Sunday, March 15, 2009

Jeep has found a new home

Jeep is the last of my CASPCA fosters from last summer. He is a very shy but handsome hound. I don't normally fall for hounds, but Jeep won me over and I kept him long past the time that he could have been returned to the shelter. In fact, he surely would have been adopted sooner if I had returned him to the shelter, but I wanted to know where he went and to have a hand in placing him. The shelter wasn't ever short of dogs, hounds in particular, so they were fine with him staying here as a long term foster.

Jeep liked it here. He loved playing with the other fosters; he loved running in the pasture; he loved hooting at the neighbors across the road.












When I finally started taking him to adoption events, I wasn't sure that he would have a lot of good prospects. Although he's a good looking dog, he didn't show well because he would try to hide behind a chair, people's legs, or even in a clump of tall grass. Mr. Sociable he is not.


Still, Jeep's shyness was endearing and as I said somewhere on an earlier blog posting, I could definitely relate to it and sympathize with him when he was thrust into social situations not of his own choosing.


As often happens in rescue work, one dog's misfortune turns into another dog's opportunity. A couple years ago I had adopted a chocolate lab pup to a wonderful home. They adopted a senior hound from the Charlottesville SPCA and both dogs lived a great life. It was particularly fortunate for the hound because he had been the SPCA for a long time and was proving to be difficult to place. That hound died recently and the lab was lost without him. The owners were devastated by the loss, but realized that the lab needed another friend. They met Jeep on Saturday and took him home. The two dogs took to each other immediately. Jeep had probably never been in a house before, but he followed her lead and relied on her for security. His shyness all but disappeared. The first cat he met hissed at him and he wanted nothing further to do with any of them. He has a big yard to run and play in and as long as he continues to do what the lab says, all should be good.

People always ask me if I'm sad to see them go. But when I see them so happy, how can I be sad?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's super for Jeep. I love reading about your dogs.

Re Runs (Kbg) said...

Hurray for Jeep!!