Puppy Osky arrived at the refuge in the middle of November and since this time has proved to be the perfect puppy. At night he has been living in the nursery with the recently arrived cats, and during the day he has mostly playing in the small park with other dogs, greeting everyone with a gentle nose through the bars. On walks he is a joy, he seems to be familiar with a lead, and skips along nicely; no pulling, no frantic twisting like some dogs who have never been out on a lead. So where did he come from and why was no one looking for him? This is one of the mysteries we often come across at the ScPA; dogs who appear to be perfect nevertheless remain unclaimed.
We are always careful about homing puppies. We want their home to be forever, not just till they grow up. And with very few exceptions, we prefer not to home dogs to hunters, several of whom expressed an interest in Osky. We wanted this little lad to have an indoor life, with lots of love and walks. So when Elise said she wished to come and meet him, we had our fingers crossed that she, too, would fall under Osky’s charm. Today she made the trip from Roujan (yes, we have quite a few dogs in that area now) and decided to offer Osky a home. He has been renamed Oscar and is now sharing this with two elderly female Breton spaniels and will have company all the time.
We could not wish more for this delightful little lad.
But that is not the only good news of the day. Do any of you remember Lana, aka Pheobe? She was found and brought into the refuge in 2017 and has had two unsuccessful rehomings since. Lana is a young, active dog, unsuited to life in an apartment (some dogs can live in apartments obviously, but Lana is not one of them, particularly not with an owner who had no time to exercise her) and also unsuited to an unenclosed garden. Recall is not her strong point, not yet, at least.
However things might just have worked out for the best after all. After waiting since March , finally on Saturday Phoebe was visited by a family together with their husky. The two dogs got on fine, and everything was set in motion for Lana to leave the refuge today. The fact that Lana’s new family are husky owners is reassuring, as that almost certainly means that their garden is enclosed and that they are used to dogs not always coming when called. Lana should be very happy indeed! As are we all on her behalf.
On the not-so good news side of things, today saw the return of Cerise. Contrary to what we had expected thanks to her previous home (where she lived with cats and ferrets), Cerise did not settle with her new family’s cat. So she is back, but we are hoping she will not have too long to wait before she has another chance.