-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Tips for Keeping your Dog from Digging | Sit and Stay on Why Does My Dog Dig?
- Your Questions About [get Your Dog To Eat] on New Year’s Promises to my Dogs
- Your Questions About [get Your Dog To Eat] on How Do You Know if Your Cat is Fearful?
- Your Questions About [get Your Dog To Eat] on Do You Have a Dog that Needs Space?
- New Years Promises to my Dogs | Sit and Stay on Obedience School Dropout
Archives
Meta
← Worrisome Worms What’s up, Doc? →
Finding Hazel
June 8, 2012
My husband and I had no idea we were ready for a puppy again. We lost Kikko, our beloved 4.5-year-old Rottweiler, to stage 5 lymphoma in March – a painful experience that left us thinking it would be a while before we added another dog to our family. But seeing how much Rudy, our 1-year-old Pit/Shepherd mix, missed his best friend and “big brother” told us a different story.
Normally one of the happiest dogs we’ve ever had, Rudy’s eyes were sad and he was less energetic than usual, despite the two walks and all the love we showered on him daily. In no way did we want to lessen the memory of Kikko. He was the most fabulous, gentle being we could have ever hoped to find. But we began to realize that rescuing another dog was the right thing to do. Rudy needed this and, as we found out, so did we. Ken & I have had pets for 15 out of the 17 years we’ve been together. We both grew up with pets as part of our families and plan on continuing this lifestyle. We currently have 2 dogs, 3 cats and a gecko and couldn’t imagine our lives without them. Well, our clothing and furniture would be a lot less “hairy” but there wouldn’t be nearly as much love.
We started to look on all the Oregon shelter websites, rescues and Petfinder.com for a 1-2 year old dog that needed a forever home. We set up meet & greet dates with a few dogs, filled out endless adoption applications and nothing really panned out. Despite the let downs, we trudged ahead completely focused on adopting a dog in need and expanding our family. After two weeks with no success, we decided to use the weekend to visit our local shelters.
As we walked around meeting beautiful dogs, I could not stop looking at a gorgeous 12-week-old Red Merle Australian Shepherd. I was drawn to her. I was shocked that people were just passing by her kennel. They commented on how cute she was, but they may have rule her out knowing how hard training a puppy can be, as well as the true needs of a herding breed. We filled out our adoption papers and waited to meet with an adoption counselor. The adoption counselor said, “I think the puppy is for you.” She explained that she does not recommend herding breed puppies to many adopters, however, learning of our background thought we were a perfect fit. So we signed on the dotted line and went out to be with our new baby girl. She was a complete joy and it felt like she had been with us from day one. She took all of our sadness away and we couldn’t wait for her spay to be completed so we could take her home with us to meet Rudy.
Our exciting journey with Hazel begins… stay tuned for more stories of Puppy Kindergarten, potty training trials and triumphs, socializing her in beautiful Portland, Oregon, as well as watching her develop her personality and personalizing her healthcare.