Another day, another dog

Well, I bitched in the last post about needing an outlet for my non-shepherds, and today I got one adopted and have good prospects for two more.  I went to a VGSR adoption event in Gainesville with four dogs: Flirt, Jeremy, Shadow, and Max.  None of them are purebred shepherds; only Jeremy is even a VGSR dog and he has only a hint of shepherd in him. 

We set up outdoors.  The sun never quite made it out so it was chilly, but at least the wind was calm so we were comfortable in layers of clothing and dogs were fine.  Max went home to a very nice mother/daughter combo today.  They fell for him, his hugs, and his kisses.  He's a total love bug and always works the crowd well.  I'll kind of miss him, but he was really needing to get into a home of his own with more love and attention than I was able to provide here.

The black lab, Shadow, got a lot of attention and I passed out several cards to people who seemed pretty serious about him.  He was good, easy on the leash, friendly with strangers.  He loved the attention and may even have understood what the occasion was all about.  I wish I knew what dogs understand.  I swear that our Molly figured out the difference between foster dogs and permanent residents and decided she wanted to be latter.  She moved indoors once she figured it out and wouldn't even set foot outside for days without being dragged out by the collar so she could pee. 

A couple came to meet Flirt and were interested enough that we will go to the next step of meeting their other dogs.  You can't be a Great Dane without attracting a lot of attention and Flirt did.  She loves it too, although she did get tired by the time the event was over.  Danes don't "sit" like most dogs do and the cold concrete wasn't very inviting for laying down, so her legs were tired and mine were too.  We were standing out there for move than three hours and that's more than either of us are accustomed to.  A couple of volunteers who handled Flirt and another one of my dogs bought Flirt a bag of puppy food and sent it home with us.  I think the extra calories and nutrition should be good for her. 

The dog who enjoyed it least was Jeremy.  He wanted to get back in the van and go back home almost as soon as we got there.  And he's scratching more and chewing on himself again.  He's been on a hypoallergenic food and getting twice daily antihistamines so I'm beginning to doubt that this is an allergy problem.  His reaction today, including chewing on himself, really seemed stress-related more than anything else.  I feel bad for the guy and I think tomorrow I will give him a bath and move him indoors, both to get him away from the straw outdoors, and so I can bathe him more regularly and keep an eye on the scratching. 

I'm ending the weekend with two less dogs, and I sure can't complain about that.  For quite a while I had so many shepherds that I didn't have room to take anything else to the VGSR adoption events.  They have always been my best source for finding adopters, so I need to keep my number of foster shepherds down so that I always have room to take along at least one non-shepherd.  Yes, I sometimes steal away a potential shepherd adopter, but a homeless dog gets a home and in many cases people realize that a shepherd wasn't right for them anyway. 

I've already sent an email saying that I'm ready for Lucky, so I expect he'll arrive early this coming week.  I have a new home in mind for him already, however, as a potential companion for a former foster, a white shepherd called Anastasia, shown here.