Colton's 10th "Gotcha Day"
Wednesday was Colton's 10th Gotcha Day. That's the day rescues and rehomes celebrate getting to their 'forever homes' in beardiedom.
The night we picked him up from his breeder at a friend's house in West Linn, I was quite nervous. I mean, what if she didn't think I was good enough for him? She let me have him despite my self-doubts and we headed off home. Naturally I'd not gotten around to buying a few key things...like a dog dish! So we stopped off at Petco on the way home. I hopped out of the car, handed his leash to Carolyn and told her to let him out for a potty break. When I got out of the store, she'd not only let him potty, but also let him go tromping through all the bushes and tall grass he could find. The dog I'd picked up from his breeder perfectly groomed, was completely wrecked!
I was in a panic. On Friday, I had to go up to the beardie regional near Seattle where the breeder was going to make sure we were doing OK together before finalizing his coming to live with me. How in the world was I going to get him groomed up that well again? I spent most of Thursday evening on the floor brushing madly trying to get his coat sorted back out. We went up to the show on Friday and I was allowed to keep him.
The rest, as they say, is history!
On Wednesday, neither of us had a particularly good day. He had to go to the vet for an ultrasound and biopsy of his liver to see if we could find out what's causing his bloodwork to be off. There are some changes in his liver that are a bit odd, one adrenal gland is enlarged, and you can't image the pancreas well enough to be sure there isn't a tumor there, but the good news is that there were no tumors seen anywhere that was imaged! I was pretty much set to hear when I picked him up that there were tumors everywhere. I'm so glad that's not the case at this point.
The better parts of Wednesday were the morning we spent together while I did client interviews at a church in Hillsboro. He got to play service/therapy dog and calm clients down. Then after I picked him up at the vet, we went to Brin's agility class where Colton got to come in and visit, mooch treats, and get cuddles from the other students. He also got to hang out with Molly (beardie) for a bit. He was so quiet over in the corner with her that I completely forgot he was there, went to walk the course, and then only realized he was still wandering around loose in the barn when I went to get Brin out to run and Colton's crate was empty. It was very nice having come out just to hang around.
I'm hoping we'll have another Gotcha Day, but I'm not counting on it. So we'll just have to enjoy each day as it comes.
The night we picked him up from his breeder at a friend's house in West Linn, I was quite nervous. I mean, what if she didn't think I was good enough for him? She let me have him despite my self-doubts and we headed off home. Naturally I'd not gotten around to buying a few key things...like a dog dish! So we stopped off at Petco on the way home. I hopped out of the car, handed his leash to Carolyn and told her to let him out for a potty break. When I got out of the store, she'd not only let him potty, but also let him go tromping through all the bushes and tall grass he could find. The dog I'd picked up from his breeder perfectly groomed, was completely wrecked!
I was in a panic. On Friday, I had to go up to the beardie regional near Seattle where the breeder was going to make sure we were doing OK together before finalizing his coming to live with me. How in the world was I going to get him groomed up that well again? I spent most of Thursday evening on the floor brushing madly trying to get his coat sorted back out. We went up to the show on Friday and I was allowed to keep him.
The rest, as they say, is history!
On Wednesday, neither of us had a particularly good day. He had to go to the vet for an ultrasound and biopsy of his liver to see if we could find out what's causing his bloodwork to be off. There are some changes in his liver that are a bit odd, one adrenal gland is enlarged, and you can't image the pancreas well enough to be sure there isn't a tumor there, but the good news is that there were no tumors seen anywhere that was imaged! I was pretty much set to hear when I picked him up that there were tumors everywhere. I'm so glad that's not the case at this point.
The better parts of Wednesday were the morning we spent together while I did client interviews at a church in Hillsboro. He got to play service/therapy dog and calm clients down. Then after I picked him up at the vet, we went to Brin's agility class where Colton got to come in and visit, mooch treats, and get cuddles from the other students. He also got to hang out with Molly (beardie) for a bit. He was so quiet over in the corner with her that I completely forgot he was there, went to walk the course, and then only realized he was still wandering around loose in the barn when I went to get Brin out to run and Colton's crate was empty. It was very nice having come out just to hang around.
I'm hoping we'll have another Gotcha Day, but I'm not counting on it. So we'll just have to enjoy each day as it comes.