Today is the one year forever-home-anniversary for Ocean and we have so many great things to say about adopting an adult dog. It breaks my heart to see how long adult dogs wait to find a forever home. Sgt. Pepper’s Friends currently has three Adult dogs who were rescued in the beginning of February of this year and are still patiently waiting for a home. So I thought I would share a little about our first year with adopting an adult rescue because I know these dog’s future families are out there and just need a little reminder of how special adopting an adult dog can be.
Moving across the world to a place where you don’t know anyone and nothing is familiar is stressful for anyone. The part where we can’t communicate what is going on to dogs can make this process even more confusing. But this part like all challenging things in life is temporary; it will pass and things will get easier. When Ocean arrived over the course of 2 days/3 plane rides she was of course exhausted, scared and overwhelmed. She would constantly show us how scared she was by rolling over and being submissive but all she really wanted to do was snuggle and give kisses. The most important thing we could do for her was make her feel safe and loved. The first few months of course had challenges and stressful learnings but we also had so many fun moments of new adventures with this dog who was just so grateful for her new life. We also learned so much about what made her feel safe, comfortable and loved and are able to give her a routine that works for her. For example Ocean is very slow to trust new dogs and be comfortable around them, so the dog park just may never be a place that she enjoys going. But that’s ok, there are so many things that she does love doing, that we don’t feel like her behavior is challenging.
Given Ocean’s mannerisms and behavior it was concluded that she had a home prior to being rescued. We decided not to further confuse her with yet another name change. She has gladly taken on any nick name such as Osh, Oshy, Yoshy, Oshyohshyosh or as most people think we are saying “oh shit”. Given that this smart little girl knew her name, her recall was very easy. As an adult, we spent zero time house training her, she just does not have accidents. And best of all, something I didn’t know I needed to appreciate until we started fostering puppies is that she sleeps through the night! The only time she wakes us up is when something is blocking her from getting on the bed for morning snuggles. She will whimper and whine until she can leap excitedly onto the bed for her favorite time of day. And trust me, when your dog wakes you up because she can’t handle missing morning snuggles with you, it is really hard to be mad!
Moving from Aruba to Boston is quite a big change in terms of the weather. I remember the first cold fall morning in October where she jumped into bed shivering. But it didn’t take much more than a few weeks for her to get acclimated to the change of temperature. By the time snow starting falling she loved to play outside and had no reservations in the bitter cold temperatures that we New Englanders love to complain about. We of course purchased an excessive amount of winter clothing for her but she was in no way reserved about enjoying new winter activities of snow shoeing and hiking up ski trails- naked or not.
In our first year, Ocean has been such a joy to take on miles of fun hikes in the woods, plenty of beach walks that remind her of home, and has had countless acts of love and compassion. She is an adult dog but she is still constantly learning and evolving to be the most loving and grateful pup she can be AND it’s only the first year. It is quite remarkable to look back and reflect on the amount of progression that has taken place in Ocean since she found her forever home. We of course don’t know how old she really is so who knows how much time we get to have with her. This of course is not really any different when adopting a puppy. So we don’t know whether Ocean is 3 or 7, whether we have one more year with her or ten more years with her, but we do know that adopting an adult dog is so rewarding. All we know is that we are so grateful for what we have with her in the present moment. Looking forward to many more snuggles and kisses.
Love, Toby, Michelle and Ocean
