Update on Kermit

Some people thought it shouldn't be allowed. They said that Kermit - my sweet, happy Kermit - should be forced to continue living in a kennel at a no-kill shelter instead of being allowed to come live with me. I won't be able to tell you what his life was like while he lived in the shelter. But I can tell you what his life is like now. He follows me around the house. He lives quite happily with Remi and Noelle and Ziggy. He goes outside and runs and plays with all three dogs, and then he comes in and sleeps at Dave's feet. .

He never stays in a crate or a kennel - he has free run of the house and yard. He's never had any disagreements with any other dog.  He goes everywhere with a big smile on his face. He goes to adoption events every week - something that was impossible when he was at the shelter (which is closed to the public). He runs errands with me, and we go on walks. I don't know how to describe to you how happy he is, but it makes me very angry that some people wanted to deny him this. When politics get in the way of doing what is best for a dog, the dog is the one who loses. I'm so grateful for those rescue volunteers who were willing to do what was best for Kermit, in spite of the politics involved. They made his life a lot happier. And whether he gets adopted in the next week or continues to live with me for weeks or months, he is very much loved, and I will always do what is best for him.

Kermit has received two adoption applications in the past week! One family saw him at PetSmart last week, and the other one saw him online. I am trying to not get my hopes too high that one of these families will work out for him, so I'm not disappointed if it doesn't work out. That's actually not too hard, since I haven't had him here very long, and I would really love to spend more time with him. But if the right family comes along, I will be happy for him that he gets to go to his own forever family.

One of the rescue volunteers helped me bathe Kermit on Thursday. He hasn't had a bath in awhile and she let us go to her house and use her bathtub and supplies - it was quite an adventure!  Thank you Sue - now Kermit will look his best for the adoption event today.  

Bath Time

Emma came to me in rather a smelly state.  She had lived her life mostly outdoors, and it showed...errr, smelled.  Bad.  So I decided a bath was in order.  No problem, right?  Labs like water.  This should be easy. 

My first clue came when I gave each of the other dogs a rawhide to munch on while I was busy with Emma, and lured Emma to the bathroom with her rawhide.  As soon as we started to enter the bathroom, she dropped the rawhide and tried to run away.  At this point there was no water present, no towels, nothing to indicate a bath was coming.  But the sight of the empty bathtub was enough to make her give up her treat and send her running for cover. 

No big deal, I thought.  I have given baths to at least 20 or 30 dogs, and 10 cats, most of whom did not wish to be bathed. I can handle an unhappy dog in the bathtub. So I went and got Emma, and picked her up and placed her in the bathtub.  Fortunately the tub is enclosed by sliding shower doors so she could not jump out. 

We started off easy.  She huddled at one end of the tub, and I turned on the water at the other end.  I got her a little bit wet, and the mud just ran off of her.  Then she figured out how to use her nose to open the sliding door and jumped out of the tub.  And shook herself - and muddy water - all over the bathroom. 

"Okay, I can handle this", I thought.  I put her back in the tub and tried again.  This time I got her covered with shampoo before she got out.  At this point she was a bit panicked.  She ran all over the bathroom trying to find a place to escape from the evil bathtub.  But I couldn't let her go with shampoo all over her - and unfortunately it was too cold out to just rinse her off with the hose outside.  So I got some beef treats, and we spent some time just hanging out in the bathroom while she calmed down.  She started coming to the tub and even would put her feet over the edge to get a treat from me.  But she wouldn't get back in.  It was getting late and I didn't think she'd make any more progress right then, so I decided to call in reinforcements.  Fortunately my husband Dave was home and he came in and helped me get Emma back in the tub.  Then he held the doors closed while I rinsed the shampoo off of her as best I could.  At that point I wasn't worried about her getting clean - I just wanted to get enough shampoo off that she could get out of there.  So a few minutes later we let her out of the bathtub, and she again did her freaked out running around and trying to escape.  She even jumped up into the bathroom sink at one point.  The dog is seriously scared of baths. 

So now I have a slightly cleaner dog that is a failure as a lab.  She won't fetch, and she doesn't like water.   Hopefully someone out there will want a slightly smelly Labrador Failure.