This dog walks like a grandpa

Shiloh and Finn started their journeys with me very much the same. I saw both at the Humane Society and they were shut down from their surroundings and probably (definitely for Finn) not getting adopted. I brought both of them home in my toy SUV and that's when their stories stopped showing similarities. Finn went in the crate the first night, Shiloh did not. Finn learned from the first time he lifted his leg in the house that it was not allowed, Shiloh did not. Finn had made it past the kitchen at this point, Shiloh has not (mostly for the last quality I mentioned). Finn loved his toys (and hoarded them), Shiloh has no interest. They both found the best hiding places, both happened to be behind a chair the first night.

My new goldie is coming around more and more everyday. He wags his tail a little more when we come home, he plays his favorite game of "time out" where he lays in the corner, facing the wall, a little less. He's been walking like an old grandpa on our daily walks. I mean like a 13 year old dog with some serious arthritis, but I'm told he's only 4. Today, he got a little more bounce to his step and started walking a little faster, but only for a minute here and there. He's getting better about the leaves crunching under his feet and doesn't freak at the sound of the toaster. He snores when he sleeps and I think may have some allergies because he often has the sniffles. Shi-dog also had his first rawhide at the house today. The first one that I gave him was in the line of fire during a marking rampage, I think. And yes, this also means that he took treats out of my hand for the first time today. He's also catching onto things like learning which side of the door opens (he has been going to the wrong side very consistently up until today) and that the sound of food hitting his bowl is something to come out of the corner for.

But just like Finn, he melts my heart. He looks up with those big beautiful eyes that haven't been treated right in the past. He licks my hand if I hold it out and comes closer with every pet he gets. He wants to be close and he's learning that it's okay. All of these things are going to make it so much easier on both he, and his new family come adoption time. Hopefully the marking in the house thing will get better come neuter time...next Friday! :)

The beginning always starts with phone pics

Thanks to our veterans and my wonderful job that doesn't pay much, but at least gives me paid holidays, I had Monday off all to myself last week. I took the opportunity to stop by the humane society to drop off some pine-sol that I picked up at Target with my BFF a few weeks ago. I think deep down inside when I bought it, I was thinking, hmmm, this would be a good excuse to stop by. Then I asked to browse through the dogs. There were only a few in the large dog kennels, I think about 4 or 5. They were all at gates of their enclosures vying for my attention, except one. I bent down to take a peek at him as he lay without making eye contact through the doggie door in the opposite side of his kennel. I made a mental note that I wanted him and kept on walking. Back in the lobby, I asked for more details from the lovely ladies that care for the dogs. They said he had been there a few weeks and in that time had made significant progress. One girl offered to take him outside so I could see him. His eyes were terrified the entire visit.

As I headed home, I realized that I was almost in a blur while I was there and forgot to ask some of the important questions, like has he ever shown any signs of aggression to humans, dogs, or cats. I couldn't dare bring him home if something would happen to my diva, Harper. I decided instead of calling and having them take a note and forget to call back or pestering them in person, I'd send a polite facebook message and identical e-mail to them and hoped they'd get back to me when they had my answers. Tuesday, they said that he was not aggressive to people or dogs and they'd test him with cats that day. Luckily, they have a huge supply of them in the next room. Wednesday I got a facebook message saying that he did great with cats and he tried to lick them like they were babies. For the remainder of the day, I had a huge cheesy grin on my face and everyone in my office shared in my excitement. I drove straight to the shelter that I volunteer with after work (and how convenient, I was actually scheduled to get off before they close for like the 3rd time ever). I didn't want to fool with phone calls and e-mails and delays and misunderstandings. As I told everyone at work that afternoon, I repeated to them: I can't make any promises like I did with Finn that I won't keep this dog. I asked for a little time to get to know him before he's all over the internet for adoption. They looked at each other and repeated, are you okay with it? I'm okay if you're okay. They called the humane society while I was sitting there and together we made the arrangements for me to pick him up on Friday. I even stopped by a few minutes before the humane society closed and measured him for a harness and collar.

Things were falling into place perfectly at this point. My dad was going to be out of town on Friday night and he offered for me to stay the night with the new dog at his place so we'd have some peace and quiet. I talked to a veterinarian friend of mine and he was able to find a sample of some flea medication that I could have since I'm volunteering. I ran around like a crazy person Thursday night, setting a crate up at my dad's, tackling some clutter at my mom's, and taking a good long shower since I knew I wouldn't be able to fit one in for myself the following night. I was hoping to pick him up between 5:30 and 6 on Friday, after the staff meeting at the humane society, but it went very late...I didn't manage to get this super shy dog into my car until about 6:30. I called my vet friend, his office now closed at this point, and met up with him in our tiny town for the very generous donation. To give my house and other pets the best chance of not becoming infested with fleas, I immediately gave him a bath at my mom's. Problem was, the bathtub is upstairs. The dog was completely freaked beyond being cooperative and going into the great unknown upstairs, so I carried him up when he was dry, and down when he was wet, and we headed to my dad's.

Guess who forgot about the alarm...Thankfully I had left the dog in the car for my first trip into the house because I completely forgot about his alarm system. I was searching through my phone for the code as it's blaring in my ears, and probably throughout the entire neighborhood. I put my hand over the box to try to quiet it and I think it knew. It got louder and louder and more vicious with each beep. Finally, I found the code and silenced it, hoping that my ears would stop ringing at some point that night.

Now feels about the right time to stop referring to him as "the dog" and tell you his real name, Shiloh. The humane society named him this and I'm not a huge fan, but also don't see a huge need to change it. It's not like it's Mister Vanilla Teddy Bear. He might actually respond to this name.

Here he is at my dad's on that first night. He looks pretty normal in the picture, but this is one of the only times he sat out in the open. He did the usual pacing, feared being cornered, and found some safe hiding places. He did not want to go in the crate at any point, so I figured, lets take a chance. I didn't want to create a crate-fearing beast like I did with Finn at one point, so I thought we could practice it over the weekend some more and work up to it for Monday morning. I left the tv on and a light on so I'd practically be sleeping with one eye open in case he decided to get into trouble. I woke up through-out the night and found him sleeping in his crate a few times and snoring in the corner behind a chair. He would come over to me now and then while I was laying on the couch, but only when he felt like it. I finally woke up for the last time around 7 and inspected the house for any sign of Shiloh damage. Nothing chewed and no accidents. Wonderful. I ran to the bathroom before I prepared to take him on a little walk and he followed several feet behind. I guess he thought if I was going to the bathroom, he should too, and lifted his leg on the corner of the wall. NOOOO! Not house-trained. We took a long walk around the neighborhood, Shiloh cautious of each step. He walks like a 12-year old dog with arthritis, even though I'm told he's only 4. His fear has a good hold over him, and I can't wait to see it loosen it's grip. I'm sure he'll get better with time. I took him back home to my mom's and so began the weekend of new adoption blues. I had a dog that didn't like me and peed in the house. More on that later.

Petfinder and I are BFFs

Since Finn got adopted a little over a month ago, I've been back in the swing of a regular ol' volunteer instead of the esteemed foster mom. Nothing wrong with that. It definitely means a lot more time out in the real world with a mix of dogs instead of cuddling with one very handsome little man.

The Animal Welfare Society had an event at Tractor Supply Company in Charles Town last month and I went along with 2 other volunteers and picked out the best of all of their, very not my style, t-shirts and tinkered with the toy tractors for 3 hours. Of course, we also told everyone that showed an interest about our 3 beautiful dogs, Xena, a pit bull, Carson, a hound pup, and Ozzie, some sort of collie mix they say. Here are a few snaps from the event, including the ride over with Xena snoozin in my car.

By the way, the only dog still for adoption of those three, is Xena, the pit-bull.

Then, last weekend, b/f and I went to the 9th annual Home for the Holidays event in Reston which is a HUGE adoption drive to, well, get dogs in homes in time for the holidays. There were tons of rescues with dogs of every shape and size and color. It was a lot of fun to see them all, but dang was the weather nasty. It was overcast and very windy...Hurricane Sandy was still sending her swirls above us. My favorite of all the dogs we saw was what the rescue called a Carolina Dog/Corgi Mix. Hunter

was so so so cute, but he was still under a year old and still needs lots of training and someone home most of the day according to the rescuers, so he's still in their procession. How freakin cute though? I've been having a hard time finding a new dog to foster. Frankly, I'm spoiled. Finn may not have been perfect by any means, but dag-on-it he was so stinkin cute. He new mom, Jess says he gets cuter every time she looks at him. I know exactly what she means. He was the perfect size, too. I loved picking him up and babying him, but at the same time, he was a sturdy little guy. Yeah, he was small enough to trip on, but chances are, you didn't hurt him. And chances are, unless you name is Emily or Jess, he's not gonna be close enough to trip you up anyway. I also miss my Andy. I dream of what it would be like having another dog like him and I just don't see him in the dogs that I meet. I know it takes time for a dog to adapt to changes and learn a routine, and heck, I got Andy when he was 12 weeks old so he grew up under my influence. I don't know what I need to be looking for in an adult dog to get somewhat similar results in my house. I guess I'm being too picky and I just need to go for it. I think I'll know when my help is truly needed and I'll bring another one to my half-way house. For now I'll just keep volunteering at adoption events, rabies clinics, and marching in a Christmas parade next month!

Oh, and I'm addicted to Petfinder again. I was for about a year before I had Finn. The 6 weeks I spent with him, my plate was full and I barely stepped foot on their website, if only to see if the humane society I rescued him from had removed him from their line-up and the shelter where I volunteer had added him. Now, I'm back in full-on addict mode. I browse most of the free minutes I have at work. Someone, somewhere is monitoring every step I take on my work computer, but seriously...you can't get mad over puppies and kittens. It's not like I'm on amazon and e-bay.

Anyway, I found this Andy doggelganger at a place in PA yesterday. Obviously, I went to meet her as soon as I possibly could, which was, ding-ding, today. She is around 6 years old and a large black dog in a sea of dogs that need homes so she doesn't have a huge chance of getting adopted. Luckily, Molly as she is called, has a great, lively, outgoing personality. We took her into a play room where she immediately sat on my lap when I posed cross-legged on the floor. She also chased a Kong around the room as it bounced unpredictably. When I realized how much energy she had stored up, I followed one of the volunteers out to the fenced play yard and got down to business with her. We ran around and played tug with a rope we found in the yard.

She was very stuck on the volunteer, who said that he feeds her, (so, duh, no wonder) and he also kept his hand on the door handle so she always thought we were about to go somewhere which kept her undivided attention. Regardless, I'm horribly spoiled and as soon as I met her, I knew she is not "the one". I still wanted to give her a shot and give her some love and we had a lot of fun playing together. I lead her back inside and she knew all the correct turns to make to get back to her kennel and gladly walked right in as soon as the gate was opened. She'll make a great pet for someone I'm sure. Obviously, the shelter is not a high kill shelter (or I'd be in the process of taking her in through AWS as a foster) and she'll have all of the time she needs for the right people to find her.

Whoops, I totally almost forgot to post the bread and butter of my day today, Pickle! lol. Pickle is a Chihuahua that was found as a stray and brought to the AWS recently. He's young, and a very typical specimen of a Chihuahua. He is shy at first, but picks a person and eventually gets protective of them. He was really into me after about an hour and would beg for me to pick him back up if I put him down. He'd get snappy if a bigger dog stepped on him and played my guard dog for the rest of the afternoon. Sorry for Pickle, the relationship was one-sided. I'm not a little dog person. At all. I want a dog-park dog! I joked that Harper would toss him around like a mouse! I will admit he was rather cute though, if you're into that sort of thing. He'll make someone a very loyal lap dog.

Holy crap, what a long day and what an enormous amount of dog hair I was covered in by the end.

If you miss Finn as much as I do, check out Jess's blog. It's awesome X's 1,000,000.
You'll find it in the right hand column under My Blog List.