missing little Finny

Blogging while on vacation...can't complain. We are having a wonderful little vacation in Rehoboth Beach, staying with my dad and his girlfriend. I wish we could have brought Finn, but it just didn't work logistically. I know he wouldn't have been very happy anyway though walking on the boardwalk this morning or on the beach. Too many strangers. Never fear Finn, we'll be home tomorrow! Here are some of those awesome action shots I snapped of the boys playing on Friday evening. Wrigley wears little Finn out more than I ever could. They are just wonderful together.

my new favorite model

I should say 2nd favorite...can't forget Andy Ty. I've healed a lot in the past year after losing him and Finn has been doing a good job of filling that little spot in my heart for dogs. I feel like Andy should be on this blog somewhere because he was such a huge part of my life for 8 years. Miss you tan.

Little boy wonder started rough-housing with me today and even more than before with Wrigley. I swear Finn gets more playful every day. He was hyper when I got out of bed this morning and went nuts doing the play bow and jumping all over the place. His personality has been so vibrant lately. I'm heading out of town for 2 nights soon and I'm not looking forward to it. He was supposed to come to the beach with us, but we have a wedding to go to that is setting our departure time back a day, so we have to get to the beach right after the wedding or else drive an hour home in the wrong direction to get him. I would totally do that if the wedding wasn't already at 5:30. It is what it is, but I'm sad to leave him with my mom. She doesn't spend much time with him, and when she does, it doesn't appear to be very responsible. It's going to be a long 2 days for all of us, but this trip has been planned since May and by golly, I'm getting my feet in the sand and I'm going to eat the best crepes ever made by the french man in the little alley. Back to Finn. He's adorable if you haven't gathered. Here's more pics!

He is so cute when he runs

This is this weird thing he does with his tongue...lol He barely sticks it out while his mouth is closed. Makes him look like a huge goof.

And what the heck, I'm in a picture mood today. Here's my beautiful diva boy Harper

I took my dog to work again

Finn and I actually spent a lot of the day together and I even managed to work 7 hours. We started the day with going to the vet for a follow up on his ear infections and his neuter incision needed a good look in my opinion. His ears are doing better and they hooked us up with some Flush for me to do at home and some amazing chewable antibiotics! I wish all doggie meds could be made that way. We stopped in the bank afterwards for some public interaction and I asked my boss if she cared if I brought him to work with me the last 2 hours of my shift while the lobby was closed. She didn't care. I took a late lunch and picked him up and he picked the spot right at my feet to camp out for 2 hours unless I left my post and he was right on my heels.

Here's my view from working at lane one of the drive thru:

We went home for a little while to catch up with my mom and then headed over to the b/f's for the night. He's really making progress! Today he licked my b/f and is very curious about how he and his dog play together. He's not sure he's ready to join in, but I have a feeling it won't be long.

Finn may not be perfect...he had his escaping the e-collar and his crate episodes at the end of last week, and he does have an accident once in a great while, but I can't be mad at him. A friend of me reminded me of the dog commandments the other day "Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment, I am not capable of understanding why. I only know I have been rejected, you have your work, entertainment, and friends. I only have you. " It's very true; all Finn has is me. Right now, I'm the only person he trusts in the world and I feel honored. He has come so far in the last 3 1/2 weeks. Before I brought him home, he was practically a feral dog. I have to remember where he came from: 133 dogs, 9 cats, and 2 humans. Think he had much human interaction? Think any of it was positive? He may not be outgoing in new places or with new people at first, but once he is comfortable, this is one happy little pup.

Finn has a mentor

I've had Finn with me at the b/f's house all weekend and it has been GREAT for him! He is still a little unsure about b/f, but he manages. Wrigley (b/f's dog) is really teaching him how to be a dog! He barked for the first time last night, and I mean a real bark. We had left for about an hour and upon our arrival home, Wrigley let out a few barks as usual and Finn joined it. It's absolutely adorable and one more thing we can check of his list of things he's accomplished. He also has fun chasing Wrigley while he plays fetch. Wriggs is a lab mix, so he is very fixated on his chuck-it balls. Finn doesn't get it, but he has fun running up and down the yard with Wrigley. They have also been learning about sharing the good things in life, like attention, treats, and Kongs full of peanut butter. I'm sure in his previous life with 132 other dogs, he didn't get any of those things. He also did good with Sunday football. Andy always got uncomfortable with all of the yelling and clapping going on...Finn slept through most of it. Oh, and speaking of sleeping, he does occasionally snore for a minute or two. Wrigley freaked. He went up next to him and watching him and jolted confused every time Finn made a noise. Sooo funny. Sorry I don't have any pictures today to provide the proof of all of the fun we've been having. Time for bed!

meet Cone Dog

So Finn has an issue with not having any self control when it comes to licking himself. I let him do it for a hot second now and then because it's only natural, especially after the surgery for him to try to keep it clean. If I let him have his way though, he would be licking his insides because he'd have no skin left. He has been all around pretty darn pathetic since the surgery. Walk is no longer in his list of actions, it's run run run sit run sit scoot sit. So lets say I were to walk down the hall way at my house. Finn stays at the starting point and then when I'm about halfway down, he comes tearing through the hall, nearly knocking me down or something else in his path and sits anxiously at the other end to see which direction I'm heading next so he can scurry to it and sit again. I CANNOT WAIT until he is back to feeling normal between his legs so he doesn't have to wear a cone and hopefully he'll start walking again.

It may sound like his life right now sucks, and it does for the most part. I would hate not having any peripheral vision as well and having a cone in the way of my legs. (if anything, it has taught him to walk with his head held high...so he doesn't trip on the cone. lol) He life isn't completely terrible though. When he's outside, you'd never be able to tell anything is wrong with him, except when he stops to try to lick. Other than that, he runs and runs and runs. He shouldn't be, but he looks so darn happy doing it, I can't slow him down. Yesterday I was egging him on while he was running and trying to get me to come after him. He got so excited, HE BARKED! It was a cute, playful bark. Not sure if he'll ever do it again or in another setting, but I'm so happy he did it! One more thing he didn't do checked off the list.

"fixed"

Poor Finn. I dropped him off early this morning to get neutered. I left work early to pick up the sad little case of a dog. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting my pets altered and it's required at the shelter, but it's been a doozey for him. It may have to do with his age I'm guessing, because all of my other pets were in the 6-8 month range when they had their surgery and we're thinking Finn is 1-2. I had them give me an e-collar before we left the waiting room because I couldn't distract him long enough to stop licking his incision site. I DO NOT want a repeat of Andy in this department. For those of you I haven't shared the lovely story with...Andy licked his stitches out the day after he was neutered. I came downstairs on Saturday morning and he rolled over to show me his skin hanging wide open. So so so so gross. I would prefer Finn keep it together, especially because the boyfriend and I are supposed to go away tomorrow night for our anniversary (it's already been put off for 3 weeks) . I'm hoping he'll be good enough, and my mom will be confident enough that she can keep him for 24 hours. His ears were pretty bad off according to the vet so we have some drops to give him for the next 10 days and a follow-up appointment on them. The best part about fostering: The bill isn't mine! I do have to listen to the little cries that break your heart and hope that the soft e-collar they gave me is Finn proof! He's already gotten his foot stuck inside the collar of it and because of his disproportionately short legs, he trips on the thing with every step.

we're getting the hang of things

Finn is doing awesome! We are really starting to figure each other out at this point and fall into some sort of routine. I actually just ran him home from the b/f's and put him to bed for the night. Eventually, he'll be able to sleep here, but I decided today is not the day. He is used to going to bed earlier than we do here and he has his neuter surgery tomorrow, so I figure I might as well keep life normal up to then. He's off food and water for the night, so I also wouldn't be able to give him his beloved Kong with peanut butter for the night. It really keeps him quiet :)

I finally busted out the good camera and had a quick photo shoot with him in the back yard. There was some nice warm lighting, some overgrown grass, and a little tail wagging.

weekends wipe me out

I tried to get Finn geared up for the weekend by starting off with a therapy session at my dad's. He made it in the house this trip, paced around the downstairs for a while, then found the loft upstairs and put himself in a corner for the rest of the evening. He's so scared of my dad and what makes it worse is that he said he would adopt him. I have a feeling it was a tall guy like my dad beating on him at one point. My dad's house is also very open and it probably doesn't feel very safe to him.
Satuurday we headed to the shelter to get his ears cleaned out by the staff, who all can't get over how cute he is. After we were good to go and got our instructions for taking him to the vet on Friday, we headed up to my dad's again. I know I shouldn't let him hide in the corner and be scared, but I did. There were 6 adults roaming around and 2 very young kids. It was a lot for a timid dog, but Dad insisted that I bring him and not leave him alone in the crate. Big news from yesterday: Harper and Finn touched noses! Finn is very submissive to the cats which is definitely going to make them becoming friends much easier.
I thought about just letting the little guy chill out at home today, but when the b/f's mom asked if I was going to bring him over to meet her, I couldn't say no. I also wanted to watch some Dogtown to get some guidance from the episodes where they are dealing with very shy dogs. The afternoon turned out to be much more than that...before your mind wanders too far: Finn did great! He did hide behind the couch a little bit and took shelter in a few nooks, but he also followed b/f's dog Wrigley around as well as his mom from time to time. He didn't quite understand Wrigley's energy. They tugged on some toys together and seemed to have a pretty good time observing each other. Here's a few picks from our afternoon:

Nature was against us this afternoon while we were at the b/f's. To start off, Finn lifted his leg on my foot. Then Wrigley ran through a yellow jacket nest while playing fetch so he was covered with the nasty little things. B/f's mom is smacking them off a safe distance away, then SHE goes back to get his ball that he dropped next to the nest. Of course she gets stung in the legs about 10-15 times. She has never really been stung in her life, so she wasn't aware of how nasty and aggressive they can be. I made up a baking soda/water paste and covered up all of the stings. A little while later, we took the dogs out front for a potty break and there was a huge black snake next to my car. Oh, and somewhere in there, Finn threw up. Thankfully, our bad luck ended there and we're having a quiet evening at home before bed. We forgot the Kong, aka magic sleeping tool, at dad's last night, so hopefully some raw-hides will work as a substitute tonight. I have a feeling they won't be as effective, but I couldn't bare to spend $9 on something I already have at Target tonight and I don't feel like driving all the way to dad's for a 3rd day in a row.