Relaxing together, Suzie's first night home.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Suzie's History
We learned more about Suzie's past when we picked her up yesterday. She first showed up at animal house on April 4th, 2008, with her four two day old puppies. All found good homes, and grew up to be gorgeous dogs, much bigger than their Mama, who is only about 40lbs when she's in shape. Then she lived with a nice man who loved her very much, but had to give her up when he lost his house to foreclosure in December. There are many dogs losing their families this way!
When she arrived back at Animal House on December 1st, she was "very overweight," but is now close to ideal again, just a little big on the ribs.
When she arrived back at Animal House on December 1st, she was "very overweight," but is now close to ideal again, just a little big on the ribs.
Susie's First Day
Well, first evening, really. N, my daughter, and I went up to Fort Collins to pick up Suzie, and we all got home about 3. We went right to the backyard, and Susie found all the tasty cat poop that neighborhood cats have been leaving there! She got some, but I got the rest, thanks to her clever nose!
So far N needs more training than Suzie does! But we're all learning how to make her feel at home. But also to teach her to stay off the couch; which is hard because she looks so comfy there.
So far the cats are still isolated in the lower part of the house. We've tried introducing them briefly, with Suzie on a leash, and lots of "gold treats" ready. Rhymer came up, and moved towards her carefully, and Suzie jumped at him! So much for the first try!
The good news is that she's done very well so far on walks, in terms of other dogs. And she does well with sit, and okay with come. So, one step at a time!
So far N needs more training than Suzie does! But we're all learning how to make her feel at home. But also to teach her to stay off the couch; which is hard because she looks so comfy there.
So far the cats are still isolated in the lower part of the house. We've tried introducing them briefly, with Suzie on a leash, and lots of "gold treats" ready. Rhymer came up, and moved towards her carefully, and Suzie jumped at him! So much for the first try!
The good news is that she's done very well so far on walks, in terms of other dogs. And she does well with sit, and okay with come. So, one step at a time!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Our Journey
It's been a long week, full of discussion, debating, driving, but we're finally decided; we're bringing Suzie home tomorrow. Suzie is a rescue dog that we're adopting from the Animal House Dog Rescue in Fort Collins, Colorado.
She's, from appearances, part german shepard and part corgi. A medium sized dog. A smart dog. Almost totally untrained, apart from house-training and crate. She's between 3 and 4 years old (one source says 3 yrs 8 months, so i'm going with that, as that puts her birthday in May, along with the cats).
She's very good with our 19 month old daughter, and promising in all the other things that we think are important up front: doesn't bark, doesn't jump up, doesn't think cats are prey. So we'll go from there. I want to document our journey because I've tried to find stories like ours in the past few days, stories to give us a glimmer of what we're getting into. I hope that our success will encourage others to give "secondhand" dogs a chance to enrich and transform their lives, as we do theirs.
She's, from appearances, part german shepard and part corgi. A medium sized dog. A smart dog. Almost totally untrained, apart from house-training and crate. She's between 3 and 4 years old (one source says 3 yrs 8 months, so i'm going with that, as that puts her birthday in May, along with the cats).
She's very good with our 19 month old daughter, and promising in all the other things that we think are important up front: doesn't bark, doesn't jump up, doesn't think cats are prey. So we'll go from there. I want to document our journey because I've tried to find stories like ours in the past few days, stories to give us a glimmer of what we're getting into. I hope that our success will encourage others to give "secondhand" dogs a chance to enrich and transform their lives, as we do theirs.
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