Zoey

Things changed around here at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday August 14.  Into our lives came a petit young female whirling dervish in the form of a golden retriever.  Her beginnings are a mystery, but what we do know is that about three weeks ago she was rescued from a miserable life of neglect, with a choke chain collar embedded in her neck, and horrific untreated ear infections.  Turtle Gardens in Topley BC cared for her after the RCMP removed her from a hellish life, and Dave from TG delivered her to us at Tim Horton’s in 100 Mile House en route to the coast and Vancouver Island with a van near bursting with lucky dogs going to their adoptive homes.

Yvette at Turtle Gardens named this girl Zori, a Romanian word meaning “Dawn”, but as we have a close family member named Dori, and Mike couldn’t tell if I was talking about a dog or a person half the time, we settled on Zoey.  And so Zoey she is forever more.

Within minutes of her arrival, she had removed food from the kitchen counter, stood on the dining room table, tried to disembowel three plush dog beds, terrorized the cat, and had Mike and I staring slack jawed at each other wondering what kind of idiot I was in offering this creature a home.  We introduced her to Rudy, Jasper and Cody and wandered around our fully escape proof yard with her.  Eight seconds later she was gone, and we were once again left gawking at each other wondering exactly how we’d manage to tell Yvette that we’d managed to lose her dog within the space of 15 minutes.  We found her again down the road about 10 minutes later (no traffic in our area at 6 a.m. on a Sunday), and she happily submitted to  capture, and was on leash arrest for the next 48 hours.

Next on the agenda was a bath, which left me almost as wet as Zoey.  Fresh and clean, she then tore the face off her new plush mallard duck toy and renewed her assaults on the dog beds. Here she is with Ducky moments before his destruction.  As of yesterday he has no squeaker and not much stuffing.

And then she crawled up onto Mike’s lap, and won his heart.  She’d already grabbed my heart the minute I saw these pictures.

Her neck wound is now fully closed, and her ears look 60% improved.  A visit to the vet yesterday revealed a continuing yeast infection in both ears, so we have new medication for that for the next two weeks.  John proclaimed that otherwise she’s in good shape. She was angelic at the vet’s office…and though she’s mellowing out at home, she has a long way to go to adapt to life here.  She’s sweet and funny and boisterous, but there is a manic edge to her play as she works off pent up anxiety.   She has had minor scraps with both Rudy and Jasper, and I believe that she will end up as the "middle" dog in the family heirarchy.  Mike and Cody have gone back to work...Cody dealt with the new interloper by ignoring her completely and retiring to his bed to sulk. 

We are taking long walks before breakfast to work off extra energy.  She walks well with her harness.  No collars for Zoey for a while yet. Ideally, I’d have brought her home when I was able to take two or three weeks off work, but sadly I’ve used up nearly all of my vacation and have to work full time.  Hellos are overly ecstatic and boisterous, and goodbyes are tragedies in her doggy world.  I am definitely her human already, yesterday she couldn’t let me out of her sight, but today she happily wanders in and out of the house when the door is open.  The half acre dog proof yard is once again dog proof now that she knows where she belongs.

Welcome home, Zoey.