March 2021
Abby is settling in and becoming part of the pack, although she is such a strong alpha that the other dogs don’t especially like her. Her rear is so weak they know she can’t enforce her dominance, so they pretty much ignore her. She has bonded to me and is usually found at my side. Abby is a barker who is so food-motivated that we have to exclude her from the kitchen during meals, or she will bark continuously while we try to eat. None of the usual training methods work. We think she must have been starved at some point in her life and just can’t accustom herself to not being fed while others eat.
She has a problem we thought might be a perianal cyst, or a problem with an anal gland, but it appears to be a type of perianal dermatitis. There isn’t a lot to do for it; she isn’t agile enough to lick herself, so that’s not the problem. We had full blood and urine tests done and she is in pretty good shape for eleven years old. As we say, her problem is behind her.
Tessa and Sophie are still slowly improving. Kathy can pet and scratch them if she approaches slowly, but they still run from me. We are continuing to clip clotheslines on their collars as they go out, since they return when we do that (for a month or more we had trouble getting them back in the door). One of the things we are trying now is for me to attach their lines; they run to the bathroom and jump in the shower where they know they will be cornered, and I follow them slowly and hook them up. I take advantage of the situation and pet them so they get used to me, and give high value treats at the same time. Until recently I was waiting for them to make the move, but it’s time to try something new.
Last September we were asked to take a two year old dog named Casper. While we were contacting people to go meet him, the owner said he found someone to give him to and they hoped it was a good home. Last month we had an email from a woman who said a friend with a Samoyed needed to find him a new home, and after talking to the owner we realized it was the same dog. Casper has had a nomadic life. He was sold and quickly returned, then sold again to a doctor in Seattle who was remodeling his home and left Casper with a day care center a lot. Finally he abandoned his dog and the woman gave/sold him to a family in Bellevue. On the first day there Casper jumped out a second story window and broke his paw. They spent thousands getting him through that, and they are the ones who approached us last September. Their vet tech found Casper a new home, but the new owner was gone 10 hours a day and Casper was too much for him. That’s when we became involved this time. We didn’t want to bounce him around again, so rather than bring him here to foster we contacted people on our waiting list, but none were ready for a young male. Then we called breeder friends and asked if they had anyone special on a waiting list who would take an adult just under 3 years old. Darlene came through for us with a perfect home. They already had a young female, worked from home, and were anxious to meet Casper. We arranged to meet here, and Casper was driven down from Sultan while they came north from the Portland area. You know how often we say the dog picks the people, and that’s what happened again. Casper went right to them, and even ignored his owner of the past four months. It’s impressive when something like that happens. We get frequent updates and this really is his forever home.
We heard of a puppy who came into SeaTac from the Ukraine, but without the correct paperwork. Reports are that they can’t reach the shipper and don’t know who was to meet her, so she is being held in the custody of a vet. We tried to contact Customs, but they would only say it was in the hands of the airline and they can’t tell us anything because of privacy concerns. The pup is being talked about, as usual, on Facebook groups full of concerned people who can’t do more than talk about it and tell us we should do something more. Until we are asked to do something, we’re observers like everyone else.