Meet Lucy!
Many memorists think their own lives are fascinating. However, after writing 2 1/3 memoirs (The Compassionate Carnivore counts as 1/3, in my mind), I still think my life is not fascinating. So it's hard to write about it....luckily, writing about dogs is easy.
After a month without little Teddy, we adopted a new dog. Lucy was rescued from a high-kill shelter somewhere in the US by Midwest Animal Rescue Services and driven to Minneapolis to live temporarily with a foster family.
We found her listed on petfinder.com, a dangerous place to go because so many great pets need homes. We fell in love with this face:
She's big---half-St. Bernard, possibly half-Great Dane. Melissa put a coin in Lucy's pawprint. If you look closely, you'll see it's a quarter, not a dime! Big feet.
The shelter thinks she might be 18 months, which is still a puppy. And she acts like it. When she runs, she flails around as if her legs are about to come off! She loves to run in the backyard, huge loping strides.
No one knows what her life was like before coming here, but she's very underweight---ribs and backbone showing, muscles underdeveloped. We think she weighs 80 pounds... not sure how large she will get. Yikes, what were we thinking?
Unfortunately, Molly (griffon on the right above) really dislikes Lucy. Growls and snaps. Molly has been cranky the entire two weeks Lucy has been here. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this better, we're open to ideas. Lucy is pretty laid back around her, but gets excited outside. She gets ugly when around food, so we're keeping that under control.
And the best part? We've hated our vacuum cleaner for years because it doesn't pick up the dog hair, but we just couldn't justify spending the money. Turns out Lucy sheds like CRAZY. So---yippityskippity---we bought a new vacuum, a special Cat and Dog vacuum. And it does a GREAT job.
Incorporating a new dog is a time of adjustment and training: "No, you can't get up on the bed. No, you can't hold my hand with your mouth. No, you can't put your paws on our shoulders." But she's learning (especially when treats are involved.) Our first command is always Battlestations, which means "Get your butt out of the kitchen so I can cook without tripping over you!"
So we're back to being a two-dog family. And once we get Lucy trained, and Molly relaxes, life will return to normal. Normal is good. Our only problem will be fighting over who gets to vacuum, but Melissa and I will work that out.
After a month without little Teddy, we adopted a new dog. Lucy was rescued from a high-kill shelter somewhere in the US by Midwest Animal Rescue Services and driven to Minneapolis to live temporarily with a foster family.
We found her listed on petfinder.com, a dangerous place to go because so many great pets need homes. We fell in love with this face:
She's big---half-St. Bernard, possibly half-Great Dane. Melissa put a coin in Lucy's pawprint. If you look closely, you'll see it's a quarter, not a dime! Big feet.
The shelter thinks she might be 18 months, which is still a puppy. And she acts like it. When she runs, she flails around as if her legs are about to come off! She loves to run in the backyard, huge loping strides.
No one knows what her life was like before coming here, but she's very underweight---ribs and backbone showing, muscles underdeveloped. We think she weighs 80 pounds... not sure how large she will get. Yikes, what were we thinking?
Unfortunately, Molly (griffon on the right above) really dislikes Lucy. Growls and snaps. Molly has been cranky the entire two weeks Lucy has been here. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this better, we're open to ideas. Lucy is pretty laid back around her, but gets excited outside. She gets ugly when around food, so we're keeping that under control.
And the best part? We've hated our vacuum cleaner for years because it doesn't pick up the dog hair, but we just couldn't justify spending the money. Turns out Lucy sheds like CRAZY. So---yippityskippity---we bought a new vacuum, a special Cat and Dog vacuum. And it does a GREAT job.
Incorporating a new dog is a time of adjustment and training: "No, you can't get up on the bed. No, you can't hold my hand with your mouth. No, you can't put your paws on our shoulders." But she's learning (especially when treats are involved.) Our first command is always Battlestations, which means "Get your butt out of the kitchen so I can cook without tripping over you!"
So we're back to being a two-dog family. And once we get Lucy trained, and Molly relaxes, life will return to normal. Normal is good. Our only problem will be fighting over who gets to vacuum, but Melissa and I will work that out.
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Andrea
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Mar 21, 2013 07:45AM
Wow Lucy is gonna be huge but what a love you will have not only because her breed is full of love and loyalty but usually a shelter dog will relax and be super attached once they realize they are in a forever home with people that will take care of her. We combined households with two alpha dogs and they were testy till one put the other in her place luckily with more of a show then the actual aggression. I hope Molly can do that since Lucy is still a puppy and is obviously the bigger one. Time is the only thing I know of to help with them. And I can understand the vacuum excitement as lame as it may seem. When you have two people and three dogs and two cats the hair gets to be a bit much at times especially when the people both have long hair that sheds and are a bit on the OCD side of cleaning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you guys that this ball of fur love will work out and everyone can be happy and relaxed.
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Thanks, Andrea. Molly has shown a bit of improvement the last few days (less growling) so we're hopeful. We don't have cats in the house, but somehow their hair ends up there anyway, so we're in your situation as well!
