Meet Walter

Shawn — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:16:45 +0000

I know everybody loves my musings on media, music, sports and whatever, but this has kind of taken over my spare brain space the last few days…

Walter (a temporary name we’ve given him) is looking for a permanent home. He is a 13 pound terrier mix and about one year old. I found him wandering the trail by Chabot Equestrian Center last Thursday. I’ve put up posters in the area, a CraigsList ad and a Fidofinder ad, but no one has come forward.

This doesn’t surprise me. He was not neutered, did not have any flea medication and had two “cherry eyes,” an ugly tear duct problem that requires a simple $500 surgery. My hunch – and that of everyone who’s met him – is that he was probably dumped up there because of the expense of taking care of him.

The good news is the good folks at Montclair Veterinary Hospital were kind enough to do his neutering and his eye surgery for free. This was done yesterday and he is recovering well. He should be back to full speed in about a week.

Walter will be a good dog for someone who is active, but not exceptionally so. He has a very mellow energy, but loves to be outside. When we return home from walks, he looks at our front stairs with disappointment; “what, here again?” But while we’re home he mostly sleeps and relaxes in our sunny backyard. Despite being a small guy, he’s pretty tough on the trail. We’ve done mostly-flat hikes as long as 2 miles and he enjoys it, though he’s pretty pooped at the end. I don’t think he’d be happy as a dog who stays in the house all day long every day.

I think his ideal situation would be with either an adult who is home a lot or with a family with small children.

He looks pretty scruffy now and he’s not allowed to have a bath for a week until his stitches heal. After he gets a haircut and shampoo, though, Walter’s going to be a handsome little boy!

He will definitely need to go to training class. He is polite, has learned that he has to be patient to get his food and is surprisingly not food-focused for a pup.

We are working on crate training him, but I’m not sure he gets it yet. Walter does have a little bit of separation anxiety – scratching at doors and whining – but this may disappear with training and his own growing confidence. (He has, after all, only been here six days.) The crate training may present a solution for this.

Walter gets along just fine with other dogs, including my adult female who outweighs him by 2x. I took him to the small dog park in Alameda on Monday and he did great. He seems to be fairly submissive, getting jumped on more than he jumps on others. He will take up challenges, though, and wrestle. And it should be noted that he is very much a Boy Dog, trying to mark every tree & bush on our walks.

He seems to get along well with small children. In fact, when I originally found him on the trail I then brought him back to the stables where he was immediately surrounded by four 8-year olds who surrounded him and all put his hands on him. He submitted to this.

I do not know how we would be with cats.

Although I’m not sure it’s correct to declare him officially ‘Housebroken,’ we have had no accidents in the house.

He is already a devotee of car rides. He doesn’t like getting in the car, but once that window is down, he is way into it!

If you would like to visit Walter to see if he’s the right dog for you, please E-mail back to arrange a visiting time. We have grown quite attached to him so we are going to try to be careful to place him in the best possible home. I expect that we will wind up with multiple interested parties, so please be prepared to tell us about your experience with dogs, how you expect to live with him and why your home could be a great fit. If we are unable to find a fit ourselves by May 21, we will have him registered with a local rescue group (though we will likely remain his foster home).

This month’s good deed

Shawn — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:41:59 +0000

Sometimes the world demands you stop and help.

I found this guy alone by a shade tree in a not-so-remote area of Anthony Chabot Regional Park.� Covered with bugs and filth, I took about 15 minutes to convince him that I could leash him.� I brought him back to the horse stables where he was immediately surrounded by children.� Patiently and tiredly, he let them pet him with hardly a trace of aggression. Now he’s here at my feet, a mellow slightly scared guy.

Thanks to the folks at Montclair Veterinary Hospital, he’ll be neutered on Tuesday and his cherry eyes will be repaired, all for free.� I’ll be fostering him until I figure out the right rescue agency.

The Entroporium » dogs

Meet Walter

This month’s good deed