Ziggy's Journey Continued...
I got a call from Chris when he was about 10 minutes out
from our house.
I have to confess that I was more than a little nervous,
feeling more apprehensive over the introductions that had to take place between
canines. How shut down was he? How thin? Would an illness rear it’s ugly head?
He probably isn’t house trained. How am I going to make time for the whole
pack, especially walking them all with no fenced yard to rely on for exercise?
How and when was I going to integrate Luke into our over scheduled lives?
I had fully prepared as much as anyone could in 24 hours,
fixing 2 exercise runs together in our house, pulling out a crate from the
garage, shopping for toys, kongs and treats for the new arrival and my own pack
as well. I set up the pens, trying to figure out what would be the best
configuration, redoing the configurations dozens of times. Finally, exhausted,
I accepted that it would do for now.
I hear the car pull up and get excited.
There he was, that sweet puppy I saw in the picture, just as afraid and shut down.
Luke didn’t want to come out of the car.
He sought refuge in
the passenger side floorboard.
I wanted him to come out when he got the nerve, on his own,
without pulling him or picking him up.
I sat on the ground with the door open
and my back to him, my hand reaching out behind me, hoping he wouldn’t feel
threatened.
After a minute, that seemed like an eternity, Luke responded
by easing out of his safety zone and into the unknown, trusting me to be his
friend.
With a few tail tucked spins on the end of the leash,
there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, he arrived… home.
Within seconds he began to leap with happiness, play posture and show signs of
being a typical puppy.
Watching Luke leap, run and play I realized that by nature
he was a happy dog all along. In fact, Luke was one of the happiest, most
joyful dogs I had ever seen. I’ve
witnessed dogs being grateful to their rescuers, but this was different. He was
so full of life, it bubbled up and overflowed. I would watch him from a
distance, play by himself, tossing his sticks and balls in the air and catching
them. He loved playing with other dogs too, but was content to amuse himself
for long periods of time. I kept thinking to myself, this puppy was so full of
life and that life would have been snuffed out just 24 hours ago.
His whole short story was a one of extreme contrasts, then
and now: death/life, alone/in a pack, terrified/joyful, sad/happy,
discomfort/contentedness, hungry/full, shut down/playful.
After 24 hours of spoiled dog orientation, we started taking
little walks in the neighborhood. It was time to see what was in store for
socialization. I took a great picture of Luke with my phone. He already looked
like a completely different dog. He looked bigger. His coat didn’t look dull
anymore and neither did his expression. He seemed to quickly be coming into his own and
finding his way in his new life.
I sent the picture to Karen who runs the Aussie network and
that’s when he transitioned from his old life as Luke to his new life as Ziggy.
