Fuzzy Gus/Happy Endings
Fuzzy Gus
Originally uploaded by Jackye Chan.
With all the animal rescue experience I have under my belt, I never thought it would be possible to reunite a pet with their owner. Sammy, the white lab I fostered for a week, went back to his owner on Saturday after I saw a lost poster with his picture on it at the White Rock dog park earlier that day. I was visiting with my friend Terisa when she suggested we'd go to the dog park since her yard was being worked on. Instead of looking at the bulletin board upon arrival we went around asking everyone if they wanted a one-year-old dog, but nobody was looking. When we read the poster, neither of us wanted to get too excited. The picture sure did look like Sammy, better call and see if he identifies the collar first. Turned out that Sammy is actually a Gus, and he's only 6-months-old! That explains why he peed so freaking much! Luckily, it was puppy pee which is not as strong as doggie pee.
Clint, Gus's owner, said he lost Gus the morning of the elections near White Rock dog park. He was out walking his two dogs, a husky called Samantha (and I named Gus, Sammy!), and of course, Gus. Clint thought that someone took his dogs while he was in the restroom. He said he was gone for just 3 minutes before he noticed they were gone. My co-worker's boyfriend found Gus the next morning on his doorstep, but without Samantha. I took over caring for Gus and did what I could to list him as found and see if there were any lost reports elsewhere. Clint never posted any lost reports since he assumed someone took them. I just hopes he files what he needs to for Samantha. (I have a soft-spot for Huskies.)
Gus was a handful, and he taught me a lot of lessons during the week he stayed with us. For example, he taught me how important it is not to assume anything. When Gus came to me, it was assumed he was a year-old. I got frustrated trying to train this "retarded" 2-year-old child. If I knew he was 6 months, then I would have trained him differently, such as keeping him on a leash in the house until he knew how to pee outside. Instead, I yelled at him a couple of times, and I felt so bad about it. Being stressed out from relationship and financial difficulties added to it. I also never crate-trained a dog until Gus. He would bark every two hours on the dot throughout the night. I felt like I had a baby, except the diapers were towels and Nature's Miracle.
What really made me open my eyes were the chewed-up tarot cards that Gus "marked". These three cards pretty much summed up the whole week for Sebastian and I:
Hermit
* INTROSPECTION
* SEARCHING
* GUIDANCE
* SOLITUDE
4 of Cups
* SELF-ABSORPTION
* APATHY
* GOING WITHIN
Princess/Page of Wands
* BE CREATIVE
* BE ENTHUSIASTIC
* BE CONFIDENT
* BE COURAGEOUS
Having Gus put Sebastian and I's relationship to the test. We both had these assumptions about each others' actions that escalated with just a tiny bit of stress, resulting in us being hostile and giving the cold shoulder for days at a time. The princess of wands gave me the best answer to it all:
Be Confident
tackle a challenge
say "yes, I can"
believe in yourself
stretch your envelope
move beyond doubts
focus on success
know that where there's a will, there's a way
I knew Gus had to have an owner. His expensive collar, how young he is, etc, all led me to believe he was missed by someone. Having Gus around helped me focus on him by getting up every day at 7 to walk him before putting him in the crate for the day. Gus helped me develop more patience for someone who was clingy and needy (me, my mom), as well as "stretching the envelope" when it came to networking (my new connections with animal shelters and rescue groups) and obtaining resources (someone gave me a couple of kennels from Craig's List, free).
Bottom line: I had to believe in myself. Now I need to believe that I can overcome my financial difficulties.