On 4 March 2010, Sidney Hardie writes:

B.J., who can be seen HERE, was adopted by a family here in Arizona, who moved to Missouri a couple of years later. They have now lost their jobs, are losing their home and have to find homes for their dogs.

It would be great to find B.J. a home near where he lives, but it is unlikely and I am working with Terry Krachman of ATRA to get B.J. back to Arizona, since every ATRA coordinator has more than enough senior Airedales waiting for homes.

In 2003, Jocelyn estimated BJ was about three years old, so he would be about 10 years old now. Here is what his current owner says about him:

I am just sick. It breaks my heart the way in which things happen . . . I don't know how much information Steve left on your voicemail, but it's bad or we wouldn't even think of giving our BJ Dog Dude up . . . . Truly we just have a couple of weeks at most before we have to move. It all has transpired somewhat quickly and that sucks.

BJ is a wonderful dog; our groomer refers to him as a clown (and she's right!). He's funny and he likes to play and he likes to tease us.

He is quite verbal & chatty. He howls with the train horns and every morning when we let him out, he walks the fence line like a sentry. BJ is sensitive,; he knows when people are upset. Loud noises scare the Dog Dude, and he doesn't like it when voices are raised (not even when you are telling a story and using a loud voice).

He isn't really head-shy any more, and he loves to be petted and scratched on his belly. The Dude has his own set of rules that he chooses to follow. He knows that he can't come into our bedroom, but he sneaks in anyways to stake out his spot by the floor vent, and smiles at us when we catch him.

He's never been around cats, so I don't know how he would act around them. He likes other dogs, but he's so not the alpha dog. Until the Dude is comfortable, he is a bit skittish, so even a little unfamiliar yipping dog can scare him a bit at first.

He does not really like water, and can be quite stubborn about taking a bath. He's up-to-date on his shots; his parvo and distemper are due on May 16. He's never been sick, he likes to run, and he still to this day has a bit of the wild streak in him. Some nights when the weather is nice, he refuses to come inside and prefers to sleep out under the stars. I don't know why.

He's a big lumbering sweetheart and weighs about 90 pounds or so. You can't really tell that he is an older dog, because he has a spring in his step.

Sometimes he gets a little overzealous and excited around children, but he's never been aggressive. If a child is used to being around dogs, the Dude is just fine. He looks like a pony, so would say my late father-in-law. My inlaws were not dog people, but BJ Dog Dude won over my inlaws and my father-in-law would have kept him if he could have.

I don't have any current pictures of BJ, but I will get you some. He's going to the groomer on Saturday and so we'll get him looking beautiful again. It gets cold here in the winter and even though he's indoors most of the time, we let him grow out, so he's looking a bit like Chewbacca at the moment.

I just tried taking some pictures, but I can't get his pretty eyes. I wish we were headed back to Tucson or we'd bring him to you . . . . He's such a good dog in his own silly way. He's changed so much since we first got him. In the beginning, he didn't know how to be a dog. Now, he's all dog all the time. He's great.