She was terrified of my husband (ALL animals love him...) and would run into things to get away from him. We could never figure out why because she was so great with me. She snuggled up to me on the couch and in bed at night. She was SO warm!! I named her Riley and it suited her SO well. She was so skinny with big ears and sweet brown eyes. When I'd take a shower in the morning, she would have to be in the bathroom with me laying in the floor waiting for me to come out. Whenever I talked to her, her tail would wag so hard she'd almost knock herself over. She was buddies with our husky Makana and they'd run so fast through the yard it was like Oaklawn (Racing Track for those of you not in AR) in my backyard. She had even begun to warm up to my stepson, Z.
The sad part is that I finally admitted that we needed to find a home where she wasn't so afraid of people. She would lay down with J and watch tv, but I'd have to hand her to him. He'd rub her belly and she'd eventually relax and lay on her back (which was her fave sleeping position too.... complete with paws in the air) and sometimes halfway snooze. But then she was terrified once she was back on the floor. So strange. He had never raised his voice or hand to her. We're afraid that with my being pregnant, that she could knock me over when she got scared. She had tripped me a few times but I had caught myself on a door frame or something.
And of course, 4 dogs is a lot to handle for a busy household like ours. J works full time and goes to school full time in the evenings so it's basically up to me to take care of the dogs. We have a lab/chow mix named Deejay that J has had for 13 years. She's very protective of us and our house. We keep her inside when we're not home to safeguard our house since my purse got stolen on 12/14/07 (right before Christmas, thank you). We have Makana, a very sweet and intelligent husky that we rescued a few years ago and we also have a big, sweet, affectionate collie named Fletcher that we rescued. So, we have 3 large dogs... all are housetrained but Makana stays outside all day and comes in at night. Fletchy likes sleeping on the back deck during the day and roaming the neighborhood after we get home. They all sleep inside at night. All are housetrained and very well behaved. Riley was the one who was a lot of work. We got her housetrained but she still had accidents and then she barfed on my bed!! YUCK!! So we decided that I needed a little relief and called the Rescue.
J's friend at the rescue, K, was wonderful and completely understood. She hugged me several times today as I was crying the whole time. K said that she would update me regularly on Riley and that she was going to a good home. She's going to a single father with two boys, ages 3 and 7. The Dad had to have his sheltie of 13 years put to sleep recently and so he was a sheltie person. That made me feel better, but I hope Riley can adapt to 3 males. And I hope she gets a stable home. K called me an hour after we parted ways (with Riley staring at me from the truck window and me bawling) and needed some more information, but told me that Riley was snuggled up to her on the couch and watching tv. So that makes me feel better.
My attraction to shelties is from my BABY that I had to put to sleep after almost 8 years named Baleigh (pronounced like Bailey). She was all I had when I was in college and kept me from being depressed and lonely. I'll talk more about her later. She was NOT a dog, she was human to me.
So anyway, very sad day for me and I'll miss her little warm self next to me tonight. :(
Riley in J's lap the night we got her (9/30/07) and Fletcher in the front.
Riley first thing in the morning, a week after we got her.
Christmas Fletchy and a shy Riley (my husband had to hold her still next to Fletcher.)
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