July 7, 2010:
I’d like to welcome the newest member of the RAGOM family—Velvet! Let me tell you a little about this sweet, scared girl. She’s a golden mix, estimated to be about 5 years old, weighing 56.6 pounds. She looks mostly golden, but she’s got something in her with those ears! We’ve only had her for 3 days, so we are still learning more about her with each day. From what we know, she used to live on a tie-out at a trailer park. A little over a month ago, there was an argument between two people at the trailer park. Around the time of the argument, someone went over towards Velvet (we don’t know why), but she was clearly scared and there was a bite. Due to the bite, Velvet had to be quarantined for 10 days. During this 10 day period, her owners decided to relinquish her to the shelter. The shelter called RAGOM and once again, we are saving another dog! Velvet went to a foster home, but at the time we didn’t know much about her. We quickly learned that she cannot be around cats. She has a high drive towards them. Unfortunately, there wasn’t another available foster at the time, so poor Velvet went to boarding. She stayed there for 16 days until we were able to pick her up on Saturday. Now she’s safe in our loving house, but is still very stressed. I’m pretty sure I’d be stressed if I spent the majority of the past month living in a kennel. We are taking a guess that she did A LOT of barking while in the kennel because her barks are very “hoarse” sounding. Hopefully, once she settles down, her voice can rest and she will get her normal bark back. Only time will tell. Considering what she’s been through, she is a really sweet girl.
We went to the vet today because she has loose stool with blood in it. The vet did a fecal test, which came back negative for parasites (YAY!), but had a high clostridium count. She is now on some meds and a bland diet to try to get her on a regular schedule. Other than that, she looks like a healthy little girl. It does look like she may have been a mama before. After Thursday, that won’t happen again because she’s going to get spayed.
Some other things about Velvet in the short time that we’ve had her:
Well, those are a few things about our newest RAGOM girl. If you’d like to find out more about her, come visit the RAGOM booth at History Cruze Night and Car Show this Friday night from 6-10 p.m in North St. Paul. This will be her first event and which may pose to be too much stress for her, but we are going to see how she does. We will be there closer to 6 p.m., so if you want to meet her, come early!
| Golden Retriever | Born: May 2005 |
| Female | 54 lbs |
Status: Adopted
July 7, 2010:
I’d like to welcome the newest member of the RAGOM family—Velvet! Let me tell you a little about this sweet, scared girl. She’s a golden mix, estimated to be about 5 years old, weighing 56.6 pounds. She looks mostly golden, but she’s got something in her with those ears! We’ve only had her for 3 days, so we are still learning more about her with each day. From what we know, she used to live on a tie-out at a trailer park. A little over a month ago, there was an argument between two people at the trailer park. Around the time of the argument, someone went over towards Velvet (we don’t know why), but she was clearly scared and there was a bite. Due to the bite, Velvet had to be quarantined for 10 days. During this 10 day period, her owners decided to relinquish her to the shelter. The shelter called RAGOM and once again, we are saving another dog! Velvet went to a foster home, but at the time we didn’t know much about her. We quickly learned that she cannot be around cats. She has a high drive towards them. Unfortunately, there wasn’t another available foster at the time, so poor Velvet went to boarding. She stayed there for 16 days until we were able to pick her up on Saturday. Now she’s safe in our loving house, but is still very stressed. I’m pretty sure I’d be stressed if I spent the majority of the past month living in a kennel. We are taking a guess that she did A LOT of barking while in the kennel because her barks are very “hoarse” sounding. Hopefully, once she settles down, her voice can rest and she will get her normal bark back. Only time will tell. Considering what she’s been through, she is a really sweet girl.
We went to the vet today because she has loose stool with blood in it. The vet did a fecal test, which came back negative for parasites (YAY!), but had a high clostridium count. She is now on some meds and a bland diet to try to get her on a regular schedule. Other than that, she looks like a healthy little girl. It does look like she may have been a mama before. After Thursday, that won’t happen again because she’s going to get spayed.
Some other things about Velvet in the short time that we’ve had her:
Well, those are a few things about our newest RAGOM girl. If you’d like to find out more about her, come visit the RAGOM booth at History Cruze Night and Car Show this Friday night from 6-10 p.m in North St. Paul. This will be her first event and which may pose to be too much stress for her, but we are going to see how she does. We will be there closer to 6 p.m., so if you want to meet her, come early!
Well, it's official! Velvet went to her forever home on Monday. It didn't take the "W" family long to fall in love with her (but I knew that would happen!). She's such a great dog and we feel very lucky to have had her for the past 4 months. During that time, she made herself quite at home....see the attached picture!! What a goof. Anyway, we want to wish both the "W" family and Velvet a long, wonderful life together. Keep in touch!!
On Saturday, I took Velvet and our resident to visit all the available dogs at Chuck and Don's in Roseville. Velvet did great visiting with everyone there. We're working on getting Velvet to slow down while she eats, so Velvet's got this newfangled dog dish (AKA...a muffin tin!), but it seems to be helping. She will sit and watch me until I release her to eat. She's such a good little learner! Anyway, Velvet just wanted to wish everyone a happy, safe Halloween. Check out her photo shoot...I bet she can't wait to go to her new home next week...one without these silly handband things! But I know she's gonna miss those snooze sessions with her foster sister!
My new food dish
Harvest Time
Happy Halloween
A lazy Sunday afternoon
I’m sorry it has been a while since I’ve sent an update on our sweet Velveteen, but she’s been busy! I am originally from South Carolina, so my husband and I have an oyster roast every October. Velvet was lucky enough to be here for this year’s festivities. Even with 100 people moving in and out of the yard, Velvet did great. She wanted to be near me, so I had her tethered to me most of the day. She greeted everyone (including kids) with her tail wagging. I’ve attached a picture of her looking at the oysters with great interest. “What are those crazy looking things, FM?”
Look at those oysters!
Many of our RAGOM friends joined us at the party and were asking if Velvet had anyone interested in her. The answer is “YES”! Velvet met a family last weekend and they have decided to adopt her. She will go to her forever home at the beginning of November. Her new family consists of two adult people (no kids, cats, dogs), so she will get all the love from them and won’t have to share any of it! That’s what I envisioned for our sweet girl as she lives out the rest of her life. Having begun her life outside with little socialization, I’m so excited she’ll be able to go everywhere they go. They plan on taking her to doggie obedience, which Velvet will do great because she’s such a quick learner. Plus, they will take her on daily 2-3 mile walks, which I know Ms. Velvet would love to do. What a life! I’m so excited for all of them.
 Chillin' with FD at Goldzilla |
 A big thank you to my Goldzilla supporters |
 Look at me sit |
 I know that tennis ball is up there somewhere |
 I chase the ball, Savannah chases me |
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The past two weekends have been “super fun” for Velvet. First off, she got to attend our resident dog, Savannah’s, 10th birthday party. Quite surprisingly, Velvet didn’t mind wearing the birthday hat. She just walked around for a good 3 minutes before trying to take it off. She even met a dachshund that came to the party. I didn’t know how she would react given her fetish for cats, but with careful introductions, she clearly knew this small creature was a dog and not a cat. Good girl, Velvet!
Yesterday, we went to the RAGOM event at Petsmart in Plymouth. Thank you to everyone that came out to meet all of the wonderful dogs. We had a great turn out of foster dogs and visitors. The only draw back that some people may have regarding Velvet is that she tends to bark in busy situations, like the RAGOM event yesterday. Keeping in mind her background story being tied up outside her whole life in a trailer park where apparently there were many arguments and the police were called often, I’m sure she learned how to bark there. That’s 5 years of barking. We are working on breaking her of this by giving her opportunities to be in busy situations and to begin to feel safe in these situations. I’m also working on trying to ignore “barky” behavior and praising “quiet” behavior. It took about an hour of intermittent barking and consistent ignoring/praising, but Velvet finally laid down and relaxed. Hopefully this will get better with time and continued consistency. She will need a family that will be willing to work on this with her. She doesn’t bark in our house (she’s a perfect house guest), but she does when we go to public places (Petsmart, the vet, Slice of Shoreview parade). I would strongly recommend obedience school for Velvet. She is a pretty quick learner (already learned her name, sit, down, come, stay, wait, drop it, go lay down), but obedience school will refine what she’s learning with me and give her opportunity to work on the barking as a way to deal with uncomfortable situations.
If you feel like you can work on the barking, which is not that bad, Velvet is a WONDERFUL dog. I can’t say enough good things about her. She is loyal (follows me everywhere). She loves to play fetch. She doesn’t get into anything inappropriate in the house. She is a great snuggler. She is respectful of our resident dog’s food unless they are too close together. She doesn’t beg for food, even if you’re sitting on the couch. She walks pretty well on the Gentle Leader. She tolerates baths. She has never growled at people. She tolerates most dogs. She loves to play with doggie toys. She respects baby gates and doesn't show signs of separation anxiety if you leave her with a peanut butter filled Kong. Etc., etc. etc.!
Just a few things to keep in mind when deciding if Velvet would be right for your family: She shouldn’t go to a family with a cat or young children. She wouldn’t need another dog to play with, as she would rather play with a tennis ball--or 3! She is an AWESOME dog and such a sweetie!! If you would like to meet Velvet and see for yourself, just contact your placement advisor and we’ll see what we can do. Until next time, enjoy the new pictures.
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Well, Velvet had such an exciting weekend. We loaded Velvet, our resident dog (Savannah), and our dog sitting dog (Cami) into the car and drove to a friend’s house in New Ulm on Saturday. Our friend has 4 dogs (one of which is Fabio 10-157), so when we arrived it was just a sea of seven goldens—well maybe a couple were “lab-ish”—but still fun! Velvet did great—not one scuffle. It was great because she got to run around a large enclosed yard, chasing after the tennis ball. Needless to say, she was konked out when we got home. Thanks, Dayle. So many dogs, so much fun!
Velvet has a new trick…two tennis balls at once. I told you, she is gonna need the Costco size of tennis balls. Next up, three at a time…well maybe not, but she sure does try!
We had our neighbors over for National Night Out last night, and everyone just loved her. There were even small children, which she did fine with, but I would still say “no small children” because she does grab the ball out of someone’s hand without consideration of your fingers. It hurts for an adult if you’re not paying attention, much less a child. She doesn’t mean to, just really loves that ball!
Wow, where does the time go? We have had her for a month now and she is really blossoming into a wonderful, sweet dog. There is a family out there that would be lucky enough to have her join their family. Is that you? If you want to meet Velvet, just let your placement advisor know.
P.S. Velvet will be at the Mounds View City Hall event Saturday (August 7) from 9-11.
Thank you to everyone that came out to support RAGOM as we walked in the Slice of Shoreview parade last Saturday. It was a lot of fun. I’m happy to report that Velvet did pretty well. She got along with all of the dogs and was a good walker on the Gentle Leader. She was a bit excited and “requesting” attention so she did tend to bark a bit. She does that in our house as well. She’s like a four year old that just taps on your shoulder and continues to say your name! We are trying to extinguish the behavior by ignoring her when she barks as a means to get attention and immediately praising her when she calms down. It’s much easier to work on in the privacy of your home versus the excitement of a parade, but overall she did well. Her forever home will need to be patient with the barking thing. She is starting to get it and it certainly isn’t all of the time, just when SHE thinks it’s time for her to get pets. As the owners, we have to teach her otherwise.
Since the weather’s been so nice, we’ve spent quite a bit of time outside in the backyard. She did great when we had a bunch of people over for a cookout this past weekend. She didn’t try to get anyone’s food and was very respectful to everyone. I know she came into RAGOM with a bite incident, but since in our care, she hasn’t made one growly, cranky noise (over anything). I truly think that was an isolated incident where she felt threatened. She has been such a gem for us. We call her our “love bug”. You can request to meet her by contacting your Placement Advisor.
Happy Girl!
I got it!
I love my tennis balls!
Look at that extension!
Waiting for the Slice of Shoreview parade