We almost never call Jenna by her real name. We call her the Bear. And sometimes the Bad Dog. I'm pretty sure we started calling her this because we hated her name. We adopted her from the Humane Society on October 28th, 2003. She was already 3 years old at that point and had lived in 3 homes (all of which returned her to the shelter within a year). The only thing she seemed to know was her name, so we decided not to change it.So why, you ask, did 3 separate people bail on this beautiful dog with the Cleopatra eyes? We can't figure it out either. She's great with kids. She's as housetrained as it gets. She's bizarrely trusting, considering the life she's had: she will lie there, semiconscious, and permit us (and total strangers) to clip her nails, remove slivers from her pads, sticks from between her teeth, and even porcupine quills from the roof of her mouth. Vets invariably declare her a gem among dogs.
Yes, we have to put the garbage on top of the cupboard. All shoes go up on a high shelf by the door. Dirty dishes left in the sink remain there at their peril. We have to restock wooden spoons every other month. None of the Tupperware has a surviving lid. Sometimes we find cutlery in the couch. All that's left of my husband's leather belt is the buckle. Oh, and if you leave dog cookies in a coat pocket, the coat will be dragged off its hanger and the pocket will be surgically removed. I guess those might be reasons why someone would take her back to the shelter. Luckily for us, we don't own anything of value, so mostly her escapades aren't much more than a minor inconvenience. Except that one time that she pried open a kitchen drawer and ate a kilo of raisins, and we had to go to the emergency clinic to have her stomach emptied before she had kidney failure. That sucked.
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2 comments:
Hi Cheryl-
Jenna is adorable! Maggie was also a rescue dog... I adopted her when she was about a year old after 2 or more failed adoptions too. She was terrified of people... so pretty sure that is what got her returned. Like Jenna, she recognized her name so I felt bad changing it! Incidentally one of Maggie's favorite oncologists was named Jenna, so I love the name now!
Anyway, Maggie was diagnosed in December 07 and passed away in May 08, so it was just short of 6 months that she fought. She did very well with all the chemo she got (at the CSU vet school hospital) but the type she likely had (T-cell) was apparently the stronger competitor and she came out of remission before finishing the first protocol (11 weeks). She went back into remission with a rescue protocol but came out of remission before finishing that too (6 weeks I think was all she got for remission for that protocol). A third protocol failed to put her back in remission and she was starting to lose. I entered her in a clinical chemo trial but despite some node shrinkage the battle was pretty much over at that point. I would do every bit of it all over again... we got 6 months of wonderful time together! It seems like most of the dogs I hear about get much more time with chemo than Maggie did... I sure hope Jenna is one of them and that she continues to do well with all the treatments!
And yes, labs are wonderful! Maggie was a mix and I honestly see myself as more of a mix person, but I have gotten involved with guide dog puppy raising (Maggie used to help) and just recently got 2 of my dogs back (one was retired as a guide and the other was released from the training program)... I think Maggie must have sent them to me!
I'll be following along with your blog and crossing my fingers for good days ahead! Except for a few days at the very end, you never would have known that Maggie had cancer.
"So why, you ask, did 3 separate people bail on this beautiful dog with the Cleopatra eyes? We can't figure it out either"
I know why. I love Jenna, but don't confuse what she is like now with what she was when you first got her - she was a total psycho when you first got her. An up on the counter pull open the kitchen window and escape, small dog terrorizing banshee. But I can't stress enough how much I love her now that age has relaxed her.
Greg
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