Three dog day

Saturday morning I loaded up Willy, Zora, and the newest shepherd, Buddy for a trip to northern Virginia.  Actually, Willy only went as far as Charlottesville, which was our first stop.  I've had several emails and applications on Willy, but not many that sounded both serious and very good.  This one did.  I liked the folks, Willy liked them, and they loved Willy.  I knew he'd be an easy placement once all those things came together. 











Our next stop was up in Springfield, inside the Beltway, to meet a nice young couple who were interested in Zora.  They have a smaller version of Zora who is about the same age.  I think the two girls will become fast friends.  Zora was trying her best to get the other girl to play when I was there, and from what I heard about their girl, I expect they will be playing fast and furious soon enough.  They have another dog, a 9 year old grumpy male lab mix, who was not thrilled to have yet another young female invading his home.  I think he will get over it, he was just making his position known.  I was impressed with Zora's reaction to him.  He growled and she just licked his face, trying to make friends and even tried to get him to play.  It may take a couple days on the girl, maybe a week or more for the old man, but I think Zora will win them over.









Next I headed to Arlington to visit some former fosters.  Sable is the rottie.  She's a sweet old girl who has cancer now in one of her legs.  She has had a life long problem with perianal fisulas as well.  I've seen Sable a few times over the years since her adoption and she always seems a little concerned that I've come to take her back.  For that reason, I was probably happier to see  her than she was to see me, but I'm glad I had the chance to see her again.

Sable's folks also have Bernie (formerly Rowdy) and Zoe (boxer) that they adopted from me, and one other dog as well.  We completed Zoe's formal adoption today although everyone has considered her to be adopted for quite some time. 

Bernie really surprised me.  When he lived here he was always shy, scared, and wouldn't come near me.  I always had to spend some time chasing him around the kennel whenever I needed to take him anyplace.  In his new home he is much more confident and came up to see me on his own.  I touched and handled him more today than I had in all the time that I had him here.  He's still not what you would call out-going, but it was good to see that he had come so far from where he was. 

Zoe, on the other hand, is very outgoing, very affectionate, very loving.  She is the female version of Willy.  Their other dog, Murphy, is a lab mix and he wanted nothing to do with me.

I put over 250 miles on the van today but came home with three adoption contracts and two less dogs.  Buddy just went along for the ride because I didn't want to leave him crated at home all day and I don't have a kennel that will hold him.  I need to work on that tomorrow, and do a home visit, and get up to Orange to pick up another shepherd that someone dumped at the shelter.  But, tomorrow morning I'm getting out for a good long hike before anything else.