Our neighbor’s dog Sam is still here. We have explored the possibility of having him board a transport for points north, where, apparently, dogs are wanted as pets and are not thrown away as often as down here in Georgia. But so far, I haven’t had the heart. He still stays with us almost 24 hours a day, sleeps in a dog house in our yard and accompanies the dogs and me on our walks. He also still chases a cat if the cat runs, so Leah is not exactly happy with the situation. In fact, I’m not either. We already have two dogs, which is generally one more than I want at any one time. Three would be a big stretch for us.
When we are inside sitting on our couch watching television and the dogs are lying around snoozing, Sam is often on the front walk, staring in.
Staring and staring.
A few days ago we brought him in on a leash. He found Lucy’s peanut butter bong and was fascinated. But Sam’s previous life must have been completely devoid of interaction with people or things. He wanted to get the peanut butter out of the bong but he couldn’t figure out how to do it, because it kept trying to get away. With some coaching, he eventually figured out to hold it with one paw.
A few days later, after our regular Wednesday huevos rancheros and a visit to the grocery store, Sam had his own peanut butter bong. We brought him in (actually he followed me and Zeke in on his own) and put a little peanut butter in his bong. Again, it was a mystery to him.
Leah helped him out for a while.
Eventually he figured it out again.
But every time one of us moved or made a slight noise, he ducked and stepped away from the bong. You can see in the picture above that he’s keeping an eye on me.
We also gave Zeke and Lucy a little bong treat. At one point Sam decided to try out Zeke’s, but Zeke explained in an emphatic way that the bong was his. There were no hard feelings.
After a while we put Sam out again. Neither of us trusts him enough to let him stay inside unsupervised, and, as I mentioned above, we are not really committed to keeping him. He stared at us for a while through the storm door and then went out to his house.
I wish Sam would get along with the cats, so you could keep him. He obviously loves and trusts you and Leah, as much as he can love and trust for now. You have big hearts and I know this must be very challenging. I hope he can find the right home and can stay with you until he does. He’s a beauty.
Robin — He’s getting better with the cats. Now he kind of glances at them and looks away, at least while we’re looking at him. But if a cat runs, he’s just going to chase it. He really needs some intensive, one-on-one training, not things like “sit” and “come” but also just how to behave generally. He’s actually quite good on the leash. When Leah is feeding the cats, we try to put him on our front walk and close the gate. Sometimes he’s skittish and won’t let us get near, but he eventually rolls over on his back. Then I put a leash on him and he gets up and follows me with no problems.