Dennis

Profile

March 6, 2011

Dennis was found as a stray on the reservation and is estimated to be around 2 years old. We agreed to temporarily foster him for 2 weeks until his permanent foster could take him. When I went to pick him up at the vet last weekend, I knew that he had entropian surgery on both of his eyes, had a broken tooth extracted and was neutered, but was a bit surprised when they pulled out 4 prescriptions. Turns out he also had hookworms and a yeast infection on his paws. When I asked the tech if she thought he was potty trained, she said that he preferred to wait until coming back inside before going. At this point I was panicking a bit, wondering what I had gotten us into.

When we got home he immediately welcomed himself by leaving a huge pile on my kitchen floor. I also quickly learned that he knew no commands and likely had never been on a leash. At this point I am not feeling any better about agreeing to take him, but he had such a gentle calmness to him that I couldn’t help but like him. In the days that followed he progressed quickly and learned to sit and lay down, started walking nicely on a leash, and was doing pretty well with his potty training. It’s hard to put his demeanor into words, but he is just a sweetheart and is in his glory whenever you pet him. Everyone that met him said he is just the nicest dog.

The only real issue we had with him was getting him to eat. He was adamant about not eating dry dog food and we were running low on the canned food left over from a previous foster. So off we went to the pet store in search of more canned food. He was having a great time at the pet store, sniffing all the bags of food and checking out the birds. I was busy reading labels when my son called me to look; there Dennis was, relieving himself on the potty pad display. I guess he just knew what they were for. My son and I could not stop laughing and at that point I knew that he would make a great addition to our family. We decided to wait a few more days before trying to make it official, but yes, we have decided to adopt Dennis.

The only question remains is what breed he is. He is likely a golden or lab mix, but with what? He has the upper body of a golden but his legs are a bit shorter and he has the MOST enormous feet (I tried to get a picture of his paws, but Dennis is a horrible model). People have speculated bloodhound, mastiff, basset hound, and St. Bernard. He weighs 65 pounds so I am not sure any of those make sense. Perhaps Ragom could do some sort of Guess Your Breed contest as a fundraiser?

Yet another happy Ragom ending. We are very excited to have Dennis in our lives.