Don’t I know you?
A chance meeting here between two dogs from the same Alabama litter.
Is it possible that a pair of dogs separated as pups would remember each other in a random meeting nearly two years later? Their owners are left pondering that question after Rocky and Elby instantly bonded at Nashotah Park last week.
“They were so enamored with each other that they played together exclusively the whole time,” said Sandy Maloni of Hartland, who brought Rocky to the dog park that day.
She introduced herself to Lisa Hayes, who is from Oconomowoc and was there with Elby.
Here’s the way Sandy said the conversation went:
“I mentioned that Rocky was a rescue.” “Elby is, too,” Lisa replied.
“I said we went to Fond du Lac to get him.” “Us too! We got him in 2016,” Lisa said. “October, around Halloween?”
“Yes!”
“Was he one of the Peanuts Gang (the name given to the litter)?”
“Oh my gosh, yes,” Sandy answered. “Rocky was Schroeder.”
“Elby was Charlie Brown.”
They stood there in disbelief. What were the chances of a meeting like this?
Pretty slim, according to Sandi Paws Rescue in Fond du Lac where these two families picked up their puppies on Oct. 30, 2016, but did not meet. Founder Victoria Timreck, who has placed something like 2,500 dogs in loving homes, called it very unusual.
“This is a first,” she said when I told her about the serendipitous encounter. “It’s a pretty amazing story. This is kind of a Disney thing.”
With a bit of Maury Povich mixed in. Elby and Rocky came from the same litter, actually two mingled litters from two mom dogs in July 2016. The litters were found together under a barn in the stray-dog land of Alabama, transported up here and then adopted out one by one.
Here’s something I just learned. Dogs from the same litter can have different fathers. So Elby and Rocky could be full siblings, half-brothers or litter neighbors not related at all by blood.
DNA testing used by both families shows a similar combination of breeds including Labrador retriever and Chow Chow with a few others mixed in. Rocky is brown with shorter hair and Elby is white and fluffy. But they have similar body and head shapes and long tails.
Schroeder became Rocky because his family — Sandy and Joe Maloni and son, Vinnie — like Rocky Balboa. Charlie Brown became Elby because Erik and Lisa Hayes’ daughter Charlotte wanted to name him Lucky and their son Anderson preferred Bolt. So they took the first initials L and B and made it Elby.
Both dogs go to Nashotah in Waukesha County for an off-leash romp once or twice a week, but Elby usually in the morning and Rocky in the afternoon. On March 13, because of other commitments, Lisa went later than usual and Sandy went earlier, about 11 a.m.
“Right away, Elby and Rocky just started running together and playing together and wrestling. They just paired up really well,” Lisa said.
“Once they got together and smelled each other, I think they knew. They went crazy after each other. We knew something was different,” Sandy said.
The two women arranged another meeting of the dogs this week, and they reacted the same way. This could be the beginning of a beautiful canine friendship, and likely for their owners, too.
Excited by the unlikely meeting of Elby and Rocky, Victoria at Sandi Paws is contacting the people who adopted the other dogs from the Peanuts Gang and asking if they want to be part of a larger reunion. They are scattered in Green Bay, Beloit, Ixonia and Michigan.
These four-legged friends have a way of bringing magic into our lives, she said. “If we could learn from dogs, we would be living in a pretty cool world.”