A padawan dog’s first visit inside the house is often short. They get to come in and tour the food eating room and living room (which are essentially one large space), everything else is closed off. When they’ve got the lay of the land, so to speak, they go into their crate, get a nice chewie to amuse themselves with and we see if they can be calm.
Jasper is known for his high excitement acrobatics.
While he has calmed down A LOT since he first arrived here, we were expecting that he would not enjoy being crated and his first visit would be short.
Last night we had a party with special treats and we all talked about what a good boy Volt is. Blondie and I knew what was going on, we’ve seen this several dozen times now. Often it’s no big deal, at least not to me. I’m stoic. But once in a while saying “good-bye” is hard … even for me.
Volt, of course had no clue. He was just happy to get special treats and have so much attention paid to him. I explained it to him after everyone went to bed.
When we got up this morning, Volt went into the den for some morning lovies from HairyFace. Nothing unusual about that. But when Volt reached way up and licked Hairy’s face and neck, that was unusual: Volt’s not a real kissy-guy. Hairy thought he was saying good-bye, but I knew he was saying, “Don’t send me away; this is my home. I like it here.” So I had another chat with him.
It’s harder for him to understand because he’s been here so long. He’s gotten settled.
Volt is on The Bus and rolling toward Pennsylvania and the Fur Friends in Need rescue that will help him find a loving forever home.
Blondie and I have been kind of sad about his departure, so we’ve stayed close to one another all day long. Jasper would like to join in on our “togetherness”.
While HairyFace sanitized Volts crate, Jasper watched closely, “Volt’s gone, so that’s going to be for me, right?” Every time Hairy headed for the house, Jasper got all excited and started running vertical laps. He hasn’t done much of that for a while. He’s really eager to take Volt’s place as House Dog Apprentice.
I took Blondie back to the Animal Hospital this morning. When we returned, she was sans cone. She, Volt and Cochise immediately ran to the low, shady corner of the yard and she gave them a full report.
Her sutures are removed (except one, I’ll get to that in a minute). The vet tech removed the sutures in Blondie’s shoulder, but wanted the doctor to look at her eye before they took those out.
Blondie and I waited for just over 1/2 hour for Dr. O’Connor to see us, most of that time a Cockatoo was shrieking and screaming in the back area and that sent Blondie into a frenzy. Didn’t do much for me either. I didn’t know what they were doing to it, but it was not happy.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 was our final evening to spend with our buddy Volt. He’s been with us since January, and has become a regular member of the family. And it’s been a pleasure to get to know him: he is a true Southern Gentleman … err, dog. In the morning HairyFace will take him to The Shelter for his physical and preparations to ride the Rolling Rescue van.
He’s headed for Fur Friends in Need, a rescue in Pennsylvania. Or Staten Island, or both … I’m still a little confused by all that. But it is our understanding that he will go directly into another foster home situation while they find him a forever home. That’s good: it would just crush Volt to be put back into a kennel.
But for this evening, NiceLady bought is a package of toasted beef trachea. They were crunchy, all natural, and quite tasty. Everyone got to join in, too. In their own way.
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A while back, Nicelady bought us a Coolaroo. That’s an outside dog bed: one that can be left out in the weather because there is no padding to get wet just a trampoline-like hammock supported by a steel frame that allows air to flow under. We all love it! Jasper loves it too and spends a good part of his play time clowning around on it.
Lining up for our turns on the Coolaroo
Jasper has proven (mostly) non-destructive and NiceLady decided, since it’s getting hot, Jasper should have a Coolaroo in his pen to keep him comfy between play times. So she made that happen.
On Monday, Blondie Bear spent the day at the doggie hospital to have two small growths removed from her skin. Neither were cancerous, but one was on the edge of her eye lid and was impairing her vision. As long as she was to be sedated to remove that, we decided to have a skin tag on her shoulder removed as well.
While waiting for the veterinarian staff to bring Blondie out after surgery and recovery, the surgical assistant told me a funny story about Blondie. Blondie is a big, sturdy girl, but gentle as can be. They gave her the pre-surgical anesthesia to relax her. After a few minutes they moved her to the surgical table, but when they tried to get Blondie Bear to lay down, she braced her legs out wide and stiffened up, “I will NOT lie down, and you can’t make me.” there was no aggression at all, just stalwart resistance. They could not budge her, so they waited.
We received word last night that Volt has his ticket to ride the Rolling Rescue bus on Friday June 24th. Now we begin that bittersweet process of saying goodbye and congratulating him on moving to the next step toward finding a forever home of his own.
Volt has been with us since January, six months is a longer time than normal. He has come to think of this as his home and us as his family. But we know that Meryl will welcome him into hers and ease his transition. Hopefully he will find a permanent home quickly. He’s a really good boy and deserves that.
When I told him he was going to Pennsylvania on The Bus, he said, “WHAT!? I don’t want to go there … I saw a movie and that’s where vampires live! I don’t want to live with vampires, they’re even worse than mosquitoes.”
“Vampires? No, no, no: that’s TRANSylvania. That’s a whole different place. You’re headed for Pennsylvania — that’s where they make pencils, not vampires.”
“Oh! That’s different then. Will I like it there?”
“You’ll love it. It’s just like here except different. You will be living in a house and will have other dogs to hang with and Meryl will treat you well and help you find a forever family of your very own.”
“Thinking about leaving you and Blondie and Doug and Marie makes me sad.”
“Yeah … it makes us sad too. But you deserve to have a forever home of your very own. We can’t adopt every dog we fall in love with. We just can’t.”
Then we lay down and took a nap together so we wouldn’t cry. It isn’t becoming for Guardians of the Realm to cry.
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One of the great things about dogs is the way the dogs welcome us home. It’s always a celebration. It makes us feel great to know someone is so happy to see us again — even though we may have been gone only an hour.
I cannot speak about goats, horses, cows, sheep, pigs, lemurs, guinea pigs, rabbits, or ducks – I’ve never had those as pets. I had cats once, and for the most part their reaction to our return was, “Oh, were you gone? When are you going to feed me?”
When the dogs welcome us home, it is always with enthusiastic glee.
We’ve been teaching Volt that table manners are important for any dog who doesn’t want to eat every meal in his crate. Last night at dinner Volt was again allowed to dine with the rest of us (he’s learning this bit REALLY fast).
I’ve finished my kibbles, I’ve licked out my bowl, licked my blanket, licked the floor, licked my bowl again (just to be sure I didn’t miss any) … what’s next? Why, HairyFace: you’ve barely even started on yours!That looks really tasty, Hairy, I’d be happy to help you with that. But since you did not offer it I will just sit here and be a good boy … if you think you need to eat ALL that food all by yourself.
When he finished his bowl he sat and watched for a bit (hoping the Peoples would share their food with him) then wandered off to find a cozy place to nap. GOLD STAR!
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