Mundane Monday, Vol. XXII: My Secondhand Dog is Pretty Great

Monday, December 15, 2014

I can't believe I didn't post about this sooner.

Two months ago, we adopted this fantastic dog from a local rescue. Her name is Vesper! She's a 2-3 year old German Shepard.

We speculate that she had not been indoors much in her life because she was very unsure of walking on hardwood flooring and tile. For a couple of days, she would play Hot Lava and needed a pathway of towels around the house before she gained confidence to walk across these surfaces. We had to teach her how to go up and down stairs until she could use them with ease. She freaked out a little the first time she saw a reflection in a mirror. She doesn't know how to play with toys and has no training what so ever, but she's learning her basic commands.

Despite all this, she's a phenomenal dog. Solid personality; affectionate, confident, very friendly with other dogs, gentle, calm for the most part, polite when meeting new people, loves our jogs, and quite the pushover. Also her ears are way more velvety than pictures can convey.

How do my other cats feel about the new addition?

Just kidding. That's a picture I took mid-yawn.

Widget (this fellow pictured) is actually way happier compared to when our other cat joined the gang. He's curious about Vesper, though he prefers that she maintain a-, ahem, healthy distance. Gallifrey (the ginger) is coming around too, though she is not as dog savvy. All three of them are coexisting quite nicely.

She's had a few health problems; her teeth aren't in great shape, she had infections in her eye and in her anal glands, to name some. Vesper however, is quite the trooper and is generally just a happy, peaceful dog.

I can't believe that somebody out there didn't want this gentle creature.