 Foster Dog |
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Let me clarify right here and now that he is a foster dog. A FOSTER DOG. I went to volunteer for the first time yesterday at the animal welfare society where I got Daisy summer before last. I was craving some dog contact, what can I say? I'm a freak. Plus, I've always wanted to go back there and help in some way, because I think it's a wonderful organization. So I spent eight hours cleaning out dog kennels, picking up piss- and shit-covered newspaper with my bare hands and having it drip down my legs. I also got to walk a giant shepherd / chow mix is so gentle he rolls around with toddlers, but he's an escape artist, so his adoptees keep returning him. He is so huge and wonderful and sweet, such a gentle giant, I wanted to bring him home, but he wouldn't fit in my car. I carried around a setter puppy, who scratched my arms up to shit, but I didn't care. I watched six other puppies fall in and out of a baby pool and laughed until I cried. I walked from kennel to kennel and patted the dogs on the heads, the dogs who would lie despondent until someone approached them and then their tails would go insane and they would jump and pant and nuzzle you like they had never had anyone pay any attention to them before in all of their lives. And I am just so one hundred percent sure that I could leave that place and not bring one of them home with me. I talked to the longtime volunteers, who knew the dogs better than I, about which dogs might be good options to foster -- which means I care for the dog during the week, they pay medical and food bills, and I am responsible for bringing the dog to adoption day on Saturdays. It's the difference between the dog spending the week in a garage in a kennel or in a home with human attention and possibly another dog to play with. I mean, it's a no brainer. I didn't take any food with me because they were running short, and when my neighbors walked over to meet the dog, they offered me a bag of food their dogs won't eat. It was like serendipity, I swear to God. But about this dog! The volunteers said he gets along with even the meanest dogs in the group, so I thought that was a good thing considering that Daisy can be kind of a psychotic bitch, the fruit not falling far from the tree and all. He probably weighs about 35 pounds. He's only a little bit taller than she is, but he's twice as long. He's skinny, though. Really skinny. He was a stray that the welfare society rescued from the pound. He's mostly white with black markings on his face and ears, and the first two inches of his big white tail are black. He's recently neutered, and has all of his shots, is heartworm negative, and has had his flea treatment and heartworm preventative for the month. I brought him over to Eva's house, where her family was having a crawfish boil, and three vets looked him over and said he looked great. I said like a genius, "I thought they cut the balls off when they neuter them," and the vets said, "They do. That is his scrotum, and it is filled with blood -- a hematoma." Apparently this is natural following surgery. You learn something new every day. They complimented his teeth and his alertness. You should have seen me trying to bathe Zuko when I got him home. I held him by the collar with one hand and tried to wet him with the hose and shampoo him and rinse him with the other, which proved to be a fairly pointless endeavor as he instantly took off and rolled in the pine needles, grass, and dirt as soon as we were done. Oh, well. The fateful moment arrived when I introduced the two dogs, and it went better than I could have hoped. No raised hackles, no growling. I couldn't believe it. Zuko is fond of trying to hump Daisy, but she won't have it. They jump, they roll, they wrestle. Daisy can be caught by neither man nor beast once she takes off, so it's amusing watching Zuko chase her and then give up. So they're getting along, but Daisy is unsurprisingly being highly possessive of me. If Zuko so much as looks at me, Daisy is either jumping on his head or jumping into my lap in an instant. I know they're going to have to work out who's going to be the alpha dog, and it seems like Zuko will take that role, as he is much more pushy, and bigger, and bossier. But it's Daisy's house, and Daisy's yard, and I'm Daisy's owner, so it's hard for her to completely surrender her dominance in that respect. Personality-wise, Zuko is more dominant. Daisy rolls on her back for her when push comes to shove. Daisy's always the one to surrender. But Daisy is more terratorial. I don't know. It's iffy. My only real problem with him so far is that he's not crazy about listening to me. He pushes through the door when he's supposed to stay out, and he pushes through the door when he's supposed to stay in. He doesn't understand, "Out!" or "Back!" like Daisy does, and I guess it's retarded of me to expect otherwise. I love watching Daisy play with another dog again. It's a joy. But I don't know if I have it in me, this having two dogs thing. Together they are a stronger force than I am alone. They stampede past me and practically knock me off of my feet. Zuko is disobedient, but I can't be angry with him. He was a stray, for the love of God, and understandably tries to headbutt any cup or plate I might be carrying, because that will knock the drink or food down to his level where he can enjoy it. He's not aggressive in a mean way at all, just in a goofy, "Well, I'm excited! Shit! Let me in!" kind of a way. And he's still pretty young, at an estimated one year old. A little hyperactivity is to be expected. I have yet to see him bark or growl or snap, which is a great sign. He can fit Daisy's entire head in his mouth, but this seems like a playful gesture in dogworld. If, and that's a great big giant unsure if, I fall in love with him and he and Daisy continue to become friends and I consider keeping him, I'll just take him to obedience school. There are a few things in this world I have unconditional sympathy for, and one of those things is a dog. A spazzy stray spazzing all over my house is better than a spazzy stray running around dodging cars and starving. And God, he's cute. I'm the biggest sucker on the planet.
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Silent to the Bone Listening MP3 of A Perfect Moment. I fell in love with this song at the end of this week's Felicity episode. You can find it at this site. Seeing This week's Sports Night reruns while on the phone with Elizabeth, which was a blast. As was watching about 8 hours of episodes with my sister, who had never seen the show, and watching her burst into laughter and tears at all of the right moments, like at the end of the first season finale when Dana is flipping out over the camera and then Isaac returns. There is nothing like introducing something you love to someone you love. Journal Quote du Jour We quit packing twelve hours after we headed over to the new house. --The House, from Jessie's Blueberry Hill I'm thinking of you, Jessie! Take a deep breath and remember that there is no rush. Rome wasn't built in a day. |
