Improving Adoption Prospects

Sunday morning it was time to get to work on improving adoption prospects for Lenny, Axel, and Lego. Before I left for Kansas I had put Lenny out in Sparky's old kennel with Axel who had just been returned. They both needed a playmate and I needed a way to make them low maintenance while I was away. That worked, but it wasn't doing anything for Lenny's socialization and I was afraid he was regressing back to the feral dog he had been.

Axel and Lego are both young and love to run.

I moved Axel over to the big dog yard with Trooper, Theo, Max, and Lego. Axel and Lego immediately ran and played until they wore themselves out. It also gave me a chance to confirm that Axel would indeed stay in a fenced yard even though I'm sure he's capable of jumping or climbing out if he was inclined. He stayed. He's also coming indoors at night now and he's been fine being crated in the office along with Max, Lenny, and Lego. I'll be taking Axel to a Promises adoption event next Saturday.

This was the first time Axel had been back
indoors since he was returned from a prior
adoptor. He had to be checked out by Maya
and TJ, but everything went fine.

Meanwhile, Lenny came inside and immediately resumed his relationship with Maya. I think he was glad to be back inside too. I was pleased that he seemed mostly ok with me again. He will come up to me for attention and petting, although all interactions are easier when Maya is nearby. His level of confidence is directly related to his proximity to Maya. 

Clay spent some time with him yesterday evening and Lenny was better with him than he had ever been. Lenny also resumed his occupation of "his" crate and he knows to run to the door to the AC yard when I'm taking him out. He's going to a prospective home this coming weekend, so he needs all the socialization he can get this week. If anyone wants to stop by to meet and pet him, please let me know.

Lego is now out on the internet and I'm sure he's attracting a lot of interest and hopefully some good applications. What he needs most is food. I am feeding him four cups of dry food twice a day and yesterday evening I went to the store to buy the makings for Satin Balls. 

Here's my recipe for Satin Balls from a blog post back in 2010. I have changed it up a bit. I now add a can of pumpkin for fiber. I only used one package of unflavored gelatin this time. I had partial boxes of Rice Krispies and Special K cereal left over from Christmas cookies so I used those instead of Total this time. It really doesn't matter much what you add, if 10 pounds of raw hamburger is the biggest element of the mix, dogs are going to like it and Lego certainly did. I gave him a little taste of it last night and added it to his dry food this morning.

This shot of Lego shows you just how thin
he really is. He's not a broad build, but he's
definitely underweight. That won't last long.