Bruno's Adoption

 Bruno's adoption today brings to a close the summer of shepherds. It was May 25th that I made two or three trips to the local shelter and brought home Bruno and Luna and their two most recent litters consisting of four six-month old pups, and three 10-day old puppies. The six-month old pups went to other foster homes and were all adopted, several of them by their foster families. The three puppies that had been born in the shelter were raised by Luna with some help from us. They were all adopted at about 10 weeks of age. Then Luna was spayed and she was adopted just recently. Somewhere along the line Bruno got neutered and I guess he could have been adopted sooner, but he was such an easy foster that I didn't really push for it. When I was ready for him to go a really great home came along and I was happy to take him there today.

Bruno and I had some one-on-one time Saturday. I took him to town to give him a bath at a self-service dog wash. He was great about the bath. I had given him a bath once before here at home and he was good then too, another indication that this dog had some good care at some earlier time in his life. After the bath we went to IX Park, planning to have a beer at Three Notched, but couldn't get a table. The Sake place was having their second anniversary party outdoors, however, so we walked around the park for a bit and then headed over to Decipher Brewing for a beer. They allow dogs indoors, which was more comfortable anyway. Bruno was very well behaved. Several people approached us and wanted to pet him. Bruno was friendly and happy to meet everyone. In the days prior to Covid, when we did adoption outings, Bruno would have been a very big hit. He's one of those dogs that sells himself at events with a friendly smile and tail wag, welcoming contact from complete strangers. 

I keep saying I'm going to get away from fostering shepherds, but then Luna, Bruno, and all their puppies came along. At any rate, Bruno's adoption brings this summer's shepherd saga to a close. Many of Della's puppy adopters have been posting "one year since we brought the puppy home" pictures lately. It seems like we have completed another cycle. Maybe now it's time to find a new job.

More adventures with Little Man

I took him to meet Clay and Hugh's mother again, and her cat. He went to a pet store and we picked up a bag of his dog food. He had his first brewery visit, and spent some time out in Daneland with Journey, Maya, and Bruno.

Out and about

 Clay's brother is coming for Little Man a week from today. That gives me one week for a crash course in doghood. He's actually pretty good on the leash already when we are out walking. I took him out with Maya yesterday evening. He pooped and peed on the walk, which was another goal. Today I took him on a trip to Lowe's. He was a bit scared, maybe quite a bit scared, but his reaction was generally to sit very close to me for security and that's good. A couple of employees met him, one even produced a biscuit and offered it to him (Maya ate it at home later). This is a backyard dog from Alabama. He's moving to NYC. In his time here I hope to bridge the gap between those two experiences. Tomorrow we will go to the dump and later we'll go into Charlottesville.

Della's sleeping habits

It was a year ago today that the puppy adopters gathered here and signed their adoption contracts. The pups started going to their new homes over the next week or so. We kept them until they were at least 10 weeks old because I believe in the importance of that time in the litter and that time with their mother. It's hard to say what behaviors are instinctual to the species, specific inherited traits, or learned behavior.

One of the adorable things about the pups was the way they always piled up on top of each other to sleep. You can see how it would be advantageous for warmth and security, but these pups never lacked either. Still, I would never have thought it was anything other than a survival instinct for litters of pups, but that doesn't quite explain Della's sleeping habits.

I've never known an adult dog who likes to snuggle up with another dog, puppy style, the way that Della does with Serena. It makes me wonder if it's a personality trait, either inherited or learned, that the puppies got from Della. 

From the very beginning Della has moved in on Serena, even "sharing" a crate that is big enough for one Dane, but not really meant for two. Serena tolerates it when Della does it, but she won't initiate it herself. If Della is in the preferred crate, Serena will go elsewhere, but if Serena is in it first, Della won't hesitate to move in and make herself a space even where there is none. Della doesn't do it with any other dog, but she has always considered Serena to be her sister. Della has no desire to chase Serena out, she clearly wants to share the space, close though it may be.

Whenever Della was present, the puppies would, of course, pile up on her. 

The puppies continued to pile upon one another to sleep even when the bed became too small.

Della loves to snuggle with Serena even if it makes for cramped conditions.

The look on Serena's face says that this was not her idea, but she never objects.

Notice the intertwined legs.

I make one of them get into the second crate when I'm actually going to close them in there.

You can see that there is plenty of room on the bed, but they are all piled up on one end of it.

It doesn't matter what position Serena takes in the crate, Della finds a way to share it.

The puppy piles were more about togetherness than anything else.

P.S., Luna is settling into her new home even faster than I expected. It was harder on me than it was on her, and I'm glad about that.

Luna, a foster shepherd

Fostering shepherds can be tricky. I sent Lady and Kismet off to new homes in the past two days and both dogs seemed happy to go with their new owners. Those kind of dogs make it easy on me. The dog is happy, new owners are happy, and I'm happy. Fostering shepherds can be a bit more complicated. 

The damn dogs bond to you like white on rice. They don't know they are foster dogs, they think they are MY dog. All dogs love and bond to their owners, but ask any shepherd person and they will tell you that shepherds are different, the bond is different, and it is special. Shepherds need a human for more than food and shelter. They have an emotional need and bonding with a human is an imperative for them. I suspect that somehow they find the most emotionally needy people to bond to, people who need a dog to complete them just as much as the dog needs them. 

When one of those is a foster dog and the other is a person serving as a foster home, it puts the person in a position of being the one to break that bond, to betray that trust, to send the German Shepherd Dog off to a new home. Even if it's a better home, if it's what's best of the dog, and even if it's beneficial to dogdom as a whole by allowing the foster to take in another dog, it's still a betrayal of that hard earned trust, and damn it, you can see it in the dog's eyes. 

It's particularly difficult with dogs who don't give their trust easily, dogs like Luna. Once you've earned that dog's trust, you know what she's something special, and she knows the same about you. It may be two scared, partially broken beings that find what they need in the other to feel safe, to feel trust and trusted, to feel at home. Once Luna trusted me to touch her, and to handle her puppies, she was trusting me with her entire being and would have until death.

Luna was adopted today and she went home with a nice young couple. I have no doubt that she will bond with them, and in fact I heard that she's already getting close and comfortable with the young man. She will bond again because she has the biological imperative to form a human/canine bond; it's a part of her DNA just as much as the erect ears and long muzzle. 

I'm aware that what I'm writing says as much or more about me than it says about Luna or any other German Shepherd or other breed of dog. We raised puppies together, that's part of it certainly. And she had been around here for a while. I know that the role I played in her life can be fulfilled by another person, and will be in a remarkably short time. Actually, knowing that is comforting to me. I know that Luna will trust someone else even if I betrayed her trust today. That makes it possible to foster another tomorrow.