Cadence

Hi Tracey! just wanted to let you know we have renamed "Cadence", "Stella". She is doing great! We had a little tension the first night with the little dogs so I was a little nervous. Not true aggression, but I think Stella just wanted to play and the girls didn't appreciate it. I think she got the hint and the next morning she was very calm around them both. She has done great! No accidents in the house. She hasn't chewed anything up except for her bones. She loves my daughter's dog! They have been playing everyday. Tomorrow morning my daughter and I will run with her dog and Stella early in the morning. I think she'll do fine with that too. She has been eating well also with no diarrhea. We love her and think she'll continue to be great. Do I need to make an appointment with my vet for her within the next couple of weeks? Just for a check up? I'll need to get some more heart worm prevention anyway. Just wanted to give you an update, Kristi

Cameron

Hi Virginia, everything is going great. Cammie, as we call her, loves to play with the kids and is very affectionate. She sleeps in her kennel all night with no problems. I have let her sleep on the bed with us twice and other than being a bit of a hog, she goes right out. She had her initial Vet visit on Saturday and everything is fine. I bought a year's supply of Sentinel heartworm/flea control from the Vet so we're all set there. She loves to go on walks and ride in the car. If you're interested, I'll try to send some pictures but so far we've been lazy in that department. Thanks for the opportunity to adopt, we made a great choice with yours and David's help! Rick

Clifford

Hi Virgina, I figured you might be wondering about Clifford and how he's getting along. He's doing just fine and getting comfortable with his new home. We take long walks together daily and he's showing positive signs of being housebroken. Christi and I are beginning to talk about leaving him outside his kennel at night. There's still alot of puppy in him what with his chewing and jumping but we're working on this and realize it'll take time. He's learning to sit and stay which calms him down and stops the jumping for awhile. Also we give him chewing treats to take his mind off chewing things he shouldn't. Christi and I have fallen in love with him and he likes to be near both of us. He has a couple places where he goes to nap and he has his toys we play with all the time. Clifford has met most of the neighborhood dogs and has done just fine with them and their people. He also likes to sit and watch the deer when they roam by. I'm surprised he doesn't get more excited by this but it's nice he doesn't. So we've acclimated to each other real well and hope to have a long life together. Thanks again for your time and effort to bring us together, Dave & Christi

Crystal

Eve and Virginia, I just wanted to let you know how things are going here with Crystal. We are really happy with her. She has not had one accident in the house and she loves to run along the fence with the neighbor’s Dog (Coco). When she runs, she looks like a bunny hopping or a fox bounding through snow, it’s fun to watch her get so much exercise. She’s been really good with the kids, too. We really like that she doesn’t bark, that’s pretty nice. The only problem we’ve had is that she does try to escape through the front door and even in the back yard, and she did successfully escape yesterday morning and Chris had to track her down through about six neighbors’ yards. So now we supervise her in the yard (and put up a bigger baby-gate on the side where she jumped) until we come up with a solution to the areas she could potentially get out. We’re thinking major construction on the side of the deck to build an actual gate and raise the height of it all the way along where she could jump. I don’t think if she ran away again she would stay gone long but I don’t want her to get hit by a car or anything. I think that it’s also a game/entertainment for her to get out and have us chase her, find a dog to play with, etc, so it’s understandable. When she’s done with the antibiotics, I’m going to attempt to train her to do some simple things: sit, stay, and maybe come. It will take 30-45 minute training sessions for a long time, but I’m looking forward to her learning some things. I’m sure she’ll advance at least a little because she’s still under 5 years old. She also tries to get human food by jumping up on people, so I would like to train her to stop that. So all in all we’re doing great. For myself, it feels like I’ve always had her. She also reminds me so much of the golden retriever my Dad had so many years ago. We are all very happy to have her and she seems very happy to be here. I also went out and purchased a new dog collar and leash for her, so any time I can mail the ones you left here back to you so you can use them for other dogs if you’d like. I would just need your address or the address of the place I should send it. Just let me know. Thanks again for making the trip all the way up here to St. Joseph, we really love this dog. Sincerely, Valerie Thompson

Cuddles

Dear Tracey, Cuddles is doing great!!! The whole family loves him and I think he loves us too. He is everything we imagined him to be: gentle, loving, loves to play, loves to cuddle and be petted, mild mannered, etc.. We take him everywhere he is allowed so that he will get comfortable traveling and going places like ballgames, the park, the pool, camping, riding in the car, going for walks with neighbor dogs barking and lawn mowers going. He handles all those things really well. He looks but keeps on walking - no barking, no pulling on the leash. Very good dog. Housetraining is going well. He definitely has the potty outside thing down, and we are getting the pooping outside thing down after Cuddles found his favorite spot. No messes in his kennel. He goes in his kennel without problems when we go to bed at night and if we need to leave him. So far he doesn't even whine when he's in his kennel. The only time we have heard him bark is when Cuddles and the youngest cat were getting to know each other. And that was only a few barks. They are now tolerating each other, and can lay a few feet from each other without problems. He doesn't mind his leash. He walks beside us nicely. Our friends can't believe that he wasn't leash trained. We laugh when Cuddles is having a leisurely walk because he prances like a show dog/horse. He is so cute and proud!! He loves being outside watching the birds and really wants to chase them, but we won't let him off the leash for fear something bad might happen (run away, hit by a car, etc...) His mange looks about the same. We continue to give him his medicine and ointment. Cuddles gets to meet the Vet on Monday for a new dog visit. I want to make sure that we are protecting him from all the outside bugs due to us having lots of tress, evergreens, and he likes to potty in the tall grass. I worry about ticks and fleas. Plus, we are taking him camping with us in 2 weeks and want to protect him from those outside bugs. We love him so much. Not only are we teaching him, we have also had to teach all of us. Cuddles is a wonderful addition to our family!!! We are very blessed to have him!!! Thank you sooooooo much!!!!!!!! Tiffany was so wonderful to bring him to us, do our home visit and help us complete the adoption!!! She is an AWESOME volunteer!!! Happy, bubbly, warm, welcoming, kind, etc... She gave me her phone number so if we had any questions or concerns we could call her, and Tiffany checked up on us Monday to make sure things were going well. Thank you all so much for helping us adopt Cuddles!!!!! Here are a few pictures. I'll send more soon. Thank you, Shawn, Dean, Elizabeth, Dalton, and Colin Elliott