Entered: 02/03/2010
Status: Adopted
Age: 9
Color: Liver/White
Weight:
Gender: Altered Female
Location: Louisa, VA
Health: UTD, HW-, benefiting from dental work, underweight and gaining, hearing impaired
Temperament: Good with people as young as 5, good with other dogs, good with cats, benefiting from a medication to ease anxiety over change
Update 04/05/10:
During her first week back in foster care, it was discovered that Lucy was in need of dental work. A visit to the vet resulted in the extraction of four teeth and repair of some exposed nerve endings. Since that dental care, Lucy is a completely new dog, already recovered and living life with renewed vigor. This sweetie is now trotting around the yard, asking for rides in the car and always ready for a walk. She says being pain-free is very cool. It won’t be long before she begins to gain more weight as food is now one of her favorite things!
Lucy’s foster mom also wants to let folks know that living with deaf dogs is no different than living with hearing ones. Lucy understands hand signals for the important things, making her very responsive and obedient. She is a true Velcro girl who is also very capable of letting her people know what she wants and needs. She loves to go outside and will bark to let her foster mom know it is time to come back inside when at the door she can’t open!
Lucy is ready to take her place in a furever home and become someone’s loving companion. Open your heart to this sweet girl and your heart will be filled with joy.
Update 03/26/10:
Despite great care given when offering a dog to a prospective family, not every match is a meant-to-be. When one does not work, it is most often through no fault of the dog or its adopting family. Such is the situation for Lucy. She has returned to foster care after a brief time with an adopting family and is ready for another chance to live “happily ever after.”
Lucy continues to gain weight and her health is good at this point. She does very well with the dogs and cats in her new foster home. Though she doesn’t play with them, she seems more comfortable when they are around. Lucy has been put on an inexpensive anxiety medication to help her handle the changes in her life. She is becoming more at ease with being left alone, although she has not been left all day as her foster mom is retired.
Her house manners have been great, no counter surfing, no trash diving, and Lucy has never touched anything. She is still a little reserved and she is a low key girl, but she loves to cuddle and will ask for attention now. Going out is not a problem for this lady. She can open and close the screen door to the fenced yard, letting herself in and out at will. The only problem is that she will let the other dogs out but not back into the house. Smart girl! Lucy would love her own doggie door.
Lucy is always ready for a walk and is beginning to enjoy riding in the car. She looks out the window for awhile and then lies down for a nap. At night she sleeps in her doggie bed near her foster mom and, in the morning, she does her little happy dance to go outside. Lucy is very respectful of the other dogs in the household, sits patiently for her meals or treats and is a very content girl as long as she can be near her people.
This girl is a sweetheart and all she needs to become all she can be is the chance to become a permanent member of a family where she can feel safe and loved. She would love to be part of a family that is home with her more than away, or, a family that can take her along with them much of the time. Is this lovely lady a “people” dog? Absolutely! With the perfect doggie people, she will live happily ever after!
Original:
Lovely Lucy was found wandering a rural Pennsylvania countryside by the local dog catcher. Thinking that surely someone would claim this petite, beautiful Springer, he kept her at his kennel for a few weeks. When no one came forward, he signed her over to a small, all breed rescue group. This kind group got her vetted, a long overdue bath and groomed. Lucy was very sweet and gentle with both the vet and the groomer who had to work hours, cutting all the mats out of her coat and from between her toes. Realizing that she would be best placed into a home that loved springers, the all breed rescue contacted MAESSR.
This little lady loves sleeping on her dog bed. She is underweight, but she has a good appetite and should gain weight quickly. Lucy appears to be housebroken, going to the door to signal that she has to go out. She does not like to be crated and will bark, whine and carry on when crated; nor does she like to be separated from her people by a baby gate as she will leap over it to find companionship. However, when tested alone in the house for the first time outside the crate, she managed to get the garbage can/cabinet insert out of the kitchen cabinets and clear the kitchen counter top. So, she is capable of being a counter-surfer and trash picker. On several subsequent times when left alone in the house, everything was fine since her foster mom emptied the kitchen trash and made sure there was nothing on the kitchen counters to tempt her. She has not chewed anything inappropriate. Her foster mom is working with her to help her understand that she will never be left alone to wander on her own again.
It appears that Lucy is deaf as she does not react to any loud noises. With the wave of a hand, she does “sit” for a treat and will sit pretty and patiently as her food is being prepared; she does not appear to have any food aggression and takes her treats very gently. Her foster mom is teaching her to “come” with hand signals. She does not jump on people and has done great with every person and dog she has met. She prefers to sleep on a chair or sofa, but will get down when motioned or coaxed. Lucy happily settles down wherever her bed is placed. She loves being in the same room as her foster mom and will lie down and rest peacefully. She sleeps quietly on a comfy doggie bed beside her foster mom’s bed at night.
Lucy does well with the resident Springers, one male and one female. She has not initiated play with either of them and pretty much ignores them. She has not been tested with cats, but her foster mom doesn’t think she would respond poorly since not much fazes her. Lucy likes going for long walks, only pulling on the leash lightly; she jumps in the car to go for a ride, although she’s a little bit of a nervous rider. She lays down or just looks out the window but is always willing and ready to go.
Lucy is a low key, calm Springer. She has not yet shown any interest in toys but that may change as her health improves, as she gains weight and gets the nutrition she needs and deserves. Despite everything that she has apparently gone through, she is so very gentle and sweet. Lucy is strikingly beautiful and would love to have a forever home with a loving family who would not leave her alone for long hours, a family who would assure that she was never found alone at the roadside again.