Minimor
Well-Known Member
The local pet rescue has a website, and they have a page for animals available for adoption at both our municipal pound & the city pound. I keep an eye on the site because we’ve been looking (for a long time now) for the perfect farm dog and—less likely—a smaller dog to replace our little Penny who has been gone 4 years now. About 1 ½ weeks ago Rosie was posted from the municipal pound.
Rosie’s history is sketchy; Garth—the animal control officer; he also runs a kennel, and the pound dogs are kept there—got her from animal control in a town somewhere north of here. I don’t know how she came to be in the pound there, but she was due to be euthanized & Garth couldn’t let that happen so he brought her here to his kennel. While Rosie is very, very cute:
this photo does flatter her. She does have a flaw, and I believe that flaw is the reason why Garth had no other calls on her. Her write up on the rescue site made her sound great—vaccines all provided by the humane society & spaying paid for by the rescue, wonderful personality—but then I clicked on the photo link & in two of the photos the dog looked really, well, scary, because she had such a bad underbite. That put us off & I didn’t bother calling. I suspect that her age (she’s around 5 years old) and that underbite turned off a lot of people. This past Monday I did call, just to ask if her bite was really as bad as it looked. She was away being spayed that day, but Garth said he also has another dog that isn’t posted on the website yet. That one is a 5 month old pup (the nice looking blue pup I posted photos of on my earlier thread here) he picked up out of the ditch along the low road last week. It sounded interesting so I was going to go & look at it, but Garth sure wanted me to wait until the next day so I could see the female too. So, Tuesday night after work I went to see both dogs. He brought Rosie in first and she is a sweet little dog; he thinks she’s about 5 years old, and she’s about 15†tall & weighs maybe 25 lbs. She’s very cute, even with her underbite, which isn’t nearly as bad as it looked in those 2 photos! At that point I wasn’t really thinking of getting Rosie, I was really there to see the bigger pup. Garth went to put her back outside & she wouldn’t go. His wife tried to call her over to go into her kennel, and she wouldn’t go. Garth called her again to go outside & she ran to me & sat down beside me & looked up at me as if to say she was going home with me. Awwww. Garth took her outside & brought in the pup, and my first impression was that he wasn’t suitable—he was bigger & more gangly than I had pictured, and he was just wired. I was afraid he might take one look at the cats & take after them—chase them if they run or land in the middle of them if they stand their ground. I was willing to try him—if he didn’t work out he could go back to Garth’s—though if I was going to get a pup to work with I’d have actually preferred it be closer to spring & nicer weather, when I’d have more time to spend with him. I took a few photos to show Mom & said I’d call later. The kennel is open until 7, and I tried calling at 5:30 to say we’d take the pup. There was no answer, and the machine didn’t come on. I tried a second time, & still no answer & when I hung up I said to Mom, maybe this is a sign we aren’t supposed to take the pup—it was just a strong feeling I suddenly had. She said she was thinking the same thing, and suggested I should call again in a couple minutes & if someone answers I should say we’ll take Rosie. I tried calling again & Garth picked up on the second ring! Mom laughed when she heard me talking to him.
So, Rosie is ours. I picked her up Thursday evening. She’s doing well here, but we have a cat issue to straighten out. When she’s outside she doesn’t try to chase cats. However, one of the cats slapped at her when she got too close, and Rosie went for her, snarling & slapping—not the accepted behavior, we expect her to back off & ignore the cat. Granted once they're used to her the cats will mostly ignore her, but once in awhile one of the cats will be batting at Sheba, our big dog, just because she is there & the cat feels like it. Sheba ignores them. In the house Rosie has taken to sleeping on a chair in the living room. That’s okay, except every time a cat walks into the room she snarls. Twice last night she jumped out of her chair and took after a cat, and that is not called for, nor is it acceptable. Last evening when we were doing chores I let Rosie off leash & took her with me when I went out back to feed the last horse. She was good for a bit, then took off on her own & totally ignored my attempts to call her back. That’s a bit of a concern—a dog here must stick around home & must come when called—but I’m hoping the longer she is here the better she will get. I took her out with me—off leash—twice in the night to check on a horse & she tagged along perfectly. We will see what today brings.
Rosie’s history is sketchy; Garth—the animal control officer; he also runs a kennel, and the pound dogs are kept there—got her from animal control in a town somewhere north of here. I don’t know how she came to be in the pound there, but she was due to be euthanized & Garth couldn’t let that happen so he brought her here to his kennel. While Rosie is very, very cute:
this photo does flatter her. She does have a flaw, and I believe that flaw is the reason why Garth had no other calls on her. Her write up on the rescue site made her sound great—vaccines all provided by the humane society & spaying paid for by the rescue, wonderful personality—but then I clicked on the photo link & in two of the photos the dog looked really, well, scary, because she had such a bad underbite. That put us off & I didn’t bother calling. I suspect that her age (she’s around 5 years old) and that underbite turned off a lot of people. This past Monday I did call, just to ask if her bite was really as bad as it looked. She was away being spayed that day, but Garth said he also has another dog that isn’t posted on the website yet. That one is a 5 month old pup (the nice looking blue pup I posted photos of on my earlier thread here) he picked up out of the ditch along the low road last week. It sounded interesting so I was going to go & look at it, but Garth sure wanted me to wait until the next day so I could see the female too. So, Tuesday night after work I went to see both dogs. He brought Rosie in first and she is a sweet little dog; he thinks she’s about 5 years old, and she’s about 15†tall & weighs maybe 25 lbs. She’s very cute, even with her underbite, which isn’t nearly as bad as it looked in those 2 photos! At that point I wasn’t really thinking of getting Rosie, I was really there to see the bigger pup. Garth went to put her back outside & she wouldn’t go. His wife tried to call her over to go into her kennel, and she wouldn’t go. Garth called her again to go outside & she ran to me & sat down beside me & looked up at me as if to say she was going home with me. Awwww. Garth took her outside & brought in the pup, and my first impression was that he wasn’t suitable—he was bigger & more gangly than I had pictured, and he was just wired. I was afraid he might take one look at the cats & take after them—chase them if they run or land in the middle of them if they stand their ground. I was willing to try him—if he didn’t work out he could go back to Garth’s—though if I was going to get a pup to work with I’d have actually preferred it be closer to spring & nicer weather, when I’d have more time to spend with him. I took a few photos to show Mom & said I’d call later. The kennel is open until 7, and I tried calling at 5:30 to say we’d take the pup. There was no answer, and the machine didn’t come on. I tried a second time, & still no answer & when I hung up I said to Mom, maybe this is a sign we aren’t supposed to take the pup—it was just a strong feeling I suddenly had. She said she was thinking the same thing, and suggested I should call again in a couple minutes & if someone answers I should say we’ll take Rosie. I tried calling again & Garth picked up on the second ring! Mom laughed when she heard me talking to him.
So, Rosie is ours. I picked her up Thursday evening. She’s doing well here, but we have a cat issue to straighten out. When she’s outside she doesn’t try to chase cats. However, one of the cats slapped at her when she got too close, and Rosie went for her, snarling & slapping—not the accepted behavior, we expect her to back off & ignore the cat. Granted once they're used to her the cats will mostly ignore her, but once in awhile one of the cats will be batting at Sheba, our big dog, just because she is there & the cat feels like it. Sheba ignores them. In the house Rosie has taken to sleeping on a chair in the living room. That’s okay, except every time a cat walks into the room she snarls. Twice last night she jumped out of her chair and took after a cat, and that is not called for, nor is it acceptable. Last evening when we were doing chores I let Rosie off leash & took her with me when I went out back to feed the last horse. She was good for a bit, then took off on her own & totally ignored my attempts to call her back. That’s a bit of a concern—a dog here must stick around home & must come when called—but I’m hoping the longer she is here the better she will get. I took her out with me—off leash—twice in the night to check on a horse & she tagged along perfectly. We will see what today brings.
