So I've told you all about my horses, so I'm going to talk about my pup.
This cutie pie is an Australian Shepherd named Toki. Full name Toki Wartooth after the 2nd guitar player in Dethklok. You ready for a long story?
I was looking for a dog for months. My hubs was in Afghanistan and he wanted a dog to come home to. To say the least we are both very opinionated people and had multiple ideas for what kind of dog we wanted. After looking on Petfinder and Craigslist and all the shelters in the area we narrowed the requirements down to a young Aussie. Boy or girl didn't matter, but I really wanted a blue merle. I think they are gorgeous and with both of my horses essentially dumped on me, I really wanted our dog to be the dog I wanted.
For some reason only known to the universe we could not find one. There were around 10 or so Aussies on Craigslist but most of them didn't have pictures so I didn't bother. I was about to give up, and found an ad for boxer mix puppies which was my second breed choice. I contacted the seller, drove for almost 2 hours and even though they promised me a dog, by the time I got there, they were all accounted for. Once again the universe had other plans.
On some gut instinct I finally contacted a seller whose ad was about to expire. When I asked about the dog in question he told me that he had had her for a month, and she just wasn't happy in their household. They had four other dogs and he felt she needed to be an only dog. When he contacted the previous owner they would not take her back. He sent me some pictures and I knew I had to see her in person.
This time I took @alithefacekicker with me and we drove for over 2 hours to a house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by logging land. When I pulled up there were dogs running loose all over the property. I counted at least 6 in total. I knocked on the door and was greeted by a few more dogs and a number of cats. The guy introduced me to Dory and she immediately rolled over so I could scratch her belly with a look of "Please take me, I need someone to love me". I gave him some money, and we loaded her into my car. This was the picture Ali took that day.
He tried to tell me that he had given her a bath the day before. Which was a total lie. She was beyond dirty and crawling in fleas. I also discovered in the coming weeks that she had a massive case of worms. She was so itchy that she had chewed bald patches onto her lower legs. And that wasn't even the worst of it.
She used to be scared of everything. Scared to the point where she would pee herself. Knock on the door? Pee. Raising my voice? Pee. Meeting other dogs? Pee. Meeting men? Pee. Before I got her a crate to sleep in at night she peed on my bed twice in the middle of the night because some noise scared her. She wouldn't walk further than 5 feet away from me at the dog park.
To this day she sucks down her food like she is afraid that someone is going to steal it from her.
I also learned the hard way that she loves to chew anything she can. I lost a number of cups, and a tv remote to her chewing.
After many months of building trust, and experiencing new things she has grown into an amazing dog. We've had her for three years now. She is spoiled rotten, currently she is sleeping upside down on top of pillows and blankets on my couch. She goes anywhere with me that she can go and loves to go to dog parks. She is also smart enough to know certain words like park, beach, barn, dinner, puppy, go, out etc.
She knows exactly when 5:00 pm is because that is her dinner time and she pokes you with her nose to make certain that she gets fed on time.
She also will still eat/shred things if she gets the chance. Her latest victim was 4 pumpkin chocolate chip muffins wrappers and all. She also managed to perfectly unwrap and eat 5 or so tootsie pops without shredding the sticks in the bargain. Whenever we leave she is put in the kitchen with a gate because we know that if given the chance she will shred whatever she can reach.
She also takes a certain joy out of tearing the stuffing out of her stuffed animal toys.
She is an amazing dog and I love her to pieces. In the next few months I hope to add a four legged furry brother to our family and I do believe that she will be more than excited to have someone to add to the organized chaos that is our home.