Doogie Is Adopted!
Grace and Dale applied to adopt a 9 year old GSP. Not just any 9 year old GSP. They applied specifically to adopt Doogie, a graying, nine-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer they saw on our website who found himself at an overcrowded county animal shelter. What appeared at first as a tale of a lost wanderer picked up as a stray took a disheartening twist – Doogie's presence was not the result of fate, but a deliberate surrender by Doogie's owner of nine years.
One of the things Grace and Dale said on their application, made us fall in love with them. “We expect we would have to learn what Doogie needs in his days, and are confident we would make him feel like the most special guy in the world”.
We eagerly invited them and their 2 Yorkies, June Bug and Sammy Sweetheart to come out and meet Doogie. We didn’t know how well Doogie would do with small dogs, but things went pretty well at the meet and greet, and Grace and Dale said “Doogie will learn how to fit into our pack with time. Our primary goal is to be able to make him feel secure and loved. And that they did.
We have received several updates from Grace that we couldn’t wait to share. We are immensely grateful that Doogie has been given a second chance to be loved and cherished, and living his very best life!
“Everything with Doogie is great. We are settling in just fine. Considering there is an adjustment period, I don't think it could be any better than it is. He is the sweetest guy. We love him so much!
So far I've learned that his passions are food, hunting down rats in the yard, and balls. He pretty much stays glued to me, along with the other two, every waking moment we are home together. Imagine how crowded my bathroom gets?
So far we have had one accident of peeing on the floor where he'd already been outside many times. He just forgot or smelled something on the floor that made him feel he needed to leave his calling card. He knew he messed up and it hasn't happened again.
Our next learning moment was when I was walking him before work and he did not want to leave a wall where he knew for a fact there was a rat hiding in there. He cried for about 10 seconds when we got back to the house for me to please let him back out to get that rat. Today I went prepared with a squeaker to distract him if that happened again, but it did not. We are working on me having control of him when on his leash. He is a puller. We practice in the front yard which is a little under 1-acre. We're getting better but if there is a bunny sighting he's gone, pulls away from me. Now when he does this at some point he realizes we're separated and he then runs back to me as fast as he can with a panicked look on his face and gives me back my end of the leash. He is so incredibly sweet and smart. My yard is fenced and I don't take him outside of it except for if Dale has hold of him. We'll continue to work on this and with a little more time Doogie and I will certainly be able to go anywhere together without Dale. But I'll be honest outside of work, we stay home most of the time. It's our favorite place.
Another recent learning moment was I had to be in Miami taking me away from home for 2 nights. Dale was home with Doogie and the girls. I was worried Doogie would think I abandoned him. Although Dale said he was looking all over the house for me, he was fine. When I got home in the middle of the night on Thursday, my 3 little babies were waiting by the door for me turning in circles squeeking and jumping up and down. I told Doogie that I will always come back no matter what, and I will show him that.
Doogie loves to come in the closet to help me pick what clothes to wear. He sits outside the bathroom helping me with make up and hair, watching movies, sleeping in his favorite bed, playing with toys watching tv, sittting, on the dog couch with his dad, exploring the yard, and more yard exploring. Doogie also loves to hide behind the curtain. He thinks I can't see him when he puts it over his face. I say - “where's my little boy at I can't find him anywhere”. I see his tail wagging and wagging as I keep asking and he pops his head out and smiles - here I am! He thinks it's so fun to know I'm looking for him.
Doogie is so good with the girls. He doesn't try to take his favorite toy back from his little sister when she decided she was going to be taking it from him. Almost no dog would let another one take their toy. He knows she is little and fragile so he let's her have it. Then Doogie decided he would sleep in the girls bed no matter how small a ball he had to make his body, and yesterday, Doogie decided that he wanted to sit on couch like the little dogs do. We're calling it his couch.
I got him skin supplements (salmon chews) and have been feeding him sardines in oil with his food. I read this helps with skin so I started trying it. He and the girls love it.
Since Doogie has been with us, maybe I just see him with my mom eyes, but with a little tlc he is looking like a strong healthy young man, and anyone who wouldn't want him for being old would definitely be sorry they didn't scoop him up when they had the chance if they could see him now. He can leap the entire back yard in a single bound if he's going after something, and his bark is so mighty and deep the metal gate rattles at his command. I've only heard him try to bark a lizard out of a crack in the block wall twice and I was obviously impressed. I'm very proud of him.
He is looking good and strong. He weighs 74 pounds now up from 69. Dale says I'm gonna make him fat. My response - well hell yeah! I promise he's not fat nor are the girls I reference for the purpose of track record.
Most importantly I see that Doogie is happy. He sits in front of me and swipes his giant hoof on me to pet him and pet him more and don't stop petting him. He does that happy gallop trot thing dogs do when they're happy, all around the house slinging stuffed toys he finds along the way through the air and sorta jumps like he's gonna catch them and dances all around. He plays with his little pink toys that he steels fair and square from the girls. They do the same as I know from catching them inside his crate bed trying to get the gigantic Kong bone. I told them they were going get in trouble because I didn't think Doogie wanted them in his bed so they took his bone to their bed.
Doogie has a sweet and loving heart and his playful nature and silly shenanigans fill our days with smiles and warmth. Like when he decides to rearrange the furniture by moving his various beds to different rooms or putting them in the middle of the floor. Everything he does is adorable. He touches my heart with how he works so hard to be a good boy, he's so thoughtful.
We had so much fun at the Splish Splash Waterpark Fundraising Event. At some point he completely lost a toe nail, but he didn't notice due to the ball frenzy he was in. When we got him home we cleaned it with peroxide and put antiseptic and a bandage on him to keep it clean until it closed up in a couple of days ( in case you are wondering about his club foot). He just had so much fun and he slept nearly the whole time until we got home.
Going in the car together to be with the other dogs and see some people Doogie knows from the rescue gave us another gift in that Doogie came back home with us. I told him he will always come back home with us but having an experience helps build trust. As much fun as he had, he also seemed relieved to be back home with us.
Being a completely biased mom, and amoung all of the cute and precious dogs, I absolutely thought Doogie was the most handsome dog in the park, and the biggest too. I think this is what love does to our vision - we just see wonderful and believe it with our whole hearts.
We had such a great time and we will come back again next year to the event.
I just want to make sure you and your co-volunteers know that Doogie is massively loved and doted over. He is my little baby boy and I absolutely adore him and I always will. I will lovingly care for him all of my days, or all of his days, whichever comes first.
From the moment I saw Doogie when I read his story in y’all’s newsletter, I felt in my heart he was meant to be our dog. I feel more that way now. Thank you Teri (and the other volunteers). It makes my heart smile when I see him and know that our love for him has changed his life forever and that we don't even know all the ways that his love for us has changed our lives forever. Love is the greatest and richest gift.
Thank you for trusting me with this wonderful, precious guy. I can't describe with words what he means to me, but I think you understand.
If we pay attention, it's my opinion that dogs teach us much about love and how to be better humans. They're a gift to be treasured for sure.
We look forward to officially closing Doogie's rescue story with the GSP rescue folks and hopefully bringing light to the opportunities all around us to make a difference. The gift of Doogie is the lottery jackpot.
Thank you again for everything you do”.
With Love and gratitude,
Grace & Dale
