Spirit White Buffalo TKP
(named by Kenneth Jones Animal Hospital)

SPIRIT

Breed: Terrier Mix/Unicorn
Color: White/Cream
Weight: 22 lbs
DOB: March 2010
Rescued From: South LA Animal Shelter (June 2010)
Favorite Toy: Jawz HyperFlex Pup Disc
Favorite Trick: Rebound
Favorite Disc Dog Trick: Back Stall
Unique Talent: Finding ghosts.
Spirit loves disc!

Spirit’s Achievements:

Disc Dog
• Skyhoundz Microdog World Championship, 5th Place [2014]
• Skyhoundz Southwest Regional Microdog Open Champion [2014 & 2016]
• 5x Skyhoundz Microdog Open World Championship Finalist [2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, & 2017]
• Skyhoundz Microdog Sport Distance Accuracy World Championship Finalist [2018]

Tricks
• TKP - Performer Trick Dog Title [2020]
• TKA - Advanced Trick Dog Title [2020]
• TKI - Intermediate Trick Dog Title [2019]
• TKN - Novice Trick Dog Title [2019]

Spirit’s Media Appearances:

Newspapers
• Littleton Independent (page 9)
• Orange County Register

Magazines
• Pet Companion Magazine

Cool Things Spirit Has Done:

• Inspired the creation of K9 Spirit Organization, a non-profit small dog and herding breed rescue in Orange County, CA

Spirit’s Eulogy:

My sweet little Spirit has gone back to the sky.

Adopted 6/21/2010 – 2/8/2026

The story of how Spirit became my dog is serendipitous… My mom saw a post on Facebook asking for a volunteer to transport this ~3 month old puppy from the shelter to Dr. Kenneth Dale Jones’ veterinary clinic, where he kindly offered to fix this puppy’s fractured elbow for a rescue, otherwise he was going to be euthanized the next day. My mom volunteered and about 8 hours later we went to get him. We lived over an hour from the shelter and vet clinic. Mom needed a carpool buddy, especially since it was going to be heavy traffic with the Lakers’ Parade. We were just supposed to transport the puppy – that was it. We got the dog, took him to the clinic, and then the vet’s wife, Suzann, tried to get us to foster the dog. No no no, we already have a 6 month old puppy (That was Torch). Somehow we were finagled into picking him up a week later and fostering. He would become our family’s first foster dog. When we went to pick him up from the vet, I opened the car door and looked down at the curb. My name was etched into the sidewalk in front of the vet clinic. That really caught me off guard. What are the chances? We walked out with “Spirit White Buffalo,” as Suzann named him.

Spirit was just going to rehab his leg with us for a month or two and then find a home. Obviously he found a home before his rehab was finished… We thought he was a Lab mix and estimated him to be around 40 lbs. I thought he’d be a cool, chill, couch potato dog. As soon as I said he was staying, the terrier tufts of fur started sprouting. And then he stopped growing at 22 lbs. What the hell did I just commit to?

I loved the way his wacky hair looked, despite having endless amounts of it and it stuck to EVERYTHING! I swear, he had more hair than all of my dogs combined. His ears were very versatile too… It always cracked me up when the wind caught them or he put his head back and they turned into the most gigantic, pricked ears. I think he may have gotten radio signals through them.

They say rescue dogs say thank you for rescuing them. Not Spirit. He came in demanding royal treatment immediately. I guess he came to the right place. And he usually got it… I guess if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. (And according to Spirit, you should never take no as an answer anyway…) That’s actually how he became a frisbee dog too. I wasn’t even going to try it until……. I finished playing with Torch in the backyard. Spirit had been standing at the back door, watching. I set the discs down on the table. A few minutes later, Spirit brought me a disc while I was sitting at my desk. I took him outside and rolled the disc… And he chased it down and grabbed it. From then on, he declared himself a frisbee dog.

Spirit ended up being a perfectly fitting name for many reasons, one being that he had a hell of a personality. He loved to do things just for the sake of inciting mayhem. I can’t count the number of times that I have made the “blinking guy meme” face at him… He loved to be involved in everything and be the center of attention. When he played disc at competitions, he did the biggest victory laps when there was a crowd cheering. It was so funny how he loved people’s applause, but if they tried to pet him, he’d probably snip at them. One of his favorite punkass antics was to sit across the room while I was trying to study or work on the computer and make the quietest chirp/whine, progressively getting louder until I could just barely hear it. I’d look at him (I didn’t even need to turn my head) and he’d get soooooo excited. It was a game to him, like most things. Spirit is the only dog I’ve ever seen attempt origami with his beds, another game he liked to play. He always had a different way he wanted to fold it every day. He was very creative.

The impact he had went beyond our family and friends. Without Spirit, there wouldn’t be K9 Spirit Organization. Through his namesake non-profit that was founded 12 years ago, over 2,500 dogs have been saved. Many of these dogs were broken in some way when we rescued them and were rehabbed so they could find their forever family. K9SO has also assisted hundreds of low income dog(and cat!)-loving families when they were in dire need of funding for medical bills, food, etc. But Spirit wasn’t just the mascot – he was usually the dog we used to test incoming rescues to see how they were with other dogs. He was excellent with other dogs and even some aggressive/fearful dogs felt comfortable and confident around Spirit.

I never really believed in “woowoo” crap or anything that couldn’t be backed up with hard facts or logical reasoning… (I swear he could see ghosts.) I think he came to me to teach me about that. Or maybe he just made me crazy. Everything about him, and us together, just seemed like it was meant to be. I was so lucky to have such a funny, cool, little punk of a dog. I will forever miss him and his antics. If reincarnation happens, I’m sure he’ll find his way back here. Until then, I’ll just have to keep missing him until I can hopefully see him again one day…