April 21st 2010 9:29 am
[ Leave A Comment ]

Christopher was part of a six pack rescued by Central Ohio Sheltie Rescue, Inc. Our Director had planned to take a vacation when the call came in that these fur kids needed help. All six were living in a puppy mill at the time. Our foster homes were all filled at the time. The volunteers rallied to the find spots for each of them. We went to the Director's home cleaned them up and divided them amongst ourselves so that she could take her much needed vacation. Little Christopher was terrified and would not come out of his crate. I actually had to pull him out and then the poor guy had to get bathed and groomed. Imagine how scary it would be if you had never known human kindness and had always lived in a crate to suddenly have your life turned upside down and to have all these humans handling you. Poor little guy. He was underweight, smelly, his ears were filthy, his nails uncut, and his coat was horrible. I started calling him monkey boy because that is what he reminded me of. I would find later that I was not far off the mark with the monkey reference. So the monkey boy became my foster fur kid. I took him home and of course he had to be crated right? He was so afraid to come out of that crate. I had to coax him with food every time. Enough of this I said to myself. I coaxed him out on the third day and he has never returned to a crate. He learned to potty outside in five days pretty good for a mill dog don't you think? I started holding him on my lap to try and comfort him. He kept his guard up and was on edge the whole time. Then one day it dawned on me. "Music soothes the savage beast". I began to sing the Winnie the Pooh song to him and he settled in and cozied next to me. Light bulb day!!! He thereafter became Christopher Robin. He loves it here and has a wonderful life. He loves his people and his pack. No turning back for this little one. I had to adopt this one because he will bite strangers. By the way, the puppy mill called him Tuffy. Since he is small people don't believe me when I tell them he will bite if he gets scared. Overall Christopher is a sweetheart and I have no problems with biting since his first months with me. I always warn the vets and had them make a notation in his file to be careful with him but have never had an incident. All of my dogs have a job at our house. Christopher's job is to tell the pack when the trains are coming so that they can run along the fence and scare it away.He takes this duty very seriously. The reason I said monkey boy fits earlier is that Christopher loves to climb. He will climb on a chair and sit right beside you and he is the only one who uses the stairs that I bought for the bed. Smart little guy figured that out the first day. Christopher likes to ride on my shoulder like a parrot. He also likes to hold your hand in both of his paws. He doesn't just hold them however he bends the end of his paws so that his claws kind of wrap around your hand. It's so adorable. He is a very special little one and I am glad he came to share his life with me and the rest of the pack.