The Animal Formerly Known As Sporty
Sorry no posts in so long. Been living life instead of posting, which is probably a good thing.
Sporty came for an overnight on Friday the 1st and is still here! Fifteen minutes after she arrived, her name was Jenna. Apparently, all it takes to change even a nearly-three-year-old dog’s name is a few people standing in a circle with some kibble in their hands to call the dog by the new name. She’s very food-oriented, a dog after my own heart!
So, we’re still in the “foster” stage of the foster adoption of Miss Jenna. She is the greatest dog ever! The only way she could be better would be if she didn’t shed and didn’t poop, but I’m not holding my breath on either of those to happen in this lifetime. Going to the dog trainer has helped a lot, too. Mostly, it’s helped *us* to know the right things to do with her to get her to do what we want. She performs perfectly for the trainer. After even just one session, taking her for a walk was SO much easier! In 45 minutes, I think I only had to say “heel” three times.
The girls love having Jenna around. Thing One plays with her after school every day before having snack and doing homework. Thing Two likes to get her face really close to Jenna’s and let Jenna lick her. She also likes to flop on her, hanging on her while she walks. I swear if she were smaller or Jenna bigger, she’d try to ride her!
Hubby and I are both pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoy having a dog. Usually, I walk her while Thing Two is in her afternoon preschool class, and he walks her in the evenings after the Things go to bed. She is *SO* devoted to him. She really loves that nightly walk/run. Hubby even plans to get running shoes so he can run for real with her. I can’t imagine I’ll ever run with her, but even on days when we can’t take our walk b/c I’m stuck at home w/a sick kid, I take her in the back yard for several spurts of catch or “gimme that bone/stick”.
The only reason we haven’t signed the papers yet to complete the adoption is allergies. I just want to make sure none of us (especially Thing Two or I) is reacting to her allergy-wise. It’s tough b/c this is a bad allergy time anyway, even if we didn’t have a dog, so it’s hard to tell whether we’re reacting to her or not. Meanwhile, we vaccuum up the hair frequently and wash her blankets every other day. I tell ya, we’d better not have to give her back b/c we’ve all fallen in love with this dog. Check out pictures of her here.
