Meet (cute) Fred

I shouldn’t have been surprised when I walked out of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter with Fred.

I don’t think I consciously intended to foster a dog on the spot. I like it that the shelter itself calls this situation fostering to adopt. That sounds about right to me, for my situation.

All I intended to do was to show up on Wednesday afternoon at the shelter to get some basic information and to register my interest in volunteering and fostering. Perhaps my emotions took over once I got there, or maybe it was just some form of what they call flow, when you are in the moment, usually referring to focusing on a specific task. Or as one person at the shelter said, maybe it was just that she was good at ever so subtly pressuring people to take home an animal.

What was clear is that I was not there to engage in a sort of canine beauty and personality contest. I would like to think that I don’t really believe in that and that I just want to give a home to a domesticated breed that needs some place permanent to live — or at least not a shelter. I might also be fooling myself in thinking this, because many experts say that people are attracted to certain animals based on their perceived shared characteristics.

Fred was the first dog up for adoption that I met. He was on a priority list of dogs that the shelter wanted folks to take home as soon as possible.

Fred seemed a little bit shy, a little bit scared and mainly just to be a very loving dog.

Rather than barking or even seeming to wag his tail, he came right up to the bars and kind of leaned into them so he could get some pets. That was basically all I needed to see. It was smitten at first sight.

It certainly helped that on the description of Fred opposite his glass enclosure, it said that he was a friendly fellow who would do well with people and other animals. Our household does have two other wonderful four-legged friends, so we do want to be make sure that there is a good chance that they will all get along.

Animals that are shy with people don’t really bother us. Because as long as you give them all a good home and they eventually gain some basic level of social and emotional adjustment, they will warm up to you.

First impressions were deceiving on some counts, at least when it came to Fred. He is extremely friendly — with everyone. It’s probably his best quality.

He does a lot of endearing things, even though at the same time they are also a bit annoying. He acts like he thinks he is a lap dog, instead of a 50-pound pit bull and terrier mix. Often when I sit down, in our short time together so far, he tries to climb on top of me.

Another endearing and also annoying thing is that at least on the first night, he would not let me sleep alone on the bed. No matter how many times I would tell him to get down and cajole and gently push him off, he would end up coming back at some point.

He also is a light sleeper. He frequently repositioned himself and would even often come in to snuggle. Off the charts cute. I have bigger than usual circles under my eyes to show for it.

Speaking of the bed, and adjustment issues that I think are extremely common, he did give me a bit of a present in the way of a generous amount of his urine all over the mattress. I was careful to keep him within eyesight in the house, but he did occasionally wander off. So I am sure that he made his mark on one of those occasions in an area that he was drawn to because it is highly saturated with my smell. All part of the onboarding-to-home process, to use some work lingo.

Fred also probably also has some sort of separation or attachment anxiety, as do many rescue animals, particularly dogs. Of course, it’s also too soon to tell for sure.

Among the many helpful materials the Cheyenne animal rescue organization gave me, one shows that it can take many weeks if not a few or even several months for the real personality of a dog to show through once they get to your home. That’s also exciting, because maybe there will be other parts of the personality of Fred that will reveal themselves in the coming weeks.

What he does do now is of course follow me from room to room. What he really tries to do, but what I am trying myself to consistently discourage, is putting his body all over me anywhere I might be and ideally as long as possible. Again, I can’t stress enough how endearing this is.

Consistency is said to be very important for dogs, so I am trying to model consistent behaviors myself that discourage him from being perhaps overly attached at all times. I of course pet him a lot, tell him he is a good boy at every opportunity, and give him lots of little treats when he listens to a command. And I gently scratch him and rub him and look him in the eyes. I think experts say the latter is very much appreciated by dogs.

We are also working on a little bit of leash training. Emphasis on the word little.

The rescue organization recommended getting a Starmark collar. I was told by them, and also by a super-helpful employee at the local Petco, that it is not inhumane. It has grips on the collar that push into the skin slightly when he pulls.

Fred (or Freddy, as my son has started calling him) is doing nicely on this collar. You only put it on for walks. It is much better than when we did not have that special collar, and all of his considerable muscle was pulling against me trying to get him to heel.

Speaking of Petco, both the local store (and also the Cheyenne animal rescue organization) were very helpful. When I could not find some products in the shelves that the shelter recommended I buy, I got an extensive amount of help from a particular employee there.

She also helped me to pick out a crate for him. And she and another colleague helped get the crate to my car while I was dealing with Fred, who at that point did not have the right collar and was pulling in all directions and of course saying hello to everyone in close proximity.

For the part of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter, I would say that they made everything very easy. They did some due diligence on me while also not engaging in a lot of potentially unnecessary vetting (no pun intended). There are some organizations that will even call your current veterinarian, among many other checks.

When you don’t have overly cautious checking by the shelter, that not only expedites the process, it also makes it more likely you will hopefully help them out by agreeing to take home a furry and four-legged friend.

We kind of faced an equally informal situation with the last pet that we adopted. Her name is Willie, we have now had her for several years, and she is the first cat to live in our household. We also adopted Willie kind of spur of the moment. I previously blogged about her here.

She has been great, and the hope is that she and Fred and our rescue beagle Neo will all get along, once they are living in the same household, starting perhaps in July.