Faith

Age: 5 months

Available Date: Now

Updated 11/4/11

 
At nearly 6 months old, Faith has finally turned into a happy puppy and started to put on weight. She had picked up more than a few “bugs” before coming to GRR, and wound up at the vet just a day after switching foster homes, feeling pretty droopy: coughing, vomiting, listless, feverish.  Poor girl! The vet diagnosed a respiratory infection (from several different viruses & bacteria) and put Faith on antibiotics. The meds—plus good food, rest, and loving care—helped Faith turn the corner fast.

Says her foster mom:

This little angel has been through a lot, but I’m confident she’s going to be a little tuffy in time. “Faith” – the name says it all. Have faith in Faith! From a frightened, cowering, undernourished sick little 5-month-old to a scrappy, vocal, energetic pup who gives her sister Summer a run for her money, the transformation in three weeks’ time is absolutely incredible! This little underdog is thriving and a very smart girl indeed. I think she loves to hear herself bark…she’ll just talk/growl to herself or sound vicious when playing with her sister. But it’s all show. In reality, she’s a calm, submissive, incredibly sweet little girl who loves to cuddle. And her fur is absolutely gorgeous… especially considering her young age, the fact that she probably didn’t have a nutritious diet as a baby, AND that  she’s recovering from being sick! Still, after only a few weeks on a quality puppy food, her fur is beautiful. The feathers are incredible on such a young Golden—those on her haunches and front legs are already showing and flowing.

Faith is an excellent car rider; she’s already had lots of road trips, moving foster homes, going to the vet, and just going for fun drives. She gets along great with our pack of five other GRR dogs: three girls, two boys. In fact, Faith and Summer have both decided their favorite family dog is Mojo, a humongous Golden/Great Pyrenees mix whose first prospective forever home declined him bcause he “played too hard.” Indeed he does, as we sometimes have to calm him down when he plays with our pack—he doesn’t understand his power and size and can get carried away. With these pups, though, he is a gentle giant and they adore him. They crawl all over him, lick him, antagonize him and he just lies there and lets them have their fun, once in awhile gently poking back, all in playful fun.
 
Faith and Summer are also incredibly intelligent and pick up on routine quickly. They go to work with Robb every weekday and have learned to greet customers, enjoy watching birds and squirrels, and take no notice of the sounds and vibrations  of machinery….it doesn’t faze them whatsoever. Many times they’ll come up to him as a machine is running (no safety hazard) just to say hi. Plus, they’ve mastered the mealtime ritual like champs! While Robb  prepares dinner, everyone lies down (the puppies sit) and must remain calm while the “chef” puts together their “gour-mutt” meals. They remain calm when their dinner is given to them and all the dogs eat together in close proximity. There is no fighting or trying to get at each other’s meals. It’s great to see SEVEN dogs all dining so politely!

The pups aren’t alone except when we take our weekly trip to the grocery store when all seven Goldens are confined to the kitchen. The pups have been angels; we’ve never come home to any disasters, items/furniture chewed, etc. They have no anxiety fears being left alone.

For a while we were having a little problem with Faith and Summer deciding that the wee hours were the perfect time to get up, take a bathroom break, and then do a little socializing, but luckily for foster mom & dad, they’ve since decided to sleep through the night and party only during the daylight hours. They can easily “hold it” all night.

As a young dog, sweet Faith needs a family who’ll be around plenty to continue giving her direction, guidance, and loads of fun as she grows up.
 

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:

Faith  is our mountain goat.  We came into their room today to discover Faith sitting on top of the crates, rather than in them with everyone else!  (Guess we now know who nabbed those paper towels.) She has managed to climb over the ex-pen twice now; once she was cruising through the house, and the other time just sitting happily on the chairs that are pushed up to the outside of the pen.  She is a smart girl, and very sweet. 

She was the most timid of the pups, and took the longest to ask for a ttention—but now, if I sit down on the floor, she comes right over for pets. She is quite submissive & will instantly drop to the group if she thinks she is in trouble (which of course she hasn't been!). She slinks up to the other dogs trying to come up from under their faces, kissing them.  There isn't any submissive peeing or anything, just submissive posturing. She is great with her food, no protective tendencies at all.

After a few days with Donna, little Faith and her sis Summer headed for a longer term foster home. “All is going well!” is the report. “When we came to get them, the girls were cowering and huddled together. We brought them to the truck where our pack of five GOldens was waiting. I got in the passenger seat and Robb put both girls on my lap. Our dogs looked and sniffed and seemed to say, "Oh, foster dogs. Here we go again." It didn’t take long for Faith and Summer to relax and calm down. They even gave us the typical Golden smile and fell asleep in my lap and slept all the way home; they were so good. After letting them them adjust to everyone and explore the kitchen (not a bark was had!), we fed them. They ate up their dinner up totally. Guess they feel comfortable, as they licked their bowls clean. They are passed out and seem so content. As is typical with puppies, they are in crash mode, where exhaustion has totally taken over! We have some work ahead but they are acclimating well, and our pack has accepted this challenge with wagging tails.”

NOTE: Faith has demodectic (non-contagious) mange, not uncommon in pups. When we get a clear idea of how long the treatment will take we’ll be able to post an available date!