Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Black Lab Birthday - Happy Rescue Dog

Happy Birthday Butch! He is 7 yrs old today and looking better than ever. I adopted Butch last June (2008) on the spur of the moment. His life-long owner had been in a terrible accident and would never be coming home or be able to care for a dog again. None of the local rescue groups had room or were willing to take an older large black male Labrador with skin problems and hip dysplasia. Butch could not go on living alone in a house with only 2 visits each day, so I drove out and got him. Here he is almost a year later and we think he has done pretty well for himself! Before he was happy, but he rarely went for walks - or anywhere since his owner was a recluse - and he had no dog friends or spent much time with people either. Here he enjoys daily romps with 4 or more other Labs and gets to go to hunting camp with "Daddy Jim" where they have many adventures. His previous owner never gave him any discipline because he was afraid Butch would not love him -- but since living here he has learned a lot. He had been inadvertently trained to do the opposite of what anyone said because they would quickly reach for biscuits to bribe him. It has been a hard habit to break and we are not finished yet, but he has made great progress. Mostly he is very well behaved and a sweet guy to have around. For the first 2 months he chose to spend most of his time alone in the coat closet and did not know about making eye contact or really relating to people. Now he is part of the family and eye contact on cue has been one of his best lessons. He has very sweet, soft brown eyes. Along the way I discovered that he was a sucker for cuddling and kisses - I don't think he got much of that before. Now every morning he asks me for hugs, kisses, nunus and ear rubs. Butch was the name he came with, but it hardly fits such a mild-mannered boy. He still does have a naughty side and somewhere along the way earned the name "B Quad" (as in B to the 4th) which stands for Big, Black, Bad Butch. Happy Birthday B Quad -- you old sweetie pie.

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