FOSTERING...

Cal, a 5 year old Terrier mix

We shared a new experience here in the End of the Rainbow Valley this weekend fostering Cal, a sweet little terrier mix, labelled "farm dog" who had spent most, if not all of his time outside, and whose owners 3 weeks ago had to go into assisted living and a nursing home. Our hearts went out to the this 35 pounds of love needing a 'forever' home.

On paper Cal seemed like a good fit as we really are used to an outside dog. You see, Romeo, our rescue dog of 11 years, loves the out of doors and although he is now deaf at 13 years old, he gives out an occasional bark for unwanted visitors. Well, at 91 he doesn't even hear the nearby coyotes to know to scare them away with his booming bark and Romeo's definitely not interested in chasing squirrels nor deer any more. 

Maybe a new buddy could help? Would a younger dog reinvigorate Romeo and help him with some of his jobs? 

We introduced Cal to the lay of our immediate property. He checked out the chickens and goats but wasn't too interested in either. That's good.  Cal, unfortunately, didn't know the word "NO" and unfortunately did get a zap from the electric fence near the barn in spite of my repeated usage of the word "NO". Poor guy got a nice shock. After letting out a yelp, he bee lined back to the house. He would learn if not immediately, soon.

Cal with those sad eyes, more than loved being petted, receiving attention and, get this, being inside the house much to our surprise. Part due to separation anxiety and would follow me everywhere and jump up on me a lot. I corrected this behavior with a firm no, pushing him down repeatedly and then giving him a pet and treat for good behavior. This would need time and work. Doable, I would think at 5 years old? 

We ate lunch outside so we could keep an eye on the dogs. Cal just plopped down near us. Great. Staying close. This was reassuring.

A dog that splays onto the floor...

When inside he would not just lie down like melt onto the cement flooring. He seemed to prefer its coolness over area rugs/ a towel. His eyes were always following me.  If Romeo came up for a pet, Cal, of course, was also right there too. Both would receive petting. There was enough love for 2.

Initially, we worried Cal didn't bark as he was soooo quiet but during a walk down our road, he took off after something. As he treed whatever, he barked alright.  So we knew he could bark. But when he saw deer in the apple orchard, not a peep. Interesting, selective barking.

Due to colder weather both dogs spent the night inside. Cal went to sleep and I didn't hear a thing from him all night. The dogs took different rooms. OK, that works. And when I let Romeo out in the early am, Cal wasn't interested in going out, until much later. A dog that sleeps in.Wow. And Cal didn't 'territoralize'(alleviate himself) inside of the house. A very good thing. 

Now comes the human factor. What to do about our our weekend plans?  I needed to go into town to finish errands and Natureman wanted to leave before my return. I suggested if he couldn't wait for my return to leave Cal in the garage.

You probably can imagine, Natureman couldn't wait and I arrived 15-20 minutes after his departure not to find Cal in the garage. I opened the house door from the garage and there stood Cal. Wet beard, heavily panting... 

Lined up screendamage for Natureman to see

Behind him overturned flowerpots and downed ripped window screens. You probably can guess that the quiet complacent dog had seen something out the windows and wanted out. We have glass doors but he assumed he could go through the window screens. If one didn't work, maybe the others would. Three screens down. 2 can be rescreened but the third frame was bent and have to be replaced. 

One window's sashing was all scratched up but its screen survived. 

Okay it's not the dog's fault exactly, it was mostly human error. Things can be fixed and replaced. The issue was the dog can not be left alone in the house. Oh dear, this would be a bigger problem.

The foster papers Natureman had signed said dog must be crated/ supervised at all times. Ruh roh. I hadn't seen those and I'm with a guy (retired therapist) who always thinks the best of everybody and everything and assumed he understood Cal.

 We had a birthday party to go to that afternoon. My thought was to not go, especially during this adjustment time. Natureman insisted the dogs would be ok if left outside. What could be destroyed? Roll of the eyes. We drove to our neighbors (1/2 mile down our drive) first to see if Cal would follow. Of course, he did. Our neighbors lent us cable to rig up a run line. We took Cal back home, added the line, and left with a promise from Natureman we wouldn't stay long.

Upon our return we found Cal's collar at the end of the line but no Cal. Cal's an escape artist. We called and called all to no avail. Romeo just looked at us. He wasn't talking. I checked for messages to see if Cal had ended up at the neighbor's and sure enough a computer message. Cal was over chill in' on their front porch with them, their dogs and cat. He actually got along better with their pets than Romeo.

You see, I'm afraid as much as Cal wanted to please both Natureman and myself, it wasn't in the cards for Romeo. The two dogs coexisted but there was no play/ banter except for an occasional growl regarding food/ taking the other's space. Cal would go submissive turning his back on Romeo. He must have had practice with the other large dog at his former home.  Romeo wasn't interested in Cal. Romeo moped around. 

The writing was really on the wall when Natureman didn't want to cancel our next day's plans to go on a hike with another couple. This wouldn't be just an hour away. OK, adopting a pet has to be a two person endeavor in my book. 

We learned a lot with fostering Cal for the weekend and I wish we could have been his 'forever' home. Perhaps more important than the difficulty of the pet being retrained, humans can be much more difficult... :(