Sheba has been in our home for 5 months. We're just now moving out of the honeymoon period and into the "settled" period. It has been an interesting path. We had less info about Sheba than we have had about any of our previous dogs. We know that she arrived at the shelter in Alabama on July 15th. She had all her shots. She has a heart murmur. She is about 3 years old. She was transported to Florida with about 30 other dogs in late July or early August. According to my sources, she was a "transport mistake"; the shelter had 2 dogs with the same name and accidentally loaded both on the transport.
We got Sheba from Ewenity Farms Herd Dog Haven at the end of August. I actually went to her foster mom's house to see a different dog. All the other dogs were running along the fence lines, supervising the neighborhood. Sheba came up next to me and sat down, leaning into my leg. I get more dogs that way!
We were told that Sheba was a timid, submissive, low energy female border collie/spaniel mix who was housebroken and didn't bark. Now that she's settled in, I think we can all agree that she's a female dog. LOL!
You see, that's what happens with a rescue dog. What you see isn't always what the dog really is. Most dogs don't "enjoy" the shelter experience. Frankly, it scares the spirit right out of them. Add a multi-state transport, in a truck with a bunch of other dogs, and being sent home with a stranger and then sent to another stranger's home...well, you'd probably be submissive and scared too.
When you adopt an adult shelter dog, you are getting the entire dog, including all their previous experiences. The difficulty here is that we don't know what those are. So you love them and you wait. You establish a routine. You love them some more. You wait some more. And you get ready to do some basic training when you see the dog's true personality start to emerge. And with Sheba, it didn't just emerge, it busted out.
First we realized that Sheba marked territory (unusual for a spayed female). Then we found out that she wasn't quite as submissive with other dogs, now that she had a family to protect. Then she barked. And I thought she was settled in. But now we've found that she is impish. She is always searching for food. She hides what she doesn't eat. She'll steal food related trash. Everything goes in her mouth.
Our best guess is that she wasn't an inside dog where she lived before. She was probably part of a pack of dogs, so she didn't have to be the one to bark to go out. She just followed the others. And since she is a submissive dog, she learned to scavenge for food (and based on her weight, I'd say she's pretty good at it).
Based on my description so far, you're probably saying "I'd never take a rescue dog". And if you feel that way you'd be missing out. Big Time! Sheba is a lot of fun. She is great company and very happy! And like every other rescue dog I've met; she doesn't take what she has for granted. Oh, I know that dogs live in the moment...but rescue dogs never forget where they came from. And they will spend the rest of their lives showing you how thankful they are! So we are the lucky ones--because of the love of a rescue dog!
Feeling blessed, how about you?
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