Molly 37

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Update 02/27/12:

What a turnaround for this beauty! With a month in foster care, Miss Molly is looking spectacular, feels great and is ready to meet one lucky family! Here’s the latest on her……………

Molly shares her foster home with a number of other dogs and gets along well. She loves to play tug with one and wrestles with another. Though she doesn’t usually initiate play, if two dogs are playing, Molly will bark at them as if to say “me too, me too, pick me, pick me!” She can also be very shy and gets her confidence from a younger canine companion. Having a submissive, outgoing and playful dog in her adopting family will suit Molly well. 

This gal really would do best in a home where she has access to a doggie door. She has learned to use one in her foster home and still has occasional accidents in the house if the door is not open. She doesn’t like to be separated from her people but does fine sleeping with free range in the living room at night. She has not been destructive with this freedom. She is crated when her foster parents leave to reinforce housetraining and hasn’t had an accident in a couple weeks now with this process. 

New people bring out Molly’s shy side, especially men. She may not take treats at first and will hide behind her foster parents when strangers approach but she is showing no aggression whatsoever. Her foster parents feel, with continued socialization, this will improve as it has while in their care. Molly was great for the vet staff and when her foster mom brushes her teeth. She walks very nicely on leash. Having been used to a rural and/or suburban environment, Molly barks at people when she sees them through the fence as they pass on the street. Inner-city living would be tough on her and probably her people! 

Molly remains good with children as young as 5 years……….even with three of them at a time! She’s ready to begin again and will be a terrific companion for an active, loving family.

Original:

Sometimes, life circumstances change and dogs that were once beloved pets find themselves in need of a new home. Sometimes, the original family has to re-home their dog, hoping their dog will be well-cared for in its new environment, but it turns out not to be the case. Unknown circumstances landed Molly, flea infested with a matted coat, in a filthy pen with a frozen bowl of water in the backyard of a Pennsylvania home. Luckily, animal control seized Molly and brought her to their shelter after charging the owners with animal cruelty. Shelter staff contacted MAESSR and now Molly is happily on the road to a new life with a loving family. 

It is clear to her foster family that Molly had lived in a house before and was once a loved member of a family. She is a resilient sweetheart whom her foster mom thinks is close to being the perfect dog! She quickly learned the routine of her foster family and quickly bonded with them as she will do with her forever family, too. Molly likes all of the resident dogs but is partial to the one year old, very submissive but playful puppy. The two have been seen roughhousing and even playing tug with a toy. The vet said that Molly had a litter or more in the past. Maybe that is why she likes the resident pup best! Molly is also very good with the five year old human girl in her foster family and does not try to take food from her.

When she first came into foster care, poor Molly had a raging gastrointestinal upset possibly due to being de-wormed at the shelter and/or having a sudden food switch. After a quick trip to the vet, she was on the mend. Because of the gastrointestinal upset, her vaccines and spaying will be scheduled once she’s feeling better. Molly was an excellent patient. She weighed in at 46.5 pounds and is about at her perfect weight. She was great for all the parts of her exam, from having blood drawn to having her teeth checked. Excellent with taking her meds, her foster mom just opens her mouth and pops them in. She is good at having her ears medicated for her mild yeast infection, too. The vet was impressed with Molly’s resilience both in health and spirit.

Although Molly was not pleased with the clippers when her foster mom groomed her, she did nothing more than try to squirm away. Once groomed, her beautiful coat proved to be naturally shiny and smooth and very easy to manage. 

Molly has had two accidents in the house and they were right by the backdoor so her foster parents are working on refreshing her housetraining. These accidents could possibly be a side-effect of her illness and medications, too, because she does go to the door when she has to go out; however, it seems she goes when she really has to go! One can’t blame her there! 

During her first couple of days in foster care, Molly was crated and did fine as long as her foster mom used a sheet to cover her crate. Then, Molly would settle right down and go to sleep. If she could see the other dogs or her foster mom still in the house, she would fret, though. Overnight, Molly was also fine in her crate for the entire night. Since then, Molly has been left free in the house with baby gates keeping her in the living room/dining room/kitchen part of the house both overnight and while her foster mom goes to work. Molly has had no accidents and has shown no destructive behavior when given this freedom. If she is left in a room behind a door that she can’t see through, she is fine; however, when her foster mom goes to the basement and Molly can see her through the baby gate, she cries and frets and wants to be with her.

Molly is a great passenger in the car, snuggling in the seat beside the driver or quietly lying in her crate. She walks well on a leash, too. Not a resource guarder, Molly happily licked out a yogurt container with the resident dogs while her foster mom held it. Molly does believe she should be allowed on certain furniture like the loveseat on the sun porch, but in the living room she prefers the oversized orthopedic dog bed. A polite beggar, especially with the little girl in the family, Molly does not try to take food from her, but pleads her case in a nice sit, giving an occasional paw in an effort to get a snack. Despite begging for people food in this manner, Molly has not otherwise attempted to counter-surf or take food. 

Watch for more on sweet Molly as she continues to thrive in her foster home. This girl will make a wonderful addition to a lucky family!