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Four year old Blondie has never been in a house, so she should want to run in the door and hurry from room to room sniffing everything, right!
Of course not, Blondie’s years of experience tell her not to go into the house, even high quality treats will only bring her so far in before she becomes apprehensive and heads back outside. Slow and steady will bring her in with minimum stress; can I do slow and steady in five days? Hmm, don’t know, may have to cheat, we’ll see.
On Tuesday Adri returns to remove some of the neighbor’s herd of little dogs, so operation in the house and in the crate gets serious in the morning.
Adri Galler Lastra of Amigos De Los Animales Pr recommended Continental Pet Safe program for shipping Blondie, who will now fly out of Aguadilla an hour before we do, perfect, thank you so much Adri.
Before Blondie’s vet visit, I gave her a Benadryl, which works like a charm; she seemed to enjoy the part of the ride she was able to sit up to look out the window.
It started out that Chi-ping was coming to be Blondie’s moral support, but by the time we arrived at the vet, she was coming with us and needed a health certificate and a crate and collar and leash and of course reservations.
Pet Smart in Hatillo was out of vari-kennel 400, the airline approved size Blondie needs the one we bought last week is an inch too tall, so they won’t accept it. Do cargo planes really have space portioned to the inch? Amazing!
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| Who could leave this? |
My neighbor needs to sign a form relinquishing dogs that Adri emailed to me, but my printer hasn’t been used in months, so you know we’re put zing around with that, God was have a sense of humor, the way we get tested sometimes.
Oh, well it’s another day and off to the races. Have a good one!
May dogs be with you!! Tricia
As the first golden rays of sunshine hit the tips of our palm tree, Blondie and I were doing our good morning ritual with all the thumping and stroking she loves. Still full from yesterday, she snubbed a small bowl of food until Chi-ping stuck her nose in it.
Why is nothing ever as simple or straightforward as I think it should be? Where is the easy button when you need it? Am I talking about getting her in a crate or for a car ride or to walk on a leash; hell no!
Our reservations are for JetBlue and Southwest, they do not take pets larger than will fit under the seat, I had no idea, leaving at 4 am on Friday out of Aguadilla, on the west end of the island where we live. Blondie’s only way off the island is the evening before American airlines shipping in San Juan a 2 hour drive each way. What a long night and morning it will be for her, if I can’t figure out better!
Our flight arrives before noon on Friday, so we can pick her up as soon as we get in, but that’s such a long day for her, wow, an introduction to the rest of the world all alone, I hate it. What choice do we have?
Shipping Blondie is going to cost way more than my husband will want to know. This is where it takes courage to do what your heart says instead of what the brain tells you to do. I can be such a coward, so we’ll see how this turns out.
Meanwhile Blondie will be taking that car ride today, since we have an appointment with the PetVet in Isabela this afternoon. My car, when we bought this car, I swore to my husband no dogs in this car, shit I am such a liar, well, I really meant it at the time.
Please, say a prayer this ride goes without complications, so far Kirt (husband) is not giving me a killer hard time, which is subject to change with every new event.
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| Blondie laughing ! |
Oh, this morning my neighbors got the memo: Do NOT feed the pudgy blonde girl!
With street dogs we’ve had few rules: no trying to go in the house or the car, no grabbing things off the table, no fighting or peeing on the porch, they don’t think about biting us, so it doesn’t have to be a rule. I squeak when feeding, so they look whenever I squeak; they then decide if they think good treats are worth giving up what they are doing, no recalls have been trained with any of the satos on the hill. We wanted to train minimally to learn more about how the dogs are with the people and each other. I didn’t want to control the relationship; other than my little rules.
Just imagine putting a collar and leash on someone you’ve known for three years, now don’t go thinking kinky, my big pushy girl laid down with a brain freeze too afraid to move.
Quickest way to get to where we want to go with her training is for her to fall in love with my treats, to bravely go where taste buds demand. Throughout the morning I popped a treat into her nested shipping crate; it didn’t matter if she went in after the treat or the little Chi-ping, we worked the process.
Since the boys are gone, Blondie’s mood is dark and mopey, so we play the piper game, just follow me here to get a treat, just follow me there for something better, Chi-ping is bouncing off the walls with excitement, Blondie follows with hardly a tail swish. Spaced repetition took up most of the morning, and then Kirt and I decided to take a break to feed the dogs around the lake.
It’s always good to give dogs a chance to rest and reflect on a session, so to sleep per chance to dream while we are away is a good thing, yeah.
Patience repaid by happy wagging tail during piper game when we returned, so smile with satisfaction and go in to have lunch. A few similar sessions after lunch and we’ll make good progress with the brain freeze business.
After lunch where’s Blondie, the unwanted sato to be removed from the neighborhood? The past six weeks she has been on my porch, but of course, if there is work to do somebody is always AWOL, ok, squeak, squeak; no response, that’s unusual. Where is Blondie? I call, I clap; nothing. Crap.
I get about halfway down my drive before I see her in my neighbor’s yard surrounded by people; my neighbor’s grandkids, neighbors with Blondie, the dog they want gone, I don’t get this. They’re feeding her, oh, are you kidding? Geri has the huge pan of rice mix he feeds the dogs; just what I want to train, an overstuffed dog; I feel a growl coming on.
Born and bred in the streets of a small Puerto Rican farming community, four year old Blondie or La Loba as my neighbors call her is in for the change of her life.
Blondie, the only survivor of a litter born to a lab cross female who lived near the farm down the road had her own first litter before making her way to the hill where I live, where the brilliant sato Stormy taught her the ropes of being a street dog.
Blondie and Stormy killed rats and chased men walking the roads at night looking for things to steal, but she has never been in a house. Blondie eats rats and leftovers, but has never been given a treat on a potty walk. She visits each house, but would never stay in our neighbor’s yard.
Her only car ride was to the PetVet in Isabela to be spayed, come to think of it we have to go back there for her travel papers.
Ok, let’s see, it’s crate training, introduce leash and walking, introduce the cat or as he likes to be known, the ruler of the universe, car ride, introduce this is the house and you don’t get to eliminate in it or rip the shit out of my stuff. Check.
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| Blondie laughing |
I thought she handled the collar quite well. Blondie learned sit after a rather lot of repetition, training wise, the expression box of rocks comes to mind, we’ll see.
Since the boys are gone she is quiet, low, Chi-ping tries to play with her, but Blondie has little interest. So let’s take her for a car ride, that will cheer her up. ;)
Tonight big brave Blondie’s voice has a little quiver and a growl undertone, she is unsure without her young male collie companion for support. Interesting how much she relies on her buds for moral support or confidence.
The collies are gone, picked up by my favorite mother earth on the island, Adri Galler Lastra of Amigos De Los Animales Pr. Org after a bit of drama because one of the neighbors wanted to keep them tied up someplace on their property after I told them that I wanted to get them out of the street and into a good home.
Bay has the bad feet, knees and hip which show effects of his confinement, so tied on a short leash was never an option for the sweet soul guy waiting at the top of my driveway when Adri arrived, her heart pumped in his paw, the great rescuer fell in love with the long collie nose always strategically placed for maximum petting.
The charming and always lovable Goofy, these folks decided to keep after all, taking him off in the van, until a relative called asking them to return with the dog, which they did just in time for Adri to be standing in the street in front of their patio, where she saw their little dogs tied out on leashes so short the poor critters are, pooped and peed in the same spot, in fact we were watching a matted up little fella with an open abrasion on his nose do just that, when the van pulled up, then pretty soon the yelling began, lord I hate yelling, so I cringed behind the van until the wife said that they had all those dogs, and there were a lot, because the last time I left Puerto Rico, I left all these dogs in the street with nothing to eat. Huh? What?
Anybody who knows me knows me better, so that just brought a new intensity to Adri explaining that they were in violation of Law 154 as she handed them a copy.
My friend came a long way to rescue two lovely collies, discarded, dumped in the street by humans who no longer wanted them; what she found was a bunch of small dogs in sad conditions. The peaceful visit sitting on my porch looking at the lake went to hell in a basket, before you know it we had Goofy and the little guy with the messed up face off to the vets with Bay.
The people admitted to having twenty-five dogs kept the same way, so Adri called Alma Febus to assist with an intervention. These are two of the best animal control officers on the island, so rest assured these little dogs will be going to good forever homes.
Tonight my blonde girl is a bit lonely. She has no idea that she now has forever people, who love her and will soon be taking her for her first trip to the states. Guess who!
