28: Little Dogs
Dear Friend,
How have you been? We don’t have a whole lot to share at the moment, but we wanted to check in and let you know that we’ve been thinking of you, hoping that you and yours are doing well.
We’re house/pet-sitting for these two cutie-personalities …
To us, Little Dogs and Big Dogs require the same amount of care and attention. We believe that every dog appreciates patience, compassion, fresh drinking water, consistent meal times, good company and plenty of cuddles.
These two Little Dogs were adopted as ‘adults.’ I don’t know their histories, where or how they lived before they each came to be ‘up for adoption’ but they certainly have a wonderful forever-home now; they enjoy comfy shelter, healthy food, plenty of room to run, and a ton of loving care!
I know that in my blog/letters I often nudge you to adopt a dog or cat. I want you to know that I actually don’t take such things that lightly. You and your time and energy matter, the health and happiness of the animal equally matters. So, in case you have never adopted before and you wonder what it might be like to adopt a dog from a shelter, I found a YouTube video (Want To Get A Rescue Dog? Watch This First!) that gives some helpful information. (Link follows blog/letter).
It’s good to remember that while a dog or cat is in a shelter, they might not be quite ‘themselves.’ It takes time and patience to get to know this new friend and there are a lot of ways that we can prepare our homes and ourselves before adopting to make the transition as gentle as possible.
A good start to preparing is to lower expectations about perfection. Relax, getting to know someone just takes patience and time and a willingness to learn and to adapt to each other.
I found a YouTube video that gives good insight into The First Three Weeks with a Rescue Dog. The information is also applicable to cats or any other pet (and people, too). (Link follows blog/letter).
If you’ve been following along with us on our journey, you know that currently, Frank and I don’t have our own dog (or cat, pig, horse, goat, snail…) but someday we really do plan to share our world with a willing pup. You'll be the first to hear about it!
Thank you for being here to read Tracks by the Post! Just so that you know, we plan to post Tracks on Monday or Tuesday (instead of Sunday) for the next couple of weeks.
While we’re here house/pet-sitting, we're located pretty far from a ‘city,’ so one of us stays with the doggies while the other is taking care of errands & appointments, and I hang out with the pups while Frank is making sure that our rig is ‘road worthy’ for the winter. Frank hasn’t had time for photography but things are going well and he’ll be able to get back to it soon.
When you have time, we’d love to hear from you. Please Write and let us know how things are going in your world. If you have ever fostered or adopted an animal from a shelter or rescue organization, we’d be very interested to hear your story(ies).
Until next time, please take the best care of yourself!
Gently Be,
Leslie and Frank
PS: Here are the links to the videos I mentioned:
Pps: If you have any little kids in your life that might like a new, fun Halloween book,
Oops, Biff, and Splat! is 10% off now on Amazon.
