George, a Rescue Dog: Week Three
George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.
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I’m in love with George, and I’m going to be torn apart when he goes to his new rescue foster on Saturday!
Ok, since I got that out of the way, I need to say, this week, George has made incredible progress! He’s gotten so much stronger –his worms are all gone, fleas are all gone, and he’s gaining weight from eating really good quality food.
George loves his walks, just loves them. Look at him battling the strong winds during one of our walks last week.
I’ve mentioned before that I had to quarantine George because of his kennel cough. I have a large room/closet with a nice big window, so that’s where I’ve been keeping him quarantined away from my dogs. I have a kennel in there, with his bed and lost of blankets, but I leave the kennel door open so he can go in an out. I’m just trying to get him used to the kennel for his trip to Virginia.
Here’s George relaxing on one of his blankets.
George in Quarantine
I really knew that George was getting a lot better when he stopped sleeping all day and started to want to get out of quarantine. I walk him about six times a day, short walks, but he wanted to explore the house.
Here he is, pleading for me to let him out.
George Wants Out of Jail
On Tuesday, I left for about two hours for a meeting and came home to find that George broke out of jail and was finding his way around my house, mingling with my dogs.
When I put him back into quarantine, I heard something and I couldn’t believe my ears! George barks!
I felt badly and was laughing at the same time because even my dogs were surprised to hear George bark.
After consulting with our vet, I decided to let George out for limited time periods as long as he wasn’t coughing (mainly because my dogs are vaccinated). He went to sleep next to me as I worked on my computer.
My little work buddy.
What a sweetheart. I just had one more thing I wanted to accomplish with George –getting him groomed.
George is very sensitive about his face. He didn’t like it when I trimmed the hair out of his eyes. When he gets upset, he starts to cough, and it’s not good for dog with heart worms to get worked up, so I’d originally decided just to give him a bath, and not to get him groomed just yet. Plus, with kennel cough, he couldn’t go to the groomer.
But since he’s been so much stronger, I called my dogs’ groomer, Courtney, and asked if she could help me out. Instead of bringing George to her, I asked if she could come to my house and groom George. I warned her that he was really matted and would probably get really upset about being groomed, but she wasn’t dissuaded.
Courtney came over this afternoon. We set up my folding table in the garage and Courtney got to work.
And sure enough, the dog who got so upset when I trimmed the hair in front of his eyes? Yea, he totally let Courtney groom him without a problem. That’s just because she’s awesome, truly, and dogs love her.
Here they are in my garage.
George and Courtney
Courtney did an amazing job! George is older, so he’s got lots of skin tags that she had to work around. He was super matted –he was even matted in the peds of his paws. She took care of all of that. If you are in Houston, and need a groomer, Courtney has always been wonderful with my dogs, and she took such good care of little George today. (She works at Patti’s Pet Depot on Memorial, 281-531-1456 and ask for an appointment with Courtney.)
Are you ready for George’s big reveal?
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George with a haircut!!
Here’s George with his buddy, Meow, having lunch after his spa day with Courtney.
George and Meow
George has the softest fur! And I know that he loves it that I can lightly scratch him now, without getting my fingers caught in all that fur.
Courtney and I decided to take George’s fur pretty short. I usually have my dogs cut this short because I love my dogs, but I don’t love dog hair everywhere. Plus for George, his hair was so matted that it had to come off. And besides, his new foster will have some time before she has to take him to get groomed, and by then his kennel cough will be all gone and he can go to a groomer.
But I just love George’s new ‘do!
