(Seriously, go get a tissue. I'll wait.)
Ready?
Meet Lemon.
Cute, right? The left ear stays at a right angle, the right one goes up and down. Lemon is quite literally a rescued dog. A little over a month ago, she was rescued from an animal hoarding situation . She and 39 other pure bred miniature pinschers were taken from a home were they were sequestered in a basement strewn with wooden crates and covered in waste. Not cool. The dogs were taken to Animal Control and several organization stepped in to find them a better place to be. One of the shelters our group works with took many of the dogs and selected a few of them specifically for our group because they knew we could rehab them into becoming loving, adoptable dogs.
After getting medical care (check up, shots, etc.), Lemon went home with Amanda and Ted to learn how to live in a loving home. She bonded with them, played with their dog and tolerated their cat. She started to learn house training and took to a crate, albeit a cat carrier. She was making progress.
Unfortunately, I think the transition of being with us has set her back a few paces. She's slow to warm up to people and although she likes food, her fear and timid nature overpowered her food motivation. For two days, Lemon wanted nothing to do with us and would let us touch her. Poor girl was still wearing her leash because she wouldn't let us near to take it off. (Which ended up being a good thing because we could grab the end of the leash and usher her into whatever room we wanted her to be in, or outside to go to the bathroom.
She spent all day Sunday perched on the hearth, making sure to watch us so we didn't do anything scary. Since we couldn't touch her to crate her, she spent the night in the half-bath with lots of blankets. In return, she left us presents and barked from 3 am to 5 am.
We called reinforcements from our group and learned a little bit more about feral dogs (as Lemon and most of her friends were). We did learn that we didn't do anything to piss her off (yet) and that in time, with continued temptation of tasty food, she would make progress (we had been able to feed her, but she was taking the food and running away from us. While we sat on the couch, watching Lemon watch us from her perch, Dave and I considered what she reminded us of.
Me: She should be a Muppet. Doesn't she look like a Muppet?
Dave: She looks like Rizzo.
Me: Yes! I knew she looked like a Muppet. She's definitely Rizzo.
Dave: Cause Rizzo's all twitchy and shakey n'at too. Except he's a rat and she's a dog. (Dave totally said n'at. Totally.)
I also think she looks like a tiny deer prancing around our living room. She's got bitty legs and walks so delicately, like Bambi just learning to walk on the iced over pond.
Monday morning, I decided to do some touch training with her breakfast. If she wanted to eat, she had to touch my hand. This worked really well. I didn't push it and try to touch her back, but I was pleased with the progress and liked seeing that she was capable of training and learning. When we left for work, we decided to put Lemon in a proper dog crate, despite the fact that it was designed for the last dog who used it, 45 pound Mia, not the 5 pound pup in our presence. She went in without problem and we left her with blankets, toys, and a peanut butter filled kong. When we came home, she was timid but happy to see us. Slowly she came out of the crate and we did some more touch training. I took her outside and for the first time she actually when to the bathroom there, instead of in the house. Much praising ensued. We tethered two leashed together and let her roam around whatever room we were in.
Dave and I had chicken for dinner and I set aside a forkful of shredded chicken for some training later that evening. While I was sitting on the couch wrapping a birthday gift, Lemon invited herself onto the couch and sniffed around. Not wanted to scare her, I let her go, happy that she was getting comfortable, and confident, to come so close. When Dave saw it, he grabbed the leftover chicken, perched himself on the couch and started doing more touch training. Eventually she let him pet on her. Carefully I reached over and gently petted her. We were shocked. Dave was able to finally take her leash off and she slowly worked her way over to me and sat on my lap! We decided it was the perfect opportunity to see if we could get a coat on her and take her outside since it was cold and she needed to go out. Success!
She even came to be and "asked" for her coat to come off afterward (I had knelt down and she cam over and put her front paws on my leg, and leaned back so I could get at the closure). While I was working at the computer, she tried, unsuccessfully to jump into my lap and let me pick her up to put her there. Later, while I was on the couch, she climbed into my lap, curled up and took a nap. Huge progress.
This morning wasn't quite as smooth and she's not quite as willing to let Dave handle her. She's not mean or nipping, but she does run away. Hopefully we'll make more progress tonight as well help build her confidence and get her ready to be a wonderful adopted pet.
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