Cassie

Profile

Please join me in welcoming Cassie to RAGOM. Cassie is a purebred female Golden Retriever with a darker red coat. She is estimated to be 4 years old, weighs 57 pounds and is up to date on her shots. She has not been spayed yet. She arrives to us via Sioux Falls where she was found along a country road huddled over her 3 month old puppy. Because of this, we don't have a lot of history to offer except to say that at one time it is evident someone took good care of her.

Cassie was vetted in SD before coming into foster care and her puppy was adopted out. She is in good health. She has been dewormed and is being treated for a ear infection in both ears. She gets drops twice a day and takes them so well. She lies down and doesn't move one bit. This treatment will be finished in a few days. Cassie will be spayed within a few weeks. She will not be available for adoption until that point, but if interested please let your placement advisor know as we would be happy to have you meet her sooner. Cassie's teeth look good and it appears they have been cleaned professionally in the past. She is missing her front left leg. She does not seem to have any sensitivities to the area where it was amputated. Her fur has completely covered the area as well. Her left eye does droop a little (reminds me of a Basset Hound's eyes) and a small portion of her tongue is missing. Whatever traumatic event Cassie went through, she is not saying and this sweetie seems to have put it behind her. Cassie loves people! She spent the first 4 days in her new home attached to whichever human was closest. Today is Day 5 and she has decided that as long as she can see people she doesn't always need to be touching them.

Cassie does fine with our resident dog (a male 9 year old terrier/beagle mix). She let out her one and only bark-so far-the evening she moved in. She was letting him know that she had had enough of the sniffing. It worked as that one bark gave her the personal space she desired. She is more interested in following our cat, but in a curious, playful way. She can easily be redirected when I think she is starting to fixate on the cat. 

From what I can tell, she has no resource guarding issues with her food. She is very polite when waiting to be fed. She does sometimes sit and watch our resident dog eat in a different location, but never gets closer than a few feet to him or his bowls. She hasn't played a lot with toys or balls, but when she has she will drop both when asked. At this point, a game of fetch doesn't hold her interest. She did have to be distracted to get a bone away from her.

Cassie does not know her name quite yet, but regardless, her recall is very good. She checks in constantly and comes when called.  In boarding before she was fostered, she did dig out from under a fence to get to the human that was gardening in the next yard. She knows the meaning of "no" and "sit". We are working on "down" because she does jump up on people fairly often. She loves to be pet and will nudge you over and over again, sometimes licking your hand to get her point across if the nudges don't work.  She sleeps on the floor next to our bed and is content, but would love to get up on the bed if invited. She will go in a crate, but gets extremely nervous and worked up if the door is closed. I work from home, but have left her for 6 hours with free roam and she did wonderfully. She was laying by the door when I returned and nothing seemed out of place.  She is 100% house trained and will go potty within minutes of being let outside. She has no signal as far as we can tell that tells us she needs to go out.

She has not been around anyone other than teens and adults so we will test her with younger children soon. My 16 year old son brought home 6 teenage friends the other day and Cassie was in heaven with all of the attention.

This girl is a true love bug and will make an awesome companion. Do not let the fact that she has only three legs keep you from considering her. She walks beautifully on a leash, not one bit of pulling. She hops and probably won't ever be a long distance walker, but has no problem on shorter walks. But the most amazing thing to watch is when she runs. The hop goes away and the fluid motion is back and she is in her glory. It is awesome to see.