Rocky
Age: 5 months
Available Date: Nov. 1st
Updated 10/12/11
Updated 10/4/11
As the info-mercials always say…
“But wait – there’s more!!”
More what? More Goldens, of course! The very same day that one GRR team was motoring north for the Lockney puppy mill rescue, Jeanae was heading far south to pick up five MORE Goldens. One of them, baby Marigold, is a likely sister to our “Flower Girls” Buttercup and Sweetpea; somehow, she showed up at the shelter a few days later. As for the others—a few days earlier, Lisa had spotted a Craigslist posting featuring four pretty 5-month-olds. “I have 3 females (Summer, Belle, and Faith) and 1 male (Rocky) . Unexpectedly, this litter crept up on us. We really are just looking for a good home for these puppies.” When we contacted him, the owner was so relieved! He couldn’t support all those pups properly on his own (he had several more Goldens, too) and agreed to hand the quartet over to the same shelter where Marigold was staying, so that we could collect everyone at once.
While Marigold was a confident little busybody and shoelace-destroyer from the start (and she has already been matched to a home!), the older pups were scared stiff at first—too many changes, too much travel had just made them shut down, shake like leaves, and cling together as tightly as they could.
But it didn’t take long for them to relax and start acting like puppies. The day after they checked into their “stash” home with Donna, she had them all corralled in the sunroom and—
“OK, I took about a 20-minute break from the puppies. My bad... I walked back in to discover that they had found the roll of paper towels we are using to clean up messes. It was on a bookshelf about 4 feet high. I really didn't think they would get it. It was a full roll when I left, and when I came back there were about 10 sheets left on it, if that! The rest was in inch-size pieces all over the sunroom floor. You could tell how proud they were of themselves! When I came up to the baby-gate they all scattered, assuming they were going to be in big trouble. But when they discovered that they weren’t in the ‘doghouse’ after all, they proceeded to pitch in to ‘help’ clean up the mess! What would have taken about 5 mintues took 20. But boy did they have fun! The remaining 10 sheets have been tucked away for safe keeping, and they have resorted to playing with their Nylabones and each other. I am just no fun at all - taking their toy away.
When we put their collars on for the first time, they were rather uncertain about them. And when we added the leashes, they were scared of them. It took them about half an hour to figure out that the leashes weren't going to hurt them. I think they’ll get used to them quickly, I would guess that they'd just never had a leash and collar put on before! All four pups have met our cats, and they’ve done well with them; they are interested but don’t try to chase. Of course, close supervision is key here.”
Donna made some notes on the individual pups,too:
Rocky is the only boy and seems to be the most dominant of the group, not as timid as his sisters. He was the first who dared to come up to us! He is just a bit protective of his food bowl with other dogs; gives a low rumble if anyone looks like they're going to try to approach his dish, but doesn't follow it up with anything more. (And he has no problem at all with me messing with his food bowl when he is eating.) But he’s very friendly with all of the other dogs otherwise; he likes to play with them, plus he’s delighted to pick up tennis balls and dog toys. Actually I don't have any plushie toys to offer them right now as my own crew has de-stuffed everything in the house! So far, Rocky hasn’t shown any tendency whatsoever to chew on inappropriate things such as the window sills, etc.
He loves attention! If you rub his face he just leans into you. He will let you rub him anywhere. He sleeps thru the night great, and is really trying to listen to our cues.
Rocky has just moved to a new foster home, so we should have more information soon.