Though Nola the rescue dog is blind in one eye, she has a very surprising talent: climbing trees.
The 6-year-old German shepherd-treeing Walker coonhound mix, who lives in Syracuse, New York, with her owners, Vanessa and Ryan Marquette, loves nothing more than hanging out in the trees in her backyard.
Originally a rescue from North Carolina, Nola has lived with the Marquettes since 2018. When the couple realized Nola’s surprising ability to escape by jumping the tall chain-link fence behind their property, they were amazed.
“When the neighbor said they saw her jump over it, we were like, ‘Well, we didn’t know she could do that,’” Mrs. Marquette, 35, told The Epoch Times.
After that, the couple began watching Nola more closely. The first time Mrs. Marquette saw Nola up a tree, she was incredulous.
“I didn’t believe it at first when I saw it. Ryan wasn’t home, and it was too late for me to get a picture or video,” she said.
When Mrs. Marquette told her husband, he was skeptical. But later that week, it was Mr. Marquette’s turn to see their dog happily scale a tree and assume her favorite funny pose.
“After that, it just started becoming a normal thing,” Mrs. Marquette said.
When the couple installed a new, sturdier fence, Nola began getting up on that, too. Sharing a video of Nola’s antics on social media, Mrs. Marquette says the footage “blew up.”
Watch Nola’s antics in the video below:
The first clue as to Nola’s exact breed came when people started commenting that she must be a treeing Walker coonhound. With their interest piqued, the couple had their dog DNA tested; confirming that she is indeed around 26 percent treeing Walker coonhound.
A typical morning sees Nola run out the back door with the other dogs—the Marquettes have three besides Nola—and go straight to explore the two trees, happily climbing up and jumping down.
Needless to say, the German shepherd cross is much loved in the neighborhood.
“Our neighbors think it’s funny; they think it’s hilarious,“ Mrs. Marquette said. ”And when their kids bring their dogs over, they always want to play with Nola. When they’re going on vacation, they’re like, ‘Make sure Nola watches over our house.’ She’s kind of like a celebrity in the neighborhood—a lot of people can see her up there from their own yards.”
The couple has been on the receiving end of criticism from some social media users who comment that their dog must feel the need to escape the yard and go for more walks.
“I don’t think people realize this dog can run a 5K and then still wants to climb the trees,” Mrs. Marquette said, adding that sometimes she is asked whether Nola ever goes the other way up her favorite tree.
“I realized she probably doesn’t do that because we think she’s blind in one eye,” she said. “So the side she climbs up is her good eye. I don’t think you'll ever see her go the other way because of her bad eye.”
Described as “very curious, fast learning, loving, and caring,” Nola also enjoys playing with slippers, just like any other dog, and even sleeps with them. When Mr. Marquette, who is in the military, came back from a deployment around 10 months ago, Nola was “so emotional, crying like crazy” upon his return.
“We always bring her on runs, like when there’s a Veterans Day 5K. We always bring her, and she’s always so happy to be around the people and meeting other dogs,” Mrs. Marquette said.
Mrs. Marquette, an animal rescue advocate, thinks Nola is a vital reminder that abandoned dogs can bring something completely unexpected to their owners’ lives.
“She was about 6 months [old] when we got her,“ she said. ”People didn’t want her because she was blind in one eye. Her siblings had gotten adopted—and now she’s the celebrity; you never know what you’re going to get when you adopt an animal, and I think that’s a good message to get out because there’s so many animals dying every day in shelters.
“She actually came from one of the top five kill states and just to be able to save another dog from a shelter and make room for another one was really important to us. Adopt don’t shop, that’s my message.”
