Our little 2nd chance foster dog, Rosie

Finally settled in. It has taken quite a long time. I think for the first month, she cried constantly, and it was impossible to console her. I got her some dog calms and that really helped. She's quite the princess and only the finest snacks meet her approval, and I give them to her sparingly because I don't want her to get fat. She's still a velcro dog, but she has included Mr. WT in her circle, so I have some relief. Not only that, but she's sleeping in her own bed all night now and that is so great, she takes up a lot of the bed even though she is not that big.

She's really smart, but I think she was ignored a lot in her previous home because when she wants something, she barks REALLY loud. It's almost ear-splitting. So I've been working with her to train her on talking buttons so she can get what she wants without barking. She's starting to pay attention to the button sounds, we've only had them a short while, but each time she wants something I press the button and preform the action. One button says Outside and I open the door. The other says Food and I put food in her bowl. Little by little. I hope that when she goes to her fur ever family, she will have the hang of them, and they will be able to continue the training and not be deafened. lol.

Merlin and Houdini have become used to her and live their lives around her, but poor little Picabo is terrified and spends his time in the kitchen (I got a dog door to keep her out of there) peeking around corners to see if she is still here. She will be going to the rescue around the end of this month or the beginning of next, and I hope the house gets back to its normal rhythm.

I have to admit this experience has dampened my deep desire to have another dog of my own. The dogs in my past were all great dogs and I miss every one of them, but Rosie showed me that random dogs require more energy than I'm really willing to give. A really special dog is going to have to come into my life through some act of synchronicity that doesn't involve my efforts.

But all in all, I'm glad I did this for so many reasons, and she is going to have a great family some day soon.