Benefield: Windsor man adopts puppy, returns for mama

When John Schoonover lost his 19-year-old Chihuahua Peanut in August, he was crushed.

Peanut had been his constant companion. And perhaps more crucially, his regular sidekick at the Windsor House elder care facility he owns and operates in Windsor.

Peanut walked at Schoonover’s side, greeting the five residents, playing in the living room and bringing everyone a little lift.

When she suddenly wasn’t there, the residents, many of whom deal with issues related to dementia, knew instinctively, he said.

“They knew,” Schoonover said.

They knew Peanut was gone and they knew Schoonover was down about it.

“One of the ladies lost her cat the same week,” he said. “We talked about loss and she knew what I was going through.”

He still had Penny Lane, a little 4-year-old morkie. But Penny spends most of her time at his Sebastopol home with Schoonover’s recently retired wife, Dorri.

Peanut was John Schoonover’s buddy.

So it was Dorri Schoonover who got to work looking for a new pal for her husband.

“My wife found her online,” he said of a puppy previously named Dolomite.

Dorri found a litter of six Chihuahua puppies that had been abandoned in Bakersfield. They were being cared for at Little Trooper Ranch, a nonprofit animal rescue organization in Santa Rosa.

But John was skeptical. And truth be told, he was still a little heartsick over Peanut.

It felt too soon.

“She was my rock,” he said. “I didn’t think I could ever replace that.”

Still, he agreed to meet one of the puppies.

And he immediately fell for Dolomite.

The Schoonovers brought the puppy home.

But he couldn’t stop thinking of the mama dog who had given birth to the litter.

“My wife said, ‘One dog,’” he said. “But the minute we walked in, I fell in love with the mother and I said, ‘Oh, how am I going to pull this off?’”

So he said he brokered a horse trade of sorts with his wife.

He described it as a honey-do list.

It worked.

Two days later he was back at Little Trooper Ranch for the mama.

“I just liked the mother so much,” he said. “It just felt like they looked like each other, they mirror each other and it felt like the right thing to do.”

So for the past three weeks, Schoonover has brought his new duo to work and mom and daughter have brought new life to Windsor House.

Schoonover renamed Dolomite. He calls her Frida Maria. Mama remains Bandita.

“They are just the sweetest little girls,” he said.

Frida sports a leopard print collar with bejeweled accents.

Bandita, perhaps the more world-weary of the two, has a simpler collar.

“She was rescued from the streets of Bakersfield,” he said, letting Bandita kiss his face. “She doesn’t like to talk about it much, but she went from rags to riches.”

Like Peanut before her, Bandita follows at Schoonover’s feet wherever he goes. Frida, still learning the ways of the world, is on a leash for the most part in the house.

But they stay close.

“The little baby is with her mama every day,” he said.

Mother and daughter wrestle in the living room where residents watch television. They nap in the corner of the kitchen under the window.

They generally make merry.

“I had one puppy, just about this big,” resident Dorothy Guenter said, holding her hands in a tight circle describing Frida.

Guenter lost her cat Sadie nearly the same time that Peanut died.

Like Schoonover, Guenter has been lifted by the new additions.

“He sat here and let me pet him and I talked to him,” she said. “He was a lot of comfort after Sadie died.”

Schoonover believes their presence is good for the residents.

“They bring the people to life here,” he said. “All of a sudden the aches and pains, I don’t think they are 96 anymore. They light up. Animals change everyone’s outlook.”

Including his own.

Schoonover had worried that getting a new dog too soon after Peanut’s death wouldn’t be a good idea.

Then he laid eyes on Frida. And then Bandita jumped up and put her paws on him.

He was done for at that point.

“Not only did I replace that (love), I fixed it twice,” he said. “It was so incredible the change in mood, just the day to day living.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.