Fenja von der Koboldshütt - LaVillaRoy's Hovawart

 Deubel von Ascona - LaVillaRoy's Hovawart

 Lancelo - LaVillaRoy's Hovawart

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"It started out so simply. I had come across the breed in a book years ago and thought they sounded perfect for our farm. I also pushed the thought of owning one out of my mind since they aren't very common in the United States. That being said, fate or chance decided otherwise. When the decision was made for our 14 year old Shepherd mix to be put down, my mother and I decided to adopt a rescue dog and give someone a home who needed one. On a whim I looked up the Hovawart on Petfinder, just for grins. I didn't expect to find anything but three came up. One of them was a beautiful 10 month old purebred female Hovawart named Joy. Joy had been abandoned by her owners while on vacation in Idaho spring of '06. The former owners told the shelter they weren't coming back out for her and to do whatever they had to; they didn't want her. She had been given to them by their kids as an unwanted surprise. She had three days left in that shelter before being put to sleep. One of the employees there had a friend with a 2 acre kennel who would take dogs in from kill shelters and find them either non-kill shelters or homes. Bonnie was this kind lady's name and she had put Joy on Petfinder. The emails started  going back and forth. Through a lot of trial and trouble (She was in Wyoming and I am in Wisconsin), I had adopted her October '06. Two of my closest friends took my car (it had the best gas mileage) and drove to South Dakota to meet someone from the rescue halfway to pick her up. I could not go because it was too short of notice for my boss to schedule me off. She settled in and was able to be loose with our other dogs by about mid-December. We all really liked her - even my dad who is a farmer and doesn't usually get attached to animals. True to her name she was a joy to have around and was a very "joyful", happy dog. I found out she loved playing fetch - which was great because it gave me a way to wear her out. Walks didn't work,  I was the only one who came back tired. She even got to be "pals" with Swiffer - one of the cats. February she started running off and so we built a large kennel for her safety when no one was outside with the animals. Since someone was outside most of the time she didn't have to be in it much. Very, very sadly, Joy got out of her kennel while I was at work and was hit by a car. She had been running through the surrounding fields and was coming home along the road - judging from her footprints. She was less than 30 yards from the edge of our property and she had all her tags on but they never stopped and they never called. What upsets me the most was she was almost home and looking at her footprints in the dirt alongside the road they almost had to be trying to hit her. My pal Ryan, one of the two who went out to get her, helped me bury her out in front of the barn where she and my other dog Zeke liked to lay in the sun. Ryan said, he brought her to this farm, he just thought it was right that he help finish getting her where she was going. Joy is going to be very missed, much loved, and not forgotten."

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Hovawart Art ze Stareho dvora

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