New Dog Options

[invisibleclotho]

This is Zillia. A few days after I had Sadie euthanized there was a house fire a county or two over. The firefighters discovered over 30 dogs in the house. The three people who 'lived' there had basically moved onto the back porch and allowed the dogs free run of the house. The people at the shelter guess she's between 3 and 5 years old. When they brought her (and the other dogs) in she was skinny and pregnant (the pregnancy was aborted due to inbreeding). Basically none of the dogs had been out of the house in at least three years, which means that for a lot of them they'd never seen grass before. Zillia was the last of the group at the shelter. Remarkably (at least I think) she hasn't had an accident indoors yet-- though she is also doing her best to not go to the bathroom at all; and she's learning to mind her manners a bit and keep her paws on the floor; and she doesn't have a problem with being crated, which is also incredibly nice. Why she likes sleeping on the food container, which now has a blanket on it, is beyond me, but she thinks it's great; so it's now the food container/ buffer to keep cat toys from being batted under the stove/ new dog bed. Now and then Sappho, the cat, sits at the kiddie gate that's blocking the kitchen off and spies on The Beast, but she's not too happy about the addition. I brought her in when she was around 10 weeks old and was quite feral, and she always considered Sadie to be some sort of mutant mama cat, so I was hoping she'd be happy to have a new companion, but we're not there yet.

Hopefully our rag-tag little group will all learn to get along and help each other out.

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[Moyia's Mom]

Zillia looks absolutely sweet. I have always had a special love for black labs. My own girl was a border-collie mix, and my husband is convinced we should get another. Are you feeling more confidant in your decision to get another dog? I don't know if I'm ready, but he says I'm not doing so great without my companion/sidekick. I'm desparately lonely for my Moyia.
Keep us posted on your new baby!!!!

Moyia's Mom (Velma)

[invisibleclotho]

You see some black lab in there too huh? She's 24 lbs. and at around 4 yrs. old fully grown, but people keep mistaking her for a puppy. She's definitely part dachshund, and I've been leaning towards black lab too, but there's no way to know for sure.

For me I knew that I needed to reconsider my original position on getting another dog when I started to refer to Sappho as 'pup' or 'dog' without even thinking. But, I fully believe that everyone is different. Given how much energy border collies tend to have I imagine that the house probably feels like it's oddly calm to you.

The adjustment is definitely an adjustment. From how she acted at the shelter everyone expected her to be fairly timid and calm in terms of temperment, and that hasn't turned out to be the case. And the longer she's here the more hyper and whiney she gets. She's definitely sweet, but she's more of a handful than I was expecting (and hoping for). On the plus side, even though she's not housebroken, I think living in the conditions she did disposed her not to like being around dog mess, so she's quite agreeable to the housebreaking process. Sappho still isn't happy, and I definitely, even though I hate to say it, have moments when I think about taking her back, but we're working on it; and if she can get the housebreaking completely down, learn some basic manners, and also learn to be a bit more independent and find some appropriate (e.g. not involving the kitchen table or counters) ways to occupy herself I think we can manage.

All the best to you.

Megan

[SJ J & S]

Hi Megan, she looks absolutely adorable and so lucky to have you and a loving home at last.

I had to laugh though i know its not funny when you said the other owners had to move out the back, sometimes i wonder who the 'owners' are

Love Sue

[invisibleclotho]

Just wanted to add on an update since it's been about a month since I got Zillia. As you can see in the picture, she's graduated from the food bin to new high ground. Thankfully, she and Sappho have started to work on sharing space-- the last thing I wanted was for the poor cat to lose what little area was entirely hers. While a bit too smart for her own good at times, Zillia is doing well with working on her manners, and housebreaking her has been a lot easier than I was afraid it would be. She's also very sweet with most people, which I was afraid would be an issue, as long as they aren't entering the apartment-- in that case they get growled at until the prove that they're friends, not foes.

Sue-- I don't get it either. In this case the people were trying to do the 'right thing' by making sure the animals had a roof over their heads and at least a bit of food and water. I know that hoarding is most likely a psychological imbalance, but I don't understand how you get to the point where you mindset is such that that type of situation seems okay, let alone like the 'right thing.'

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