Dogster

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My Diary

One Year!

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Ralphie coming home with me for fostering, which in turn resulted in me having to adopt him myself.

While I don't think anyone in their right mind would actually want to have five 'special-needs' dogs in a one-person household, individually each dog is wonderful, and Ralphie is no exception to that. Collectively, well, they keep me entertained, and busy!

The group dynamics are fascinating to observe, and to sometimes try to covertly alter. On a day to day basis, Ralphie, the biggest & most energetic of the lot is Boss Dog, but on the rare occasion that he annoys my senior girl, Baby & she barks or lunges at him, he immediately, apologetically defers to her. He will boss around Potter but if Potter seriously get annoyed, Ralphie backs-down because he knows Potter easily escalates to violent aggression. Bugsy, my young, feral dog worships Ralphie and Ralphie has been a good tool to get Bugsy to be comfortable around me. Ralphie treats Bugsy like a younger brother -- sometimes playing with him, but sometimes growling at him as if trying to say he's a nuisance. He gets along fine with Marnie, who is my newest acquisition.


Ralphie really loves exploring around outside. Unfortunately, he's caught several small lizards to play with. Some escape alive, some don't. He's always ready to go off on a hike with me, but is also content to just sit on the couch next to me if I'm reading or watching TV.

April Update

Ralphie continues to do great. He loves his big new home, his new back yard, and the off-leash & on-leash adventures living in our beautiful, rural area provides us with.

In anticipation of some hot summers, I've purchased a small swimming pool custom-made for dogs that'll be set up in the yard, as well as buying him a floatation vest for when we go swimming in one of several lakes that are just minutes away from us. His elongated body & short-stubby legs mean he's probably not a good swimmer without the life-vest!

During the day, Ralphie hangs out in the yard with his canine playmates, but has access to the garage via a doggy-door. Despite having plentyof chew-treats of his own, Ralphie seems to love chewing on walkie-talkie antennas, remote controls, and even chomped up my old Sirius satellite radio receiver, so the doggy-door that leads from the garage to the inside of the house is usually kept locked, unless I'm home.

I hope to be finally adding some new photos & videos of Ralphie soon.

4 January Update

Ralphie, along with my dogs Baby & Potter, has been on a road-trip with me for the past 5 days in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. The initial drive from our San Francisco Bay Area home was about 740 miles in 14 hours, and he was great in the car -- in some ways better behaved than my own two dogs. Of course he was very glad that we stopped every couple of hours for a quick walk, but he mostly just snoozed & looked out the window at the desert scenery.

He's also done fine in the hotel, being somewhat vocal (probably at the instigation of Potter) but not trashing the place when I've left them alone in the room.

He met one person who hopped in the front seat of the car, and was fine with her after she gave him a peace-offering of a treat. He even tried to creep up from the back seat & sit next to her & take a nap.

I'll repeat what I've written before: while he is not officially up for adoption yet, my opinion is that he's ready to be adopted out to an experienced home without kids, who will give him some time to adjust & bond with his new human(s) before they try to handle him much. In his previous life, I don't think he received much handling, let alone attention & affection, so it does take him some time before he trusts a human enough to be picked-up by them -- most 'stretched' dogs (Dachshunds, Corgi's, Bassets, etc.) are like this, out of a self-preservation instinct for their spine.

He loves snoozing alongside his human, sleeps soundly through the night, and is playful and inquisitive. He still does NOT like strangers quickly approaching him, and he can be dog-reactive towards dogs he doesn't know, yet he has lived with up to FOUR other dogs (Baby, Potter, Lola & Shane) in my home in my home & did great with them!

Contact me ASAP if you're seriously interested in adopting Ralphie.