Even before they leave us dogs are such sad stories.
Alice was a rescue dog, we adopted her from a Vet surgery which also served as a shelter. Scared of everything and everyone, she wouldn't come to us, just sat on the carer's lap trembling. We took her home anyway, dogs are remarkably resilient, adapting to any anything and anyone quite quickly. She sat on my lap in the car shaking all the way home.
Two days later, she decided we weren't such terrible people and warmed up to us. The carer had taught her to shake hands, but obviously used the wrong method for the dog's temperament, she shakes hands quickly but not very happily. I taught her a couple of other tricks using a method more in keeping with her temperament and she performs them quite happily: Stand, beg, sit, down, stay, spin.
She's quite a pig, always wanting something eat, so we have to watch her weight, she's probably 1/2 to 1 kg over her ideal weight, but she's getting on a bit now, 64 in our years - we think. She was somewhere around five when she came home with us, according to the shelter, but we think she was a little older than that.
Alice developed an eye problem so we got a referral to an eye specialist who ground her eye a little. That didn't work so we took her back and the specialist operated. That also didn't work so the specialist operated again, but, no success again. By this time she was almost blind: She can't see at all in a darkened room, and in the light we think all she sees are shadows. About $15k all up on Vet bills, but we don't care, she's worth more to us than that. She plays fetch the stick every night and every morning after I shower, brings her stick in and I kick it out into the hallway. She has trouble finding where it lands, so I kick it hard enough so she can hear it bounce off the wall.
As I said, she is a pig, if we eat it it must be good, so she eats, blueberries, pineapple, nectarines, apples, pears, haven't tried her on lemons! Before she lost her sight she was a TV addict, loved animated adds and wildlife shows. Now she chucks her ball around, amusing herself while we watch TV. She should live a reasonably long life as she is quite athletic, aside from losing her sight she has no other health issues, probably doesn't want to leave anytime too soon as life is too good: Sleeping in the bed between us, going for a drive and fruit - yummm!
Alice was a rescue dog, we adopted her from a Vet surgery which also served as a shelter. Scared of everything and everyone, she wouldn't come to us, just sat on the carer's lap trembling. We took her home anyway, dogs are remarkably resilient, adapting to any anything and anyone quite quickly. She sat on my lap in the car shaking all the way home.
Two days later, she decided we weren't such terrible people and warmed up to us. The carer had taught her to shake hands, but obviously used the wrong method for the dog's temperament, she shakes hands quickly but not very happily. I taught her a couple of other tricks using a method more in keeping with her temperament and she performs them quite happily: Stand, beg, sit, down, stay, spin.
She's quite a pig, always wanting something eat, so we have to watch her weight, she's probably 1/2 to 1 kg over her ideal weight, but she's getting on a bit now, 64 in our years - we think. She was somewhere around five when she came home with us, according to the shelter, but we think she was a little older than that.
Alice developed an eye problem so we got a referral to an eye specialist who ground her eye a little. That didn't work so we took her back and the specialist operated. That also didn't work so the specialist operated again, but, no success again. By this time she was almost blind: She can't see at all in a darkened room, and in the light we think all she sees are shadows. About $15k all up on Vet bills, but we don't care, she's worth more to us than that. She plays fetch the stick every night and every morning after I shower, brings her stick in and I kick it out into the hallway. She has trouble finding where it lands, so I kick it hard enough so she can hear it bounce off the wall.
As I said, she is a pig, if we eat it it must be good, so she eats, blueberries, pineapple, nectarines, apples, pears, haven't tried her on lemons! Before she lost her sight she was a TV addict, loved animated adds and wildlife shows. Now she chucks her ball around, amusing herself while we watch TV. She should live a reasonably long life as she is quite athletic, aside from losing her sight she has no other health issues, probably doesn't want to leave anytime too soon as life is too good: Sleeping in the bed between us, going for a drive and fruit - yummm!
