I am the human companion of a loving, loveable, beautiful 14-month-old Catahoula leopard hound named Winnie. She needs to be walked every day or taken to the Sebastopol dog park, which I cannot always do. I start part-time teaching next week and need to go to workshops on some weekend days. So I am looking for some occasional help. I hope to find a person or more who loves dogs or wants to learn about them to do this without being paid.

Winnie is an active, sweet, affectionate, smart Catahoula leopard hound. She is about 45 pounds. Her coat has six different colors. One of her eyes is blue and the other multi-colored. She is fun, strong, and runs fast. She enjoys traveling and sleeping in her safe crate, as if it were a den. She has certain flexible eel-like and cat-like qualities. She vocalizes with sounds that sound like they were coming from a bird, seal, or other animal. In the year that we have been together, I have laughed more than any other time in my life. She makes good eye contact. Winnie is an alert guardian and protector, as well as able to scare off deer and wild turkeys, which she enjoys doing at my farm. She does not bother chickens and gets along well with cats and children. You could google this breed and I could send you pictures of her.

There are a number of different ways this could work, even with more than one person. This could be either a short-term or long-term arrangement, if a trial period works out well for all the two-leggeds and four-leggeds involved. Winnie does have Uncles and Aunties who take her for walks and overnights, who could provide references for her, including how she is with children and cats.

It would not work to have her in an apartment; a house with a fenced in yard could work. She does need to be walked and played with daily. She brings play and joy into my life and seems always in present time, neither futurizing nor stuck in the past. She has become my teacher. We live slightly south of Sebastopol. If you already have dogs, that could work.

Winnie has had obedience training and does know how to sit and come, usually, except when she is following a scent. She has been fixed. She has been socialized by weekly trips to farmers’ markets, the free dog park on my farm, and the Sebastopol dog park. Winnie loves to submit to being petted on her soft hair and having her stomach rubbed at night. She does not understand how dangerous cars are, so this would not work in a highly trafficked place.

If you want more information about Winnie, I wrote articles about her that appeared in the article section of Wacco on Feb. 11 and is still online at the Sonoma County Gazette for March 1.

I can be reached at (707) 829-8185, where I take calls after 7:30 a.m. and before 9 p.m., and at 3sb(at)comcast.net.