2011 June « Love and a Six-Foot Leash

We can’t wait to introduce everyone to our newest foster darling, but first, a long-promised update on Lollie Wonderdog! New to Lollie? Click on any of the links within this post to read more about that piece of Lollie’s story.

Dear Lollie Wonderdog was our very first foster dog. She was a sweet girl with a winning smile and a sad past, and she lived with us for almost five months, learning how to be a house pet and waiting for the perfect family to come along. Lollie had been bred, beaten, starved, and tossed in a dumpster to die. Wonderful, heroic animal control officers rescued her, and she came to live at the county shelter. For months and months. You see, dear Lollie was skinny, dirty, and had marks of abuse all over her face and body. Despite her fetching personality and adorable smile, she kept getting overlooked.

Lucky for us and lucky for her, we came to know about her, and brought her home to foster. In our home, she learned how to play with toys, how to walk on a leash, how to snuggle with a human, and how to solve a dog treat puzzle. She blossomed, and in February, we found her perfect home — a sweet, active family with beautiful kids, an adventuresome life, and a nice yard. Lily and her new mom shared a special connection and the rest of the family soon fell in love as well. Her adoption was a little bittersweet for us because we had grown to love her so much, but time has healed our heartache and all that remains is total happiness.

A couple of weekends ago, we had the great pleasure of visiting with Lily and her family. She is doing great. Lily’s mom takes her running and biking in the mornings, the kids play with her and read to her in the house and yard, and dad is head over heels in love with her — he cradles her in his lap, calls her sweetie, and sings love ballads to her. Her family takes her on lots of adventures, including a hike in the Shenandoah mountains over Memorial Day weekend!

She graduated with honors from her obedience class, and– of course — was the star of her class. Now, she’s working on her PhD through private tutoring with a wonderful trainer, who is helping her work on the fine points of not barking at squirrels through the windows.

Lily seemed totally happy and relaxed when we visited, except when we first stepped out of the car. She came barreling at us and nearly knocked us over with excitement! We were happy to see her, too. Here are a few photos of beautiful Lily Fireworks and her beautiful family.

. . . he was adopted! It all happened so fast, our heads are still spinning. There is one thing that is clear, though: TANK and his new daddy are meant to be. Let me explain.

Before TANK came into our home, he had been living at doggie daycare for a few weeks, playing with his friends. He caught the eye of an employee, who thought TANK would be the perfect companion for his good buddy, D. But D had recently had to put his dog — a 10 year old Cane Corso — down due to cancer, and wasn’t sure if he was ready for a new friend just yet. So D never came to meet TANK at doggy daycare.

Fast forward a few weeks. We are headed out of town for the weekend, and need somebody to take TANK for the weekend. The rescue group that we worked with for him, Lucky Dog, arranges weekend fosters, but sometimes has a harder time finding a placement for pit bulls because of the all-too-common breed bans in apartments. The day before we left, a plea goes out to all volunteers — including those who work at the doggy daycare where TANK had lived — for a weekend foster for TANK. And wouldn’t you know? TANK’s daycare buddy passed the opportunity along to D. We imagine that he pitched it as a no-strings-attached way to test out TANK and see if he felt ready to adopt.

We didn’t know it at the moment, but by time we showed up at D’s house with TANK, D had pumped himself up. One look at TANK, bumbling lazily down the street with me, and D was in love. He shook my hand, looked at TANK, and said (of the muscular, 65-pound, giant-headed, lion of a pit bull by my side) “He’s not that big!” and patted him affectionately on the side. He bashfully told us he was thinking about applying to adopt him, and would let us know. Foster dad and I maintained our professional faces, but silently cheered. A few hours later I emailed to check in, and D admitted he was “very interested” and that TANK was “already making himself at home.” So the next morning we made our way into the mountains for a short backpacking trip, and TANK and D made their way into each other’s hearts. By the time we returned from our trip, it was a done deal. They were in love.

Selfishly, we are a little sad about how quickly it all happened and that we didn’t have more time to get to know our big marshmallow TANK, but we couldn’t be more thrilled for TANK and his new daddy D.

Here is a little note we got yesterday from D:

“When Tank first came into the house, he immediately grabbed a slipper, and enjoyed me chasing him around to retrieve my footwear. Eventually the chase ended, and I was able to relax on the couch. While I was laying there, Tank jumped up on the couch, plopped himself down on my chest, and went to sleep. Aside from trying to chew on my shoes, he is a good-natured dog. He doesn’t bark at all, enjoys being around people, and likes other dogs. When we’re sleeping on my bed during the night, he insists on snuggling up to me as close as possible, which should come in handy when it gets colder again. Before I met you and Tank, I was close to adopting another dog from a different group. It’s amazing how things turned out, and I could not be happier.”

If we’d had the time to write about all of the endearing things about him, each of you would have fallen in love with him too. For example, we didn’t get to tell you about how TANK is not only part lion, but also part hippo:

And how he was absolutely terrified the first time I took him down to our neighborhood creek, insisting on climbing the boulders among the water so he didn’t have to put his paws in:

And how he could quietly lay for what seemed like hours and chew on a nylabone:

And how he is so wiggly that it’s hard for him to keep still, but when you invite him into your lap, he will lay patiently forever while you pet him:

TANK passed through our home in the blink of an eye, but we will always have him in our hearts. His oversized, oafish, gentle self is the perfect example of what a big, soft baby a pit bull can be, and we’ll be forever grateful for the time we got to spend with him. And we’ll be forever cleaning the happy, dancing ribbons of drool that he left on the walls.