Today I did as I promised and waited for the boys to get home from school so that we could go pick up Cole from the local shelter. That’s them to the right of the stop sign at a FULL RUN once they saw my car!
When we got to the shelter we had leash and collar in hand for Cole, and had LOTS of paperwork to fill out. The boys occupied themselves by reading the 'to be adopted' boards and telling the people in the waiting room all about the dogs (since they had walked quite a few of them).
Once the paperwork was complete one of the staff went to get Cole and another staff member gave the boys the honor of writing Cole’s name on the adoption board. They chose to split his name in HALF and each write two letters so that it was ‘fair.’
Brandon got the first two letters ‘c’ ‘o’ and of course wrote them in BLUE (his favorite color).
Tyler wrote the remaining letters ‘l’ ‘e’ and chose GREEN as his colors.
Hmm, number 18 for Cole, coincidence or NOT. Number 18 is the boys’ favorite player on the Colts Football team, Peyton Manning! Too funny!
Then the moment...the one they had been waiting for. They were handed Cole’s shiny new red leash and he was THEIRS. Of course, what did Mom do, I cried when I saw my boys overjoyed awestricken faces. There was such joy is was overflowing and all the staff came out to watch the reunion between these two little volunteers and their first dog, COLE.
After hugs and kisses to Cole from the staff, and well wishes, and long goodbyes, we were out the door ready for our new life's adventure with the newest Noffze member.
Cole had a little trepidation in the crate and much to the boys LAUGHING surprise....he FARTS when he’s anxious. They thought that was hilarious! I just kept telling myself it was a SHORT ride home.
Next, according to dog expert Caesar Millan, was the LONG walk. We took Cole on a FREEZING rain 2 hour long journey around our neighborhood with NO affection, just rules, boundaries and limitations. Cole is very smart and picked up on them in short order. He learned quickly that he could not pull and his place was at our side. We met two dogs off leash on our walk and Cole did great. He greeted them in a submissive posture and instantly made friends. Good dog!
We made it home free of traumatic events and we even ran across, a rollerblader, thunderously loud cars, cyclist, dogs, pedestrians, mud-puddles and rodents and NONE of them fazed Cole! Yea!
Next was the home coming and INSTANT bath. The poor dog had never been bathed and at 10 months, let me tell you, it was TIME!
The water was pitch black just like the dog and we washed away all the shelter left in him right down the drain. Figuratively and Literally!
He tolerated brushing, hair-drying and the like, and soon, it was off to start the LOVE phase of Caesar's plan.
He got his dinner hand fed by the boys and I to establish hierarchy, then a tour around the house to areas in which he could roam. We played many games of fetch, and then started eating dinner ourselves. He tried one time to come into the kitchen to see what we were eating and was “CHT’d” back out of the kitchen right away. Like I said, he’s a smart one. He stood two feet from the invisible boundary we had established and never tried again to interrupt our dinner. Good DOG!
10:30pm the last bathroom break, and into the crate to go to sleep.
WOW what a first day with Cole!
1 comment:
CONGRATULATIONS!
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