I got the following message from my lake house neighbor Thursday night: “ FYI, you and Hubby have a new dog. A white spotted one that has been living on your porch since at least Mon. He has a routine of spending part of the afternoon in your side yard in the sun, but early mornings and evening, he camps inside the fence and bays. Yes, bays, he’s loud and I’m sure nothing has been able to get anywhere near your property since he arrived. ”
Translation: Someone dumped a poor defenseless dog at your empty home. In winter. With it expected to snow and the temperature to be below freezing for several days. No food. No water.
I do not know the dog dumper but I will go on record saying I do not like this person. When we arrived Friday afternoon with snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20’s there was a shivering, hungry scared 30 pound mostly grown puppy on our porch.
There was snow on the ground
When we got to the house we could not see the dog, but the footprints were in the snow on the porch.
By the time we unloaded the truck she showed up.
We spent the morning Saturday trying to find a no kill shelter. We have a 15-year-old Pomeranian who has congestive heart failure and other issues. We also have an 11-year-old cat who hates every dog on the planet. We learned after talking to three shelters in the county that they were all full. We spent the weekend trying to figure it all out. She is a sweet-natured dog who has definitely lived with a family. You can see where a collar once was around her neck. She knows how to sit, can play fetch, can ride in the truck without problems,responds to basic commands- as well as any 8 or 9 month old will. In short, she wrapped herself around our hearts. I have an idea that she was a super cute little puppy who grew, jumped, chewed, and had more energy than the owners wanted to deal with. Puppies this big do those things a lot.
People, please make sure you can deal with a dog before you get one. Before you bring that little puppy home make sure you have the time, patience, and finances to take on the responsibility. Ask questions,
We are not sure how it is going to work, but we are willing to give the girl a home if she can tolerate the backyard in the suburbs. Thankfully we have patient neighbors who have already met her. A “Hubby made” dog house is in our near future, there is a trip to the groomer, and vet next week and I think we now will not have an excuse to miss our walks. We are not going to be the only one needing our exercise. We will be spending a lot of time working on her barking. She definitely has some bird dog in her and sounds like she is on the hunt when she gets excited.
Update: We named the sweet girl Lumi, which means snow in Finnish. She is a total house dog and has taken to crate training like a champ. She went to the vet where they agreed she is between 8 and 10 months old, so not fully grown. She loves to play fetch and will go after her tennis ball until she just about cannot walk. She has learned to drop it at my feet and knows where we keep the ball. I left one tennis ball where she could reach it and found it in about 20 pieces on the floor. If I ask her if she wants to go outside, she runs to where the ball is and waits. The rest of the creatures at our house are getting accustomed to her…slowly.
The tennis ball. Or should I say the former tennis ball.
Chew sticks make it about 2 hours at our house.