Meetings

For many of us who have ever worked in a corporate environment, the word "meeting" brings up feelings of doom and dread, small slices of death in indeterminate, sometimes seemingly endless lengths of time. In the world of dog rescue, however, meetings have a definite purpose and generally are a step in the direction of adoption. I've had two meetings at Green Dogs in the last two days with two different dogs. I still have both dogs but both meetings yielded positive developments. (How many of us can say that about the last work meeting we had?)

Today I took Dolly over to meet a former adopter. Not just any former adopter either, this was an adopter of one of Della's pups, Paulaner, now known as Augie. Dolly is getting slightly less shy and more confident each day. She was still a bit scared and had her tail tucked to show it, but she was friendly enough, accepted treats, and even offered up her paw (that's sort of her signature move).

Augie liked her fine, she was less sure about him, but she checked him out and let him do the same. This prospective home has kids and cats in addition to Augie so there are a few more hurdles to a successful placement, but Dolly is going to try it out as a foster in that home for a while and see how it goes. That will happen on Saturday.

Dolly and Erika

Augie is a big, handsome dude.

I'd hold this girl's hand all day long if that's what she wanted.

She came back over to me a number of times for a familiar touch and she always got it.

Yesterday I took Summer over to Green Dogs just to meet Erika. I haven't done a write up on Summer or even taken any pictures of her since she first came here. There's a reason for that and I wanted Erika to see it. Summer is extreme. Her energy level is sky high. She comes across almost as neurotic as Max. I've been trying to keep her crated indoors for the most part since her surgery, but she's been driving me crazy. 

I had sent Erika a video of Summer playing with her food dish. She has destroyed several of my stainless steel dishes using them as toys. We suspect she had been kept on a chain her entire life and the food dish was probably her only toy. She doesn't seem to know how to play with other dogs either, although the other rottie, Karma, has been spending some time with her. Her play "style" such as it is, comes across as rather aggressive, but she actually ends up submitting to any dog who corrects her. She was also willing to roll over for a belly rub and accepted being touched and handled all over her body by Erika.

She seems like a good girl, but with really high energy that has never had an outlet or direction. Erika put a Gentle Leader on her (that's Erika's signature move) and proceeded to wrestle with her on a walk for about 15-20 minutes. When it was over, the dog was calmer. 

Today I put Summer in the dog yard all day with Max. She did more running than she should have less than a week after her surgery, but when I brought her in this evening she went into her crate and settled down quickly. This is the first night I haven't given her any meds to calm her down after she came inside.

I still have Summer, but Erika posted a write up about the dog after our meeting yesterday and has someone interested in meeting her already. Work meetings may be tedious and dreadful, but I'll take a dog meeting any time.