynamic when you have two seniors, who honestly besides the treats and the attention(very true that Tobias does love the people, such a sweet old man) between shots bestowed upon them by the photographer, they would have much rather been left alone to enjoy their afternoon naps. They stuck with me and did great though. Then in contrast you have the energy of Maya who was ready for anything. When we finished with Jinx and Tobias, they were let in to relax in the shade of the house. Maya then showed me her stuff in the backyard, racing around like a bullet. That 5 foot retaining wall, yep jumped straight up that wall like she had springs in her ankles, stuck the landing perfectly. An agility competition or dock diving or something, needs to be in this very athletic girls future.
There is something about photographing the senior pups. Their bodies may be giving out on them and they may not be as agile as their younger fur sibling, but you see the spark and the spirit of their younger selves in those eyes with every click of the shutter. I always feel pretty lucky that they allow me to see it.