I’ve said I’d never do five things in my life and I’ve done them all. The fifth was adopting our latest rescue, Gabe. He was 18 months old when we fostered him and 18.5 when we adopted him; that’s the never part. You see, we’ve had adolescent dogs before and they were great dogs, but caused us to pull our hair out and regret giving up cigarettes. I in particular declaimed “never again will I go through a dog’s adolescence!” Yes, declaimed! I was nothing if not emphatic. We thought we were meeting a 7 yr old that day. But we met Gabe instead, he looked at us with that adoring look, flopped his head onto my knee and I fell stupid in love with him.
He is a joy. Yes, he has energy (wow) and if encouraged he will ramp it up into hyperspace. But if you touch him, pet him and let him lie down on your feet, he quiets. He throws his toy at you to solicit play, but if you ignore this he lies down. He is so responsive to correction, so smart and so loving! He leaps through the yard, looking like he should have trumpets accompanying him and loves to sleep on your lap. He learns very quickly, moderating his play with our 12 year old rescue, Casey, to a style she can live with (although he is a bit dense on her calming signals). (She is becoming more used to his desire to snuggle close to her and doesn’t move right away.)
I guess the universe knows best and I’m quite sure this was a universe thing. We were supposed to have this dog. I’ve never agreed more enthusiastically with the Powers That Be.
Karen & Dan
