New family addition!
The hubby and I have just added a new addition to the family! He’s a 3-year-old mutt of about 42 pounds or so we got from an area animal shelter. Our new little guy doesn’t have a name yet, but we’re actively searching for one. He was called “Junior” at the shelter. We have no idea what breeds are in his lineage. There’s a whole host of options that we can see in him if we look at him from the right angle: pit bull, boxer, pointer, beagle, plott hound…
He’s got an incredible, all-over brindle color. There’s brown and black with golden undertones. Here’s a close-up shot of his back that may give you some idea. Unfortunately, you can’t really see the golden tones in these pictures.
I picked him up from the shelter yesterday to bring him home for a trial run. The shelter allows you to foster an animal for a few days to see if he’ll fit you. From what we knew, this guy sounded perfect. And he is! He’s quite lazy, sleeping around basically all day. But he does play and is always happy to go outside for a walk. He loves people. He has zero food aggression — I stuck my hand in his food bowl (carefully of course!) and was able to stick my fingers in his mouth before taking the bowl. He didn’t so much as make a sound, just looked at me with a question on his face. I then basically stuck my face in his bowl while he was eating. Again, absolutely nothing. He doesn’t guard his toys either, and will let you do pretty much anything to his body you can think of. He is house trained, knows basic commands and even plays fetch and will drop the ball for you with no problem. He was actually trained for a couple of weeks by inmates at a local correctional facility.
It’s a treat to watch him play. He’ll throw a ball into the air so he can chase it, lay on his side and roll around on his back while holding a rope toy with his feet and chewing it. He’s currently sacked out in his crate, snoring slightly, after a long day of us putting him through his paces. We go tomorrow to fill out the paperwork and pay for him.
I’ve wanted a dog since our last family dog died forever ago, it seems. The hubby’s wanted one since his family’s dog died several years ago. It feels so good to have one again. Dogs are always optimistic, even when they’ve been through hell.
We have no real idea what this guy’s background was. He was found wandering around, very skinny because of tapeworms and hookworms. He also had a severe tick problem and we think we’ve found a couple of scars on his underside from them. He had been in the shelter for about 20 days when the owners came in to claim another dog they had lost. They recognized our new guy as one of their own, but surrendered him without a second thought. The way he acts with us seems to indicate that he’s not used to being loved so much. It makes me think this other dog his former owners had was the main dog, and “Junior” was just a throwaway they didn’t really care about. They have no idea what they’re missing! We’ve had him for only a day and already love him like crazy!
