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By:? Dave & Katie Aguirre
Our first time fostering was quite an
experience. A very scared mom and her just-born puppies were dropped in the
night box at the shelter. Rosemary asked us to foster, I immediately said
yes, my husband was apprehensive, worried that we should start with just one
dog. We have a very spoiled Lab mix named Cujo, and two cats, Stripe and
Whiskers, we didn't know how they would react. We decided mom and puppies
would stay in the garage.
"Blondie" is a beautiful dog, with
light blonde hair, a type of spaniel mix. It was obvious, one look and you
knew she had been abused, or had been kept just for breeding. Blondie was
terrified, so much so, if anyone got too close, she would freeze up as if she
was paralyzed. We couldn't get her to walk, Rosemary had to literally pick
her up and carry her.
We made a place for them in the garage,
we thought it was going to get to cold out there and we built a fort out of
blankets.? My husband and I acted like new parents, that night every half
hour either one of us would be
up to check on them. Needless to say,
we moved them into the spare bedroom the next day.
The next few days were a challenge to
get Blondie on the leash and take her outside.? Slowly she started to |
get use
to us. We then left the door open to her room and blocked it off with a
gate. Our dog and cats were very curious sitting at the door just looking
in, listening to the pups whimpering. It's like they knew what was going on,
there was a mom with babies and they weren't going to bother her. Soon
Blondie would sit at the door and look out. Eventually we took the gate
away, and she would come out just enough to see us and sit there. Each day
it was a little further. When we were busy doing something she would sneak
out and steal stuff, anything from napkins to magazines, socks, toys.? She
would hide the stuff in the four corners of the room. She would also
stockpile her food under the furniture. It was hilarious, if anything was
missing we would look there. At night she would come into our room, whimper,
wait for me to pet her and run back to her room.
Not long after that I became her new
best friend. She would follow me everywhere. Blondie became such a good dog,
with a great temperament, she let me know when she needed to go outside. She
never bothered the cats, she and Cujo would play. Still uncertain of everyone
else though, she would run to her room if anyone got too close to her.
By now the two puppies, both girls, are
moving around, wanting to explore, they wouldn't stay in the box any longer.?
That presented a problem, Blondie would get upset and scratch at the door if
it was closed, and if it was open, they would be all over the house having
accidents.? We changed |
strategies, moved everyone to the kitchen in an
exercise pen. The pen was low enough for Blondie to jump in and out.?
Although, when we were home the pups didn't spend too much time in the pen,
they were too adorable, we were constantly playing with them. They just
loved Cujo, they were all over her, it was non-stop playing.
Those seven weeks went by so fast, it
was a lot of work, and we learned a lot. Then the day came for them to be
adopted. We knew the puppies would be adopted that day, had our doubts about
Blondie. She was still uncertain of people, but now she didn?t mind being
petted.
Within 10 minutes the puppies had new
homes. That was hard for us, it tugged on our heart strings to see them
leave, but it was also a good feeling.?? We stayed at the shelter with
Blondie, one women liked her, but she wanted her husband to see her first.?
Late that afternoon they did come back.? We told them her history, they just
fell in love and adopted her.
I?ve kept in close contact with
everyone and they all have very happy homes.? We even doggy-sat Blondie for a
weekend.? It is amazing, she has turned out to be a very affectionate loving
dog.
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