4/30/06: Annabelle (~3 yr old spayed female Golden) and Scout (~1.5 yr old neutered male Golden) are two of the sweetest dogs you’ll ever meet. After a day and a half with them, I’ve fallen hard, as did their original rescuers in Iowa. Here’s what we know of their history: once upon a time, they had a loving family and were raised as indoor dogs. They appear to be well socialized, have good indoor manners, are completely housebroken, ride well in the car, and even offer up their paws for wiping off when coming inside (which is great, considering it hasn’t stopped raining since they got here). As the result of a divorce, they wound up with a new family, who kept them in a barn and were pretty neglectful. Needless to say, Annabelle and Scout must have known there was a better life out there waiting for them, and one day when the door was left ajar, they got the heck out of Dodge. I don’t think they are your typical “runners”, however, since they’ve made no attempt to get more than 5 feet away from me, or the house or yard, and seem pretty content here already.
They were picked up as strays by a rescue group in Iowa and despite the fact that they looked a little rough around the edges at first, they both come with a clean bill of health – negative for heartworm and Lymes, and negative fecals too! They have been bathed, de-flea’d, de-tick’d, and de-burr’d, micro-chipped and brought up to date on their shots. Both could use a little additional primping but I’m hoping one of these days it stops raining so we can do some grooming in the backyard while also having some fun.
Annabelle and Scout are beautiful BIG dogs. Scout is a dark red gold (with a tiny bit of white on his chest) and weighs around 80 lbs, which is pretty close to ideal for him. Annabelle is a lighter gold and, shall we say a bit full-figured, weighing in at 100 lbs, so her forever family will need to practice some good weight management with her (Sorry Belle, but I think she’d say the same about me). These two are mother and son and have never been apart. That said, they are definitely closely bonded, but also have their individual personalities and both seem most concerned with human attention (especially Scout, who is 100% Velcro dog!)… so for that reason, I don’t think they necessarily need to stay together.
Both have the typical affectionate, attention-seeking Golden personality, but Annabelle is the more independent of the two (she is sleeping in another room right now, whereas Scout is at my feet – no actually ON my feet – and will gladly get up to accompany me to the kitchen or bathroom as needed). Neither are especially needy though, so I expect them to do fine when left alone in the house… they slept last night baby-gated in the kitchen without a peep and have both been completely trustworthy with free reign of the house while I’m home.
I don’t see any family restrictions for these two so far, although I have yet to introduce them to small children or cats. I think they lived with children most recently but I don’t think they probably had much contact, so we’ll need to test this out. Neither appears to have an aggressive bone in their body and both have let me take food and toys from them without blinking an eye. That said, they are BIG dogs who are prone to butt-wiggling happiness, so a family with small children will at least need to understand that the kids might get knocked over once in a while. Mason (my Golden) and Scout also had a small tiff yesterday, but I think their playing just escalated too quickly, and neither was hurt. I place at least 50% of the blame on Mason for any initial spats with foster dogs since he typically needs to show them who’s boss around here.
Since I am working directly with RAGOM Placement on these two, you are likely already an approved adopter if you are reading this… so let us know if you are interested in meeting one or both of these sweethearts. Oh, and here are some pictures of these gorgeous creatures, although one caveat on Scout – it’s very difficult to get a good picture of the boy since he is never more than 2 inches from your face when the camera is out! I’ll keep trying though… and one other correction – I just got up and left the room for a minute and he continued snoozing peacefully under the desk, so maybe he is only 50% velcro dog afterall, which is a good happy medium :)
Meet Scout & Annabelle |
Annabelle & Scout |
These boys are wearing me out |
