Chica Takes a Holiday

Most puppies who arrive at the shelter get adopted pretty quickly. But every now and then, there are some pups that, for whatever reason, end up growing from a babe to an adolescent right here in the shelter. Chica has been one of these pups. She’s gorgeous, with a joie de vivre that’s unbeatable. But perhaps her occasionally excessive exuberance has frightened potential adopters away?

Given the recent long weekend, I wanted to bring a long-timer home to give her a break from the shelter. Chica seemed like a good choice. I have to admit I was a bit nervous that her energy would wear me out and that she would sweep through my home like a hurricane. I couldn’t have been more wrong!! She was an absolute delight: turns out her “excessive exuberance” isn’t that excessive when she finally had an outlet to release it.

We went to the beach where she got to run around, play in the sand, and play with other pooches. We played lots of games and went on long walks and hikes. After each of these activities, she has been perfectly content to snuggle up for a snooze.

So, after spending the weekend with Chica, I’ve compiled 10 reasons (in no particular order) why someone should consider adopting this fabulous dog . . .

1) She’s very smart – she might try to push boundaries, but she only needed to be told once when the boundary was non-negotiable (ie: no pups on counters, kitty has one room that’s hers and hers alone – no pups allowed).

2) In three days, she didn’t have a single potty accident in the house (remember, she’s only nine months old and has been living at the shelter for a while) and even started asking to go out.

3) She gets along really well with my cat.

4) She travels wonderfully in the car.

5) She’ll give this adorable look when she wants to get on the bed, even though you might have decided earlier that she’d be sleeping in the dog bed on the floor. Okay, so this turned out to be a negotiable boundary . . . but who wouldn’t want to be pinned like a mummy by a cat on one side and a cute pup on the other?

6) When all else fails, she sits and looks up at you with this sweet, yet slightly defeated face, as if to say “you win, we’ll do this the well-mannered way, can I have some attention now, please?”

7) She’ll remind you to take a look at things that you don’t pay much attention to anymore because it’s all so new and exciting to her-- cows for example-- have you ever really taken a good look at a cow before? . . . they’re kind of funny looking.

8) She has this lovely way of grabbing a toy and getting you to chase her . . . grab toy, run, if person doesn’t follow, return with toy, look, turn around and run again, person usually obeys by the second time.

9) So, her “sit”and “down” are pretty good, but her “down – stay” needs some work . . . she has this clever way of inching forward one step at a time, ever so slowly so no one will notice . . . or so she thinks, but how can you resist that?

10) She was on good behavior with every dog she met (no kidding)!

Most importantly, she’ll make you laugh – gotta love her!

(text and pictures provided by Anthea, devoted shelter volunteer)