A little Bit of Love

Or in this case, a lot of love goes a ridiculously long way. Finn just wants to be loved. He wants nothing more than to lay in your lap and get his head hugged. He is so, not greatful thats not the right word - appreciative? receptive? responsive? i dunno how do describe it, he just really loves to be loved. He loves hugs and cuddles so much that he has taken to mutual grooming with us. When we stroke his head he starts gently bitting at our arms - he's is using his teeth like a comb, like when he grooms himself! if there is one thing i have learned about animals that grooming is such a high honor it is the ultimate form of affection. My cats groom me, but i have not been this attentively groom since toby passed. toby used to nuzzle me and nose at my hair when i would brush his neck. he would be so intent on licking my face that he would turn his head at such an odd angle, i had to stop brushing him because i couldnt reach his neck properly when he did that! The only problem with Finns love is that he wants it from everybody. including the cats. Piper, the little one is warming up to him. she will rub his nose when he is calm, but its no dice with bugsy. Finn gets excited now and bounces around the living room for a few minutes - hes not hurting anything and it only lasts for a couple of minutes if that - but boy does busgy not approve. he storms out of whereever he has been sleeping, walks up to Finn and bops him on the nose. And Finn's problem is that - he has no problem. He gets so happy that bugsy is paying attention to him, that Finn just stands there, wagging his talk, ears pricked forward and goofy grin on his face and bugsy just doesnt get that he isnt remotely scary to Finn. Finn is just so happy for the attention - bugsy is frustrated that is for sure, hes not use to someone ignoring his fearitude (i stole that word from scrubs)! its actually quite cute, and i am so proud of Finn for being, well for basically being himself! The love for Finn isnt just one way though, we all absolutely adore him here. The neighbours are taken with him, other dog owners, for the most part, stop and want to introduce him to their dogs. He already has two doggy play dates when the spring comes. As for us, my mom and i just love him to bits! On tuesday, it was snowing and wet and slushy and just generally a mucky day and i spent an hour walking to and from the pet store just to buy him a booda tug rope! Which he loves. he has finally discovered how to play with toys! he sits and happy chews away on his de-squeaked fire hydrant and he just loves to sit and gnaw on the knots on his rope! it took a little time and my mom putting the toys in her mouth first, but Finn is starting to really learn how to be a dog!
Unfortunately for Finn, i am one of those crazy pet owners that happens to like doing incredibly embarassing things to their pets and then taking photos of it. Here is the result. he seems to take it all in good humor.

Thief

Finn stole my harry potter blanket. it had a picture of harry and all the house crests on it. it even had a footsie pocket. now it is covered in bone slime, dog hair and oh yeah a dog :(

Vet Checkup

Finn had his first vet check up by our lovely vet. And of course he was an angel through the whole thing, he even at one point climbed into her lap. I told her she would love him and she said that every new pet owner says that, but that yes, he was incredibly lovable and she sees what i meant! She also said we were very lucky to find such an amazing dog and she is right! everyone we have met and told Finn's story to has said we are very good for taking him and hes a lucky dog, but i actually think it is the opposite; we are SO Lucky to have Finn in our family! Anyway Dr. houghton agreed that my chaining idea might have been right, she suggested that the ware on his teeth could have been from chewing on a chain since it is localized to his canines and incisors rather than his whole mouth as what would have happened if he was chewing rocks. She also agreed that his weight was perfect, though he does look skinny she was very keen to emphasize he needs to stay that way much to my mom's distress. My mother has always been one to spoil our pets and people with food. She still does it with me even! Dr. Houghton also sgreed that we need to take him for multiple short and VERY SLOW! walks or else he will be too energentic and will end up being harder to monitor his activity. The strain of keeping him inactive is slowly starting to come out in tiny bursts. Finn has started randomy bouncing around. It only lasts for a couple of minutes and so far he has only done it twice, but you can tell he just really wants to run and play with us. I figured out the best way to calm him down when he starts these is to do an impromptu training session. It gets him focused on a task and he is so excited to try and do the commands perfectly so he can get his treats that he uses up quite a bit of energy just sitting pretty! Im going to try and swing by the pet store today and pick him up a doggy rope he can play with and chew on as well to help with his frustration. We do have a small army of plastic and soft chewy toys for him, but the problem is they all squeak and he is terribly afraid of them because of it! poor Finn, i gave him a cute fire hydrant squshy toy and as he started to take it to chew on it it squeaked and the poor thing ran away! even after i administered a squeak-otamy on it, he is still wary of it. hopefully if i keep bending it and playing with it myself he will see it is not scary anymore!
The picture above was taken only a day or so after we brought him home. As you can see he is quite comfortable with his new bed and the cats! (piper is the small black and white ball next to the shoes)

Getting to Know You

So it has been just over a week now and it is really neat getting to know Finn. He has really shown us who he is. For example, he likes to play with shoe laces just like a cat. Hes incredibly smart and has been randomly sitting really pretty when we go outside or just around the house because he knows he gets a treat when we ask him to sit! He likes to stand up on his hind legs, put his front leg on our shoulder and then get a big hug, he likes sitting outside during his pee breaks and watching people, cars and other dogs go by. He seems to REALLY like kids! whenever we are out and kids walk by he is so intent to watch them and he even tries to walk after them, which is interesting because he seems wary of adults. If an adult walks down the street towards us, he has to sit and watch them until they walk by. We are also getting to know him physically as well - which isnt remotely as creepy as that sounds - what i mean is we have figured out he is part husky, he is definitely husky. I work in an archaeological lab with animal bones (faunal remains) and yesterday i was packing away the dog samples and come across a husky skull and it was definitely FInn! the wide forehead with short, wide snout and big teeth! I have also discovered some sad things about Finn, like he has a perfect hole at the tip of his left ear which perfectly matches teh size of a buckshot pellet i found embedded just under his skin on his back leg. More physical reminders of his shooting and i guess conclusive evidence that he was shot with a shot gun. As well, his teeth are in terrible shape. They are nice and clean without any noticeable tartar or gingivitis, but they are horrible chipped and worn. He has worn his right, lower incisors right down to the gum. The only thing i can think of that would cause that would have been him chewing on rocks. Im starting to wonder if he was actually a chain dog, chained for most of his little life with only rocks to play with. it would explain why he got his paw shot - he wouldn't have been able to run away otherwise. Well his new vet comes to see him today so i will have to ask her about that. As i type this post, Finn is lying beside be, watching the TV. i have discovered that he is quite interested in a certain commercial with dogs searching for a cat who is hiding in a car, as well he really likes to watch the insanely cute videos that get posted over at Cuteoverload As soon as i get it figured out, i will post video of him watching the baying beagle!

Winter Walkies

So Finn has completely inserted himself into all our lives here. He has befriended on of my mom's cats how has taken to rubbing him now and has an "ignoring" agreement with the other. I have been doing extensive research on heartworm, how the disease works, the treatment and after care and have finally found a good website that outlines the steps in a simple easy to understand way. Placerville Vet Im not quite so paranoid now about taking him out for walks. he is so quiet and calm and we send most of the time sitting in snowbanks so he can watch everyone else walk by and listen to all the new sounds. He is so good he knows when its time to stop and take a break, even though he is just going out for walks to the end of the street (its a very short block like only 6 houses long!) and when he comes back inside we sit and keep an eye on him for any signs of distress.
at first he was really afraid to come into the house, but we have already taught him to sit on command and so we taught him that when he comes in from a walk, he sits to get his coat and leash off then gets a cookie! i wish i had of thought of that with Woody, as woody would wander all around the house and make impossible for us to get his stuff off and even dry him off after walks in the rain. And yes, i have a coat for a shepherd husky mix. he is very skinny and has two large shaved patches from his surgeries and ya know what? im not embarassed, and he doesnt seem to care about the coat being on so until he gets his fur back, nice and thick - he wares the coat. For any dog owners interested in getting their dogs a coat for cold weather, some horse blanket companies make really nice ones that are modeled after horse blankets. Woody and Finn's coat matched Toby my horses blanket from when he was alive. Dogs weren't allowed at the barn, but in my mind they looked smart all having matching outfits. You can get some nice shedrow blankets from Greenhawk
oh i should give credit for the photo of Finn below, that lovely picture was taken by meredith and stolen off of her facebook group by me! sorry! my camera is broken and i only have my sorta crappy cell phone camera to work with right now, so picture quality will be bad until we get it fixed/replaced.

Day 4

So we are ending our fourth full day with Finn home and this dog truly amazes me. He has already learned to sit on command, that the couch in the den is his to sleep on, how to walk nicely on the leash (though this was done i must say, at the humane society - just reinforced by my training techniques which i will have to post some other time) and he has already worked out his relationship with my mom's cats. He is just so sweet and loving it amazes me that a dog coming from his situation can be that trusting and adapt that quickly to his new home and family. I was just saying today that it feels like Finn has been with us a lot longer than 4.5 days. He has fitted himself in relatively seamlessly. Since we have to keep his activity strictly monitored, i'm turning out to be the strict, over protective owner, while my mom is proving to be the softy taken in by Finn's big brown eyes and expressive eyebrows. I was worried about him enjoying his lack of cage confinement too much and running around and being playful - all for not. He calmly just sleeps until his pee breaks, or else follows us around as we get dinner ready. As for teh cats, he is still very curious, but his calm and relatively quite nature has instill trust with them and he can walk around them and sleep beside them no problem. Piper has started expressing her familiar "dog" routine that she used to have with woody. She starts by sweetly meowing, then comes the nose sniffing and finally the leg/belly rubbing. She has done up to step 2 but before you know it she will be sleeping and playing with him :)
Finn started grooming us today. I was bent over getting him ready for his afternoon break and she started grooming my arm and licking my fingers. He is very different from woody, that fact is clear in very painful ways. Finn thinks nothing of hopping up on the couch with us, he doesn't shy away our faces when we kiss him and he does not flinch in you make sudden movements. With woody, we just accepted these features as part of him. I mean we tried to reassure him and show him that he wasn't going to ever be hurt again, but it really underscores the level of abuse he had suffered before we got him. Unfortunately, Woody's life before us was just as tragic as Finn's. He was severally beaten and left to die in a backyard with a shattered leg when he was only 2 months old. He was going to be euthanized, but a kind woman stepped forward and agreed to foster him until he was fit to be adopted. Unfortunately again, she was unable to handle the level of separation anxiety and was afraid he would be put down as he was practically un-adoptable. And thats how we ended up with him. He never out grew this, and quite a few friends and acquaintances told us we should put him down due to all the damage he did. We never listened. Woody lived until he was 13.5 when was humanely euthanized after losing his battle with cancer.
Sad stories, i know! I'm just glad we were able to provide a good home for woody and now a good home for finn!

Day One: First day home!

Well here it is. The first official post to the blog of Finn, the 3 legged wonder dog. Now im sure you're all thinking, what makes your dog so special? well i will tell you. Poor Finn (originally named Barfy, then Colt) was born on a reserve and was left to his own devises. Then one day, around his birthday, someone shot him with a shot gun. No one really knows why, some people speculated he was the victim of a drive by shooting, others that he was actually intented to be put down. I dunno, i guess i lean more towards the intentional shooting. But either way, the gunshot destroyed the distal end of his radius/ulna which connects to his tarsals. Thus he lost his leg. So now he is as my friend tory refers to him, a tripod. The adoption process at the human society was amazing. It was lengthy and thorough, and sometimes a little scary; i was convinced they would say no to us after we had fallen in love with him. But now here we are, one day after bringing him home and it was certainly a lot less traumatic than i thought it was going to be. Finn sat patiently in the taxi, watching the world roll by. He got out of the taxi and promptly had a little pee, i was so worried he would pee in the car! we took him to the side door of our house and he got his first glimpse of his new backyard. The backyard curves around the side of the house were it opens up to a large yard cross cut by a large flower bed and short, shallow stairs. Finn was happy. He stared around at his new kingdom and promptly flopped to the ground and rolled like a big goof. We have to be really careful with Finn and his activity level since he tested positive for heartworm and had undergone the treatment, but the level of joy he had rolling and enthusiasm as he grabbed and ate the snow - made you forget he was a dog with health concerns. It was heart breaking tearing him away from that. But that took us to our first real challenge.
He was afraid to come into the house. no coxing or distraction could get him in. Eventually i just resigned myself to carry him in, all the time worried about how we train him out of this fear. Multiple pee breaks over the evening though and a supply of liver treats has already taught him good things come from the inside! Once inside though he was fine! he padded around the house, exploring the living room, kitchen and his new bedroom. He was calm and quiet - i was so worried he would explode with his new found freedom from his dog run. but he didnt. he was just content to quietly explore and smell his new surroundings. When he had enough wondering, he started to cry a little. my mother and i feared that he was heart broken from being taken from the only home he really knew, and i do think that there is a level of that for him, but he just wanted someone to be with him. Once i sat down on the floor he came and curled up beside me and had a little nap. He cried a couple of times throughout the evening, but he seemed content when we just talked around him and stroked his back. When we first brought our first dog, Woody home, it was a nightmare. I loved woody very much don't get me wrong, but geez woody didn't take to the new situation very well at first. He cried and howled he soiled his crate - the first and last time we crated him at night - he paced and was slightly frantic. Finn quietly curled up on the blanket i gave him and just went to sleep. i know he woke up a couple times, because every time he moved, i woke up and checked on him, but a couple reassuring words and he went back to sleep! Second big hurled conquered with ease. The next big phase in his integration is the meeting of the cats.
He got a quick taste of my mom's cat Bugsy, Bugsy refused to stay in my mom's bedroom and stormed downstairs to sit on his couch. Finn was curious, but he was no fool. He kept a good distance from Bugsy, but he was very curious and just watched him for awhile. Then Bugsy started the growling which led to a bit of a bark off with Finn, but still Finn seemed quite content to bark at Bugsy from a distance, and lying down beside me. I think he may have encountered cats in the past and he remembered...
All and all, in one night Finn has adjusted remarkably to his new situation. The only major thing we need to work on is his walking, he does walk on the leash like an angel, but he has a tendency to jump helicopters in the air at the end of his leash which he can't do until he's stronger and healthier! but gosh when he is gets his clean bill of health he is going to be a playful, energetic dog, but i have a sneaking suspicion he is going to learn fast and he's going to keep us on our toes as we come up with creative ways to keep him entertained while keeping his activity contained.
Yesterday was such a bittersweet day. It was so wonderful to get Finn officially and bring him home, but it really underscored the lose we had of woody's death. Woody always loved other dogs and it would have been ideal to get a friend for him to keep him company and to play with him. Finn would have been the perfect friend for woody, and though i dont think woody is gone, its not the same. I wish so much that woody was waiting for us when we got home and that he and finn - minus finns heartworm of course - could go frolic in the snow. i hope that though woody is gone, he will be looking out for us and for finn and hopefully not being too jealous of finn!