FOSTER FOR TG: MEET ROLLO

Rollo up at Turtle Gardens

Sunday was a Turtle Gardens dog run and boy was it a good one!   I think there were 20 dogs in total for adoption or foster.   Half the dogs were sent off from the Delta meeting point and the rest were loaded back up in the van to head over to the Island.   What a long journey for those dogs and especially for Brian who was driving them all around. Once I get past the stress of worrying about having all the paperwork on hand, having enough leashes, worrying about dogs getting loose when the van door gets opened, calling the adopters, and making sure that the right dog goes to the right place....well after all that I can truly enjoy seeing the excitement of people meeting their dogs for the first time.   The first adopters to show up were father and son and they adopted Mika. They were surprised at her size. She looked smaller than her picture, but they were so pleased with her....she is so pretty and the perfect medium size.   One adopter brought us all freshly baked muffins and I suspect this was how she passed the time while trying to wait patiently for her little Mattilyn to get here (the muffins were great - thank you!). All in all, so many great matches. One dog did get loose and he made a b-line across the street in pursuit of the perfect place to pee after a long journey. I was an opportunist and grabbed him just as he finished and before he could even think about running to explore.   The two dogs that I knew would cause me trouble were Diesel and Ruff.   Their pictures looked similar...but not to worry...Yvette told me that Ruff has more of a grin and Diesel looked more Rottie-ish in the face.   Well, she knows those dogs way better than me obviously and they both looked like they were grinning! I had to call her to confirm a few more defining features and so Ruff was allowed to leave with his foster home while Diesel carried on to be adopted on the Island.   The dog runs are unpredictable but they always seem to work out well. Gloria, Linda, Rob, Brian and I all unloaded the dogs from the van one by one and took them to a stall to stretch and drink water and eat some food. Little dogs into their own stall to keep the peace and to make it easier when we take them out for their adoptions. It's very tricky to open the stall door and get just one dog out without them all trying to come along.  So separating big dogs and little dogs makes it alot easier, so little guys can't squeak by when you have to open the door wider. Six adoptions were made, one dog reunited with his owner and three dogs to foster. We loaded up the remaining dogs, got their paperwork in order and Brian headed to the ferry for his next destination.
Now...onto my next foster dog. Rollo is such a beauty of a dog!   He has a very unique look to his face. I'm not sure why, but it's just different.   He has an eye color that I would describe as Amber and he has pink around his eyes and white eyelashes. His coat is so soft...like petting a rabbit.   He is very affectionate... and would love to climb on your lap if he could.

After the dog run, some dogs are like little kids that are overly tired but don't want to nap.   When we got home Rollo drank a bunch of water and then was pacing restlessly. I made him lay down and sat with him for not much longer than a couple of minutes before we got these results:

A 2 hour dead-to-the-world nap

Next on the agenda was a bath. Some dogs get them right away and some dogs get to wait a day or so. But with a white dog the dirt shows more and I couldn't resist taking advantage of the sunshine. I gave him a bath by hose and then took him to a warm sheltered area to dry off a little. He tolerated the bath pretty well. He stood still and took it like a trooper.

Spikey bath hair-do

After the bath we went inside where Rollo napped a little more and then we went in the evening for his first city walk. We went to No. 3 Road and he was mostly unphased by the traffic. I redirected his attention when he started focusing on the traffic going by and he was calm and relaxed. He showed alot of interest in every person we saw and he would have followed if he could have. I think he can't figure out why we're not going up to meet everyone, no matter which direction they're going.

When we got home it was bedtime and Rollo plunked down on the Kuranda bed next to my bed and he slept right through the night.   He was excited to see me open my eyes in the morning and once I got up he was ready to go. Today was his first day of dog daycare and I just knew he'd get my monies worth by playing lots and I wasn't wrong. The staff at Playful Paws told me that he played with lots of different dogs. If someone was running he was game for it. If they wanted to wrestless he was in there.   He wants to take part in it all. The only other comment was that he spent a bit of time going back and forth between two golden retrievers and barking in their faces. They're not sure if it was a weird way of prompting play or if he just wasn't too fond of them because they are a little on the high energy side.

After daycare I took Rollo to a large field and put him on the 80' leash to see what he would do.   He would get to the end and then look back at me and wait for me to catch up and then at other points he would come back to me and heel.   When he would get to the end of the leash I could whistle and he would bolt back to me as fast as he could.   He is doing so well!