Hubby and I will be extra busy this holiday season. We've missed having a fur baby around and adopted a senior pup on Saturday. She came with health issues, as many rescues do, but hers are treatable, unlike our previous hospice rescue. We have a wonderful vet who is helping us get the right treatments for her. We're into the day 4 mark and she is already getting more comfortable with us and our routines. We're learning her personality, which is quite mellow and loving, though I suspect more of it will come out as she starts to feel better and gets to trust us fully.
Our first senior rescue that we picked up at a local shelter, crossed the rainbow bridge almost three years ago. She loved people and adapted to us right away. She had some separation anxiety, as they all do. And she was extremely well-behaved, except when she saw another dog. Then she did what we called the Linda Blair Exorcist thing. Our trainer said it was fear aggression most likely from being taken from her mother too early and never socialized as a puppy. Humans' fault, never the dog. It took over a year, but with positive reinforcement and the help of our trainer, we got her to tolerate one dog, a friend's senior golden, and though she would never tolerate any other dogs, she eventually calmed down on her walks and realized we would keep her safe. Though, we never went anywhere without treats in our pocket. We adapted her outings to this issue and she gave us six years of unconditional love and snuggles. I still miss her every day.
As anyone who has adopted knows, the first few days with a new pup is tiring, because it's an adjustment period for everyone. Puppies are a lot more work than older dogs, another reason to love the little seniors! When they're sick or have abandoment issues, it means a bit more care for the humans in the household, but they're extremely grateful when someone adopts them and totally worth it. This is our third senior rescue. Our second was a hospice situation, which was also rewarding because she wasn't alone in her final days.
Since we work from home, we're the perfect household for a senior that needs some extra care. Our new baby doesn't have any issues with other dogs, but her physical problems mean she can only do short walks. We have a stroller from our previous seniors and she loves it already. She also loves car rides, so that means we can take her just about anywhere with us. We live in a very dog-friendly city, which makes our lives easier too.
I took the week off from writing to focus on our new family addition and to help speed up the bonding process. Like babies, dogs take work on our part, some needing a little extra, but seniors are wonderful and have a lot of love to give, so happy holidays to us!
I wish each of you a wonderful holiday season and a safe new year.
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