Miss Stevie Wonder took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend to become acquainted with the ins and outs of the chairs on our deck. She did not seem to realize what the rest of the world knows, which is that adirondack chairs are not actually custom built for dogs to sit on.

She conducted about 15 minutes of false starts and contortionist moves that make me want to audition her for Cirque du Soleil, and could not have possibly been comfortable.

In the end she determined that all four of her gangly tangle of limbs could not fit on the chair at the same time. In the spirit of fairness, the limbs took turns, two at a time.

It may have looked ridiculous to us, but Stevie Wonder did not appreciate our poking fun at her:

“I insist. This chair is quite luxurious.”

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. . . romances the kong. At least, that is, in our household.

I swear, if I ever met the person who invented the Kong, I would give him/her a great big kiss on the lips. Without this person’s contribution to dog happiness, we would be in a sad fosterplace.

It took a little while for Miss Stevie Wonder to gain the self-esteem to tackle the Kong puzzle, but once she did it, she DID IT.

For days 1-3, Stevie would scarcely touch any food, even if it was slathered in liquid fish oil, liver, and cheese (I know!!). The rest of week 1, she would gingerly eat her dinner and breakfast, but not if we were watching her. Week 2 she started to come around to daintily taking food from our hands, but only if it was in the form of cheese, string cheese, american cheese, cottage cheese, liver/cheese sandwiches, or similar food groups. Toward the end of that week, though, we finally got her. She became converted to the wonder of the Kong.

In our fairly limited experience with shelter dogs, there is a trajectory of self-assuredness that has to be minded, but if confidence is reinforced and built, most dogs will get to a point where they feel comfortable solving puzzles similar to a stuffed Kong toy. Our Chick was on the extreme end at first, where he was extremely food-motivated as long as the food was in our hands (he would do anything we asked for the piece of cheese we were holding) but if it took any brainwork to get the cheese out (from a kong, etc), he would immediately surrender.

When we explained this phenomenon to the greatest dog trainer that ever was, Lee Mannix solved our problem in a heartbeat. He had us start feeding Chick exclusively through puzzles and training, and never out of a bowl. If he refused to work at his puzzle, the portion of his daily ration that was in the puzzle got taken away. It sounds cruel, but he learned in about 1.5 days that from then on, he was going to work for his kibble. And he has been a 90,000% happier dog since. The task of dog food puzzles helps him focus, work, and then relax, so he has less brainpower left for anxious worrying after he has completed his food-motivated task.

Stevie Wonder is not extraordinarily anxious, but still – as a young dog she has a good amount of energy, and the kong challenge helps her reign it in and focus it in a productive manner. And clearly, she enjoys it.

well hello my cherie amours,

i thought i’d take a minute to point out some of my most charming signature features. first, did you know that i have a tail so much like a greyhound’s, that it helps me to run very fast?

and did you realize that the tippy tip of my tail is painted white, which helps me to wiggle and waggle it with a painter’s flourish?

and did you even realize that i have a thin little stripe right down my face, which helps me tell right from wrong left?

and finally, my mom says that i have such a big presence, that when she and i take self-portraits together, i very nearly push her straight out of the frame!

i hope you liked my tour of myself!

love, Stevie Wonder

Seeing as Stevie Wonder is such a petite little lady, you might be tempted to think that she couldn’t possibly have very much tongue. After all, where in the world would she keep it?

Unfortunately– and as you can see in the above photo– your logic would be very faulty. You see, Stevie Wonder’s tongue might be her special magic power. Like Gonzo Bunny-Ears’ bunny ears!

And just like how Gonzo’s bunny ears saved a similar bunny-eared dog, I bet that before we send Miss Stevie off to her forever-home, her magic power will save a similarly tongue-slinging dog from a local shelter!

**we are now on facebook! we heard from enough of our blog followers that it would be handy to keep track of our foster darlings on a dedicated facebook page. and, well, we are suckers for peer pressure, so we set one up! please visit us here!**

No, she’s not syphoning off donations from a fake non-profit she set up for summer youth employment programs, and she’s not embezzling money through our blog. Nor is she somebody other than who she says she is. She is very much her lovely, honest self, Miss Stevie Wonder.

But we learned the other day that she had tricked us. She had played the role of a frightened, shy, overwhelmed little animal who didn’t know much about trust, comfort, or affection. The other morning she gave her self away, though, when she sauntered casually over to me while I was dozing on the floor like the lazy person that I am, slid to a laying down position, and casually draped her face over mine, thus revealing her true colors as Stevie Wonder: Cuddler Supreme.

Well it didn’t take long for us to find some things that put a big smile on Stevie Wonder’s face: sticks, balls, or anything else that can be thrown for her to retrieve! The girl is a natural-born fetcher!

We have started taking her out into our fenced yard to let her explore on her own and to observe her off-leash behavior. The first few times, she wouldn’t leave our side. The second we would stop walking, she would plop her butt down right next to where we were standing. She wouldn’t even trot away far enough to pee! As she gained confidence that we weren’t going to run away, she started exploring a little bit.

And what did she discover in her explorations? Mr. Chick’s favorite fetching stick! The moment she found it, we knew she was in love. She immediately picked it up in her mouth and started proudly trotting around with it dragging behind her. I called her over to me, and she dropped it, looking at me expectantly. A few throws, and I could see that this was the beginning of a happy daily activity. Check out the smile on Miss Wonder’s face!

On the day of Stevie Wonder’s rescue, she was found tied to a tree on the property of a suburban golf course. Dogs can’t tell time extraordinarily well, of course, so she wasn’t able to tell anyone how long she had been there. She was skinny as a rail, though, and more than a little nervous.

Once back at the shelter, scratches and cuts were discovered all over her neck and face. Her evaluator assumed they were animal bites, but just to be safe, a vet clipped and scrubbed the area, finding that they were all scratches and not punctures, indicating that they were unlikely to be animal bites. Perhaps she had scratched herself up trying and trying to escape from an enclosure, for example.

Early in our time with each dog we have taken care of, a moment comes when I can scarcely think about anything other than “how could this have happened to this dog?” I wish more than anything that they could talk, and tell me their stories.

But on the other hand, it’s probably better that they can’t tell us the stories of their lives. Whereas we are prone to always remembering and being haunted, most dogs have an amazing ability to leave the past behind and accept a new reality as if it were the only one that ever was. It takes more time for some dogs than others, but we have found this generally to be true. Dear Stevie Wonder will never tell us what her scars mean or how she ended up tethered to a tree and abandoned, and we hope that soon enough, she won’t even remember it herself, as her memory and past identity begins to fade away and be replaced by the new life we’re building with her now.

The girlie certainly is coming around. She is progressing faster than I had expected, and is already willing to trust us more often than not. I can still see the worry in her expressions and she is timid of new situations and unexpected things, but hey — it’s only been a few days, and she is already turning into a wonderful little companion.

Meet Stevie Wonder! She is just as wonderful as her namesake, only she can see just fine and doesn’t play the piano or sing!

I first met Stevie Wonder a couple of weeks ago while visiting our county shelter, MCHS. I was immediately drawn to her gorgeous brindle coat, her sad, timid eyes, and the way she hung back in her enclosure. I didn’t know if she was just a shy girl or if she had plain given up, but I couldn’t resist taking her out for a walk.

I admit, Stevie didn’t warm up immediately. The first time I met her, she was withdrawn and scared. She was very gentle and quiet, but not playful or outgoing. I sat outside with her and a staff person for a few minutes. After she finished sniffing around, she tenderly walked over to us, made a few tight circles, and laid down at our feet. She didn’t want to interact or be petted, but she did want to be close. It brought her some sort of comfort.

The second time I met Stevie, she had become even more withdrawn in the kennel. She didn’t seem excited to see visitors. She resisted leaving her pen before a walk, and she resisted going back in afterward. If anything unexpected happened, she would flatten into a pancake on the ground. It seemed like a manifestation of kennel stress — the variety that happens to the shyer dogs. The love and activity she was getting from the shelter staff and volunteers just wasn’t enough for her tender little soul.

So we pulled her.

On the drive home, Stevie Wonder threw up. Twice. It must have been a combination of car sickness and nerves, but the poor girl was a mess. She remained shellshocked for much of the day, with her eyes averted and her tail tucked between her legs. She didn’t relieve herself for nearly 24 hours, and didn’t eat a bite or drink any water for even longer. But by the end of our second day, that tail started to untuck, and little Stevie was approaching us, hesitantly, to ask for our touch.

Welcome, Stevie Wonder! We can’t wait to teach that tail to wag your whole body!