Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hound Dog

Remember how I mentioned that we have talked about getting a dog, but you know, we weren't quite there.

Fate had other plans - as they always do.

You might remember me blogging pics of my sister's dogs, one of them a 15" beagle named Petey.  I love Petey.  I probably made that known too much to my sister.

She is having problems with having the dog. The poor guy had been taunted by neighbor kids who would throw rocks at him.  Being in an invisible fence didn't make it easy for him to get away. So lo and behold, after months (years?) of this (where the kid's parents took no action!), one of the kids came to retrieve something in my sister's yard. Petey went after him.

Rightfully so, I might add.  ....and I'll go on record, save for this, Petey is the nicest dog - unless you're a tradesman working at his house, then he'll just steal and eat your lunch.

Now the kid and his parents complained to my sister. As if!  (I hate most kids, btw.)

Fast forward a few years, my sister and family just moved to a new house with a much smaller yard. Though no one is throwing rocks at the dog, the behaviour is set and a kid cut through their yard and Petey went after him.

While the kid wasn't hurt (Petey had a hold of the bottom of his jeans) my sister didn't want a dog who went after kids coming into their yard.  Though if they come in via the driveway, there are no issues. It's just the back of the yard. Still I get their new neighbors had a 2 and 3 year old. That could be harrowing for everyone and just a potential accident waiting to happen.

For whatever reasons, their options were to see if we'd take him or put him down. Don't ask me why no rescue organization was not a choice. Maybe it's because he's 10 years old?  I don't know - I didn't really ask.  Well, I did, I just got no answer.

Well c'mon!  That's a lot of pressure on 710 and myself.  It's like Sophie's Choice, but not our cat, Sophie. While I love Petey, we felt boxed in to taking him.

We've had him for a little over 24 hours.  So far so good.

He's crate trained and loves his crate so that's not an issue. So far feeding him and leaving him on a tethered run outside hasn't been a problem either. He's gone on walks where he must smell and pee on everything - and picking up poop wasn't nearly as disgusting as I imagined.

Petey doesn't care about cats so Sophie isn't an issue to him.  Sophie does care about dogs, so he is an issue to her. Her tail is puffy, the hair on her back stands up. So far no hissing, but she's gotten no closer than six feet - and he was in his pen.

To be fair, she's never experienced a dog up this close. She might have gone checked him out in the middle of the night, but doubtful. She attached herself to me in bed the first night and she was hot. But I had to let her do it to remind her I loved her very much and would protect her. 


I should say, we are taking Petey on a trial basis. We will keep him for 5-7 days to see how things go. Sophie is and always will be my main priority - if she can't adapt, we can't adapt and it wont' work.


And adapting is hard....for all of us, Petey included.  He now has no brother, or the home and family he's known. Admittedly, we are a little selfish in the way we live and we could do what we want, when we want and without any planning. That has changed. 


Of course, part of us feels like he's our dog or ever will be. He's my sister and brother-in-law's dog and we're just keeping him. 


Maybe it's a way to break us into dog-hood, but that remains to be seen.  


Of course, it's only been 38 hours. 




Song by:  Elvis Presley

9 comments:

Cubby said...

Petey's a cutey.

Raybob said...

Petey's a sweetie!

don said...

Thank you for rescuing Petey. Give him a hug for me.

Birdie said...

What a sweetiepie. And you are too for taking him in. There is nothing like the unconditional love of a dog. It may take a while for Petey to recover from losing his family. Give him time.

Anonymous said...

This is so sweet of you guys. Crack baby next?

Ur-spo said...

This dog and you are both very fortunate. I hope this is the start of a loving long relationship.

Erik Rubright said...

Are y'all keeping him as an inside dog, or outside dog, or mix of both?

tornwordo said...

Georgie says, Arooo!

Rick said...

That's very nice of you. Now treat Petey and yourself to a brother or sister.:) really. You won't regret it.