Meet Chiquita

Don't you just want to give her all kinds of love?

I know it's been a while, but clearly there's been good reason. We spent last week trying to make arrangements to bring our first foster dog home. All Dog Rescue has evaluators that go to shelters and Animal Control Offices around Massachusetts to evaluate dogs and determine if they are suitable for fostering.

On Friday, Dave and I had the opportunity to go to Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Shelter and meet two of the women from ADR while they evaluated some of the dogs. Lisa and Donna were so nice to explain the process and we even got to help, even though that consisted mostly of holding the leash or taking notes on the evaluations for the rest of the group.

Prior to our visit, Dave and I had checked the shelter's website and immediately fell in love with Chiquita. She's about a year old and is a boxer/pit bull mix. When we arrived, we asked Lisa & Donna to be sure to check her out. Chiquita was the second dog we tested and did very well. She was by far the best evaluation of the day. She's energetic, but not obnoxious and very loving. She listens well and already knew how to sit, taking treats very gently. We were so excited to get approval to take her home.

We ended up evaluating 10 dogs total, and the group took 4 of them into fostering. We would have taken a fifth, but she was lucky to already have 2 adoption applications pending.

Chiquita did really well on the drive home; she was nervous and didn't really like being stuck in traffic on the Pike, but she listened to me and remained fairly calm, eventually laying down in her crate. When she got to the house, she was timid and very curious about her new surroundings, but did well. She was good on the leash in the backyard that she explored pretty thoroughly. Immediately she showed signs of being very smart and easy to train, so Dave and I are looking forward to reinforcing good habits and helping her learn.

Saturday she was excited to spend the day with us and shortly after breakfast we took her to the backyard. She absolutely loves it. LOVES. Besides playing with her tennis ball (which she tosses in the air and plays catch by herself), she loves to run. We have an above ground pool and she took to using that as a track, doing several high-speed laps. And she is fast. Her boxer and pit bull background are two strong dog breeds, so she's almost pure muscle.

She also got to meet the neighbors dogs and did really well. They were separated by a fence and our neighbors' two poodles are big barkers, but Chiquita was just curious and quickly wanted to play. She showed no aggression, which is a positive sign.

I'll have to put up some video, but Chiquita also plays hide and seek. We took a treat and placed it under one of three plastic cups. She quickly figures out which cup it's under, and then works very hard to tip the cup and get the treat. At one point, she chased a cup halfway around the room before she was able to knock it over. But she figured it out!
It hasn't even been 3 days, but already we are so glad to have her in our lives. And we think she likes us too, although she's got a secret weapon against us--a sweet little head tilt to the right, with perked ears. Absolutely adorable. We are promising ourselves that we won't be "foster failures" (i.e.: fosters who adopt their foster dog), but we are encouraged by our first fostering experience so far. If you are interested in bringing a dog into your life, I encourage you to adopt first (I've left out a lot about our shelter visit--don't make me tell you more). And be sure to check out Chiquita on petfinder.com!