~ Life As I See it ~
The Gardener
I took Petey to an adoption event today to enable him to meet a preapproved potential adopter. The young mom arrived hand in hand with her son and current dog in tow. I took Petey and we walked off to the side of the building away from the distraction of the numerous other dogs and people.
Her son and dog were so well behaved but Petey gets the blue ribbon. My little foster boy was calm and gentle with her son, he licked the lips of her adult dog and than he lay quietly by my side. We sat on the pavement, me with Petey on my lap and her with her son and dog by her side. We talked about her current dog and her dog who recently past. We talked about her family and their activities. We discussed in length Petey’s lack of toes. I told her of his need to keep the nails on few remaining toe nails trimmed down as they don‘t touch the ground and would not natural wear down. She asked if I could show her how to trim them. They needed trimming and lucky I had a clipper with me, as I was hoping for someone else to do it. But Petey lay quiet and still while I snipped the tips of his two nails. There was no wrestling him to the ground or the need to have several people hold him down. Easy as that I told her, as I smiled to myself. I explained I had been working on the sit commend. I retrieved a cookie from my bag and asked Petey to sit. He did. And for bonus points, I instructed him on down, lowering my hand to the ground. He followed until his little belly was on the pavement. Even I was impressed. I told her, we were also working on “stay back”. Used to keep any dog away from an outside door and only allowing them to move through when instructed to. Helping to keep them safe by not running out any open door. She wondered why she hadn’t thought to do that with her own dogs.
By the time we departed, I believe not only was she falling for this little orphan but she was most impressed with his excellent behavior especially for a 4 month old pup. After a mental review of our discussion, it dawned on me I had forgotten to tell her I also taught him to do some gardening, mostly the trimming and edging.
He has another “meet and greet” on Monday and here’s hoping he does as well.
The Gardener
I took Petey to an adoption event today to enable him to meet a preapproved potential adopter. The young mom arrived hand in hand with her son and current dog in tow. I took Petey and we walked off to the side of the building away from the distraction of the numerous other dogs and people.
Her son and dog were so well behaved but Petey gets the blue ribbon. My little foster boy was calm and gentle with her son, he licked the lips of her adult dog and than he lay quietly by my side. We sat on the pavement, me with Petey on my lap and her with her son and dog by her side. We talked about her current dog and her dog who recently past. We talked about her family and their activities. We discussed in length Petey’s lack of toes. I told her of his need to keep the nails on few remaining toe nails trimmed down as they don‘t touch the ground and would not natural wear down. She asked if I could show her how to trim them. They needed trimming and lucky I had a clipper with me, as I was hoping for someone else to do it. But Petey lay quiet and still while I snipped the tips of his two nails. There was no wrestling him to the ground or the need to have several people hold him down. Easy as that I told her, as I smiled to myself. I explained I had been working on the sit commend. I retrieved a cookie from my bag and asked Petey to sit. He did. And for bonus points, I instructed him on down, lowering my hand to the ground. He followed until his little belly was on the pavement. Even I was impressed. I told her, we were also working on “stay back”. Used to keep any dog away from an outside door and only allowing them to move through when instructed to. Helping to keep them safe by not running out any open door. She wondered why she hadn’t thought to do that with her own dogs.
By the time we departed, I believe not only was she falling for this little orphan but she was most impressed with his excellent behavior especially for a 4 month old pup. After a mental review of our discussion, it dawned on me I had forgotten to tell her I also taught him to do some gardening, mostly the trimming and edging.
He has another “meet and greet” on Monday and here’s hoping he does as well.