A Confession: A Pandora's Box, If You Will...

Alright, I don't really confess much in my own life, not to myself, my husband or anyone else for that matter. Its not that I'm perfect, I just don't think I'm doing anything worth confessing. Nothing is significant enough to bring me a modicum of guilt that can only be abated by dumping my burden on someone else. However, a week ago, a little bit of my guilt was treated to a reward...sound twisted enough yet? Long story short:

I have been perusing the craigslist ads for weeks now, desperately wanting to adopt a dog. Particularly a boxer. Its all I've had my whole life, they are excellent dogs, and I wanted one of my own since my parents are refusing to allow me to snag Meisie. After several weeks of only finding older dogs, I switched to the smaller breeds: King Cavalier Spaniels, Maltipoo Hybrids, Toy Poodles and the like. I figured if I couldn't find what I wanted the most, I would settle on what satisfied my desire the second most. Completely irrational, I completely agree. WELL, after realizing that my quest was ridiculous, and realizing that the real problem was probably just boredom, and after seeing several older dogs for adoption from SecondChanceDogRescue.org (check them out!), I stumbled onto a forum that listed about twenty dogs that needed fostering before they could be adopted into "Furever" ( i WILL NOT take credit for that one...) homes. The dogs are coming straight out of shelters, surrendered for random behavioral issues or picked up from the streets as strays.

I thought it was an intriguing alternative to actually owning a dog and assuming all the responsibilities that came with that, and got in contact with the group. They were very eager for Levi and I to get involved and asked us to come by to pick out a dog. When we showed up, there were about fifteen or so dogs running around this woman's yards. The most hyper of which was a dutch german shepherd. (Do you see where this is going yet?) Pandora, as she was lamely named by her previous owners, was constantly fighting for attention from the humans, and running in circles around the yard. Jumping into the fountain to drink dirty water and reaching up to eat leaves off a poor tree that had most likely been stripped before by this particular dog, the shepherd was obviously a handful for anyone. The woman pushed her onto us (in a most polite way) and Levi was holding back his excitement as best he could in front of her. In true car-buying fashion, as soon as the "saleswoman" walked back into the house to answer the never-silent phone, he would quickly turn to me to see what I thought. We concurred that we would be able to handle her, and that we were eager to take her home to prepare her for her forever home. (I refuse to use that silly word again.)

We took her with us, went to the pet store to grab a toy and a bone so that she would leave our furniture and our cats alone, and took her back with us to take care of her for a little while. The rundown of the last five days with her is as follows:

• We've changed her name to Panda. Pandora is ridiculous, she doesn't listen to it, and it sounds completely stupid to yell "Pandora" at a dog park. Panda is now her name.
  
• She's 50% housebroken. Which means she "goes" outside about half the time. Guess what happens the other half. Ugh.
• She loves to run and is getting the hang of fetch, still working on that one.
• She struggles with "come"--we think she was abused in the past as she is extremely shy and nervous when this command is used. We are trying desperately to change that perception, and it seems to be improving.
  
• She knew "sit" when she came (but was horribly inconsistent), and has since improved immensely. She is also learning "stay" and "lay down", and is improving greatly.
• She has also learned "heel" for the most part. She still runs in a crooked line however, and poor Levi has experienced the cartoon segment where the tree comes between the bike and the dog. The tree won. ;)

Its a learning process for both us and the dog. She was surrendered for "snapping at children" but has yet to display any aggressive tendencies. She was supposed "aggressive" which I don't believe. What I do believe is that she is ill-mannered. At 8 months old, she has been bounced around continuously. She was surrendered at 4 mos, and I seriously doubt that the previous owners spent any time attempting to train her before giving up on her. For the four months following her surrender, she has had no training, no immediate attention, no personalized relationships with any humans. What the dog needs and what Levi and I are attempting to give her, are manners. She needs to know how to fit into a family, and as soon as that happens, I firmly believe the right family will come along to adopt her.

And then we can start again with another dog. :)