Stuffed Animal Lifts Head & Yawns

Stuffed Animal Lifts Head, Yawns

If you think taking six months to buy a used dog is ridiculous, you haven’t met Gracie.

It has been 35 years since we acquired our first dog.Fred was a puppy; half St Bernard and half German Sheppard. Since we were Barely in our 20’s, we were naïve about nearly all adult issues, including how to properly care for pets. We could have done much better if we knew the Ten Commandments of Pets.

Fred befuddled us right from the beginning. When we went to work, we put her in the back yard for the day, but she hated that. When we got home we found clawing damage to the back door and several slats missing from our cedar fence. I bought replacement slats by the dozens. A neighbor told us that Fred began chewing on the fencing as soon as we left home. She was so powerful she could chew through a weak slat in ten minutes or so then she got another and another until she opened up a section big enough to squeeze through. Then she ran out to the front yard for a few minutes then she returned to the back yard through the same hole. Naturally, her habit was very hard on her teeth and gums.

When I discovered new damage, I tried to discipline Fred, not knowing that she was incapable of remembering that she had misbehaved 8 hours earlier. We tried everything we could think of, including putting Tobasco sauce on the slats and tying her to a tree instead, but she just barked all day. This went on for a couple of months.

Then the people at the local Dumb Friends League (Humane Society) said Fred was just lonely. They recommended we get a companion dog and let both canines stay in the house when we stepped out. I remember being very apprehensive about letting Fred stay indoors because she was so destructive, but we loved our dog and we were willing to try their recommendation.

We found a large but very gentle Newfoundland, who filled the bill perfectly. Check out these puppies. After that, we let the dogs stay indoors as suggested and found out they were both content. Fred proved to be a 70 pound lap dog and Sabbath was even bigger. They both lived with us for another 12 years.

If we knew then, what we know now, we would have considered finding a ‘”friend” for Fred, perhaps on Craig’s List. Another option might be Doggie Day Care,

After that, our kids dominated our lives and we started to travel so we never felt like we were in the right position to own another dog, until this year. In the late spring, we sold an out-of-state property so, that allowed us to expand the family again. There are some stories in the Archive section below about selling the property and some other articles about our early efforts to find a new-to-us dog.

After several months of investigating various breeds and checking out some of the local shelters (Pet Finders has several hundred thousand animals) we zeroed in on a range of possibilities. We visited a handful of rescue facilities and each trip tugged at our hearts. We met Maxum, Sebastian, Sarge and Teddy Bear among others. They all pleaded with Patty to scratch their bellies; but for reasons unknown, perhaps divine intervention, none of those worked out.

Then we met Gracie. In an ironic twist, there is a shelter in Golden that specializes in Golden Retrievers and Golden Labs. The oft sought combination is called Glabs. We contacted the shelter with a preference list and a couple days later Gracie rolled into town. She came from a shelter in Kansas and spent a couple nights at a foster home.

She took to us right away, which is no surprise because she likes everybody including kids, seniors, other pets and a couple toys. Gracie is about three years old, 65 pounds, very loving and EXTREMELY calm. In fact, she is so at easy that I have suggested she is just one notch above a stuffed animal.

To give you an idea how unusual she is, let me share how Gracie deals with some typical dog matters: Just to be clear, she was this way when we got her, so do not wrongly assume that somehow Patty and I are dog whisperers because we are not.

Now, meet Gracie.

1) When Gracie goes for a ride in the car she immediately lays down, without being told. She does not even try to look out the window.

2) When we gave her a bath, she willingly climbed into the tub herself, then she waited patiently while we scrubbed her down, and rinsed her off. No shivering, no trying to get out, no anxiety.

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3) When a knock comes to the door, she calmly walks over to it to see who came to visit. No Barking, no protecting, no hostility.

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4) When a stranger walks in the room, no growling, no jumping, no running around. She waits for them to offer a hand and then she wags her tail and says hello.

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5) When we eat, there is usually no begging. She calmly lies down nearby. She gets a small treat in her bowl when we are finished.

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6) Gracie is very good on a leash. Naturally, she likes to sniff things as we move along, but she is basically content to stay within a few feet, always on our right side. She is a tireless jogger.

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7) She has two shoe-sized stuffed animal pets of her own. She walks around with them gently cradled in her mouth. If you try to take them away, she lets you have them. She does not chew on them or tug on them. They are more like pacifiers than tennis balls.

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8) When on a walk and the neighbors’ dogs engage in the usual territorial barking, Gracie ignores them. No conflicts ensue. She is not interested in responding to them.

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9) If she gets off her leash, she sits down and waits for you to tell her what to do. So far she has not bolted or even shown any interest in running around.

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10) She has shown no interest in checking out the top of the counters. She could easily get stuff off of thAere if she wanted to, but she is either too dumb, too lazy or too well behaved to show any interest.

Some of the above would suggest that there is no “dog” in Gracie and that has an element of truth. We are playing tag with her and trying to liven her up a bit, but mostly she is peaceful and generally speaking passive dogs don’t change much so why fight it?.

Her name before we adopted her was Li Lo. Some people were saying Lee Low; others said Lie Low; but we changed it to something that is easier to remember and does not sound like answering the phone.

Our son is putting in a nice fence and a doggy door so she can enjoy the outdoors, but for another 10 days or so we have to take her on walks. That is yet another way she has enriched us. We need the exercise.

Nobody knows much about Gracie’s past, but we are guessing she was well treated because she is not afraid, just calm. She responds to whistles and she has a rather wild tail that she cannot always contain. She is happy to meet you and she wants you to know it.

There is no doubt Gracie is special in certain ways. It is odd that nobody has attempted to claim her because Gracie is not the kind of dog that most people would willingly surrender. She is just too loveable.

We have some great plans for Gracie. More on that at a later time.

whaddya think?

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