9/17/13

Hi again everybody!

 

Today, I thought I’d talk about a friend of mine who got adopted a few weeks ago:

 

 

This is Baxter. He’s a former lab beagle, like me.  He was rescued with a bunch of other beagles on February 27^th, almost five months ago. At the time, he’d been living in a cage for four and a half years and still hadn’t been neutered! As you can imagine, he was really nervous and antsy.

 

Like most lab beagles, he had almost no experience being social with other dogs. When I met him for the first time, he got scared of me and started shaking! He has scarring on both front paws where his dewclaws were surgically removed, and he also picked up threadworms from his time in the lab. Gross! He needed dental work too; most lab dogs don’t get very good health care and we tend to chew on the cages. On the positive side, he wasn’t debarked like most lab dogs are (including me).

 

But the last time I met Baxter, he was totally different. Thanks to the help of people at BFP, he’s become much more comfortable with other dogs. He ran right up to me and we started playing! He wanted to tell me how much he loved Caroline, the lady who’s adopted in. She’s a BFP volunteer, and was there the night he was rescued. She also smells good! Here’s a picture of them together:

 

 

Baxter told me about how, during their first week together, Caroline took him hiking with a pack of other dogs. He said he’d never had such a great time! Caroline plans to take him hiking with a pack every weekend, and he’s super excited about it. Baxter’s much more comfortable around other dogs now, and he even gets along with Caroline’s cats. His favorite part of every day is getting a Kong full of peanuts in the afternoon. I should get someone around here to make me one of those!

 

I hope Baxter’s story gave you a better look at how being kept as a lab animal can affect a dog, and how love and care can heal it. I’ll have more to talk about soon, but until then, I hope you all have a wonderful day!

 

-Freedom