It's A Dog's Life

Introducing: Bertie (aka Bertie Bear or Bert the Squirt) 

*wink*

Still playing catch up on this blog (apologies for the tardiness).

In late September we added another member to our lil' family! We adopted Bertie (named after Bertie Wooster of the Jeeves & Wooster novels by PG Wodehouse) from Central Animal Services in Lacombe (they often do trip the the southside Petsmart for adoption viewings, which is where we met Bertie for the first time after seeing her on their website). 

The ladies at Central Animal Services were great and even let us hold Bertie for a very long time to get a feel for her personality. This was vitally important as Mr. Buns has certain "challenges" (i.e. he kind of clashes with most dogs, especially if they are too friendly, dominating, make louder sounds than he does, are bigger than him, try to sniff his butt, try to play with him, pay him any sort of attention whatsoever, or vie for our attention - you know, basically exist).  He needed a buddy that would allow him the freedom to be independent and get to know him in due course. And gradual it was...it took Mr. Buns about a month to even allow Bertie to get within 2 feet of him. She was very patient yet persistent. She was ever-waiting for the moment that he would let her come just a little bit closer to him. Once Mr. Buns got over the fact that Bertie was here to stay, he suddenly was her biggest fan (the fact that she was in heat didn't hurt - luckily, he'd already been snipped). Within 2 months they were sleeping right beside each other and he would try to kiss her face repeatedly (what can I say? He's a lover, not a fighter). It was around the 2 month mark that Bertie seemed to get a boost of confidence from her newfound friendship with Mr. Buns, and her personality really started to blossom. 

Initially, when we first adopted lil' Bert she was a terrified mess. She would constantly hide in our closet and wouldn't eat anything (except a bit of water) for the first 2 days that we had her. We were scared she was going to starve herself out of fear. Luckily, we noticed that she would eat small amounts of food while we were out of the room, so we'd leave her in the closet with a bowl of food and within minutes she'd scarf it down. Bertie, much like Mr. Buns, has some unique challenges due to their unfortunate circumstances and the potential abuse that occurred before we adopted them, but we are constantly working with them to try and help them overcome these issues, and together they are a perfect pair.

Since adopting Buns and Bertie we've received several comments about how Emma and I chose "the weirdest" or "the most difficult" dogs - unfortunately, what these commenters fail to realize is how bloody rewarding it is to see the progress that we have made with our "special" dogs.  And we are lucky to have them, quirks and all. I'd never buy a shiny, new, custom, purebred puppy from a breeder - not when there are so many homeless and unwanted animals out there already, who need and deserve loving families. Please support your local animal shelters and adoption agencies! Here's a quick list of some in Alberta:

www.canadasguidetodogs.com/abrescue.htm

You can also search for rescued or homeless pets on petfinder.com - it even allows you to filter search results by size or age (but don't discount those older, wiser and often house-trained senior doggies - they need and deserve homes, too!).

Two dogs makes for better family photos, too!