O'Keefe, the Irish shepherd

I returned Argo to his foster on Saturday morning. I was hoping to work out a solution to his weight problem while he was here but I don't think I did so. I tried him on a raw food diet mixed with his dry, and he ate it pretty well but he actually lost weight. The last couple days I've been giving him chicken and rice with his dry food and he was eating that pretty well so I sent some of it home with him. He's a nice boy but I don't think his adoption prospects are very good unless we can at least get the diet problem resolved and get a little weight on him.

O'Keefe

After meeting Argo's foster in Charlottesville, I headed south on Rt 29 to North Garden in southern Albemarle County. I had been exchanging emails with a woman about a GSD she was needing to surrender. His name is O'Keefe. He was a year old in February, vaccinated and already neutered. I will need to have a heartworm test done on him and will probably update his vaccines since they are due this summer.

Handsome dog

The woman had taken the dog from someone who had listed him on CraigsList last summer. He's a great dog, but he's just a year old, while she's not young and has a back injury. The dog was just too much for her to be able to give him what he needs. However, she had given him a lot. He's even tempered, housetrained and crate trained. She said he's inclined to chase her cats and/or chickens, but he hasn't hurt any of them, nor did he make any real attempt to get at them when I was there today. But she works four, 12 hour days per week, and didn't think the dog was really getting the attention or exercise that he needed. 

He was carrying around the skeletal
remains of some small animal that he
had found the day before. He was very
happy with his prize.

I was planning to meet the dog, see if it was actually a shepherd, and then put her off for a while because I still have a house full. Or I was going to take the dog if it seemed like a nice dog in a desperate situation. The situation was far from desperate--the woman loved the dog and he was well- cared for-- but he was such a nice dog that I brought him home anyway, thinking he'd be an easy placement, into another foster home or directly to an adopter. 

Happy, playful, but not crazy

He came home and met the boys in the dog yard first, one at a time, starting with Toquima and followed by Trooper, Ochie, and finally Charlie. He was fine, they all were good with him, but he was clearly overwhelmed so I brought him inside. He checked out the kitchen area and I got him into what had been Argo's crate, adjacent to Trinity (who is recovering from surgery and doing very well). 

Meeting Toquima and Trooper was a bit
intimidating for him, but there's not two better
dogs for an initial meeting.

He met Trinity and Maya and Cabell and was fine with everyone, but I think he was happy for the quiet and security of the crate. She named him O'Keefe, an Irish name meaning "kind" or "gentle" and it fits him very well. 

When he felt overwhelmed he sought
refuge with Clay, even though he
didn't know Clay.

The prior owner told me that he
was a snuggler and she was right.

He seems to be hard wired to trust people.