the sunday before thanksgiving, the same day we picked up
fela (to foster…ahem), i was contacted by a contact with irish wolfhound
rescue. there was a former “brood
bitch” (holy shitake mushrooms those are awful words to type but succinct)
wolfhound in an ohio shelter. her breeder dumped “sandrine” in a
shelter and that shelter went broke.
from there she went to a wonderful humane society in lancaster, oh where
she was adopted by a family who then returned her after a week because she was
too shy. the humane society then
decided, in an attempt to do right by her, to only adopt her to a
wolfhound-savvy home and that’s where sandrine had the potential to get stuck
in the shelter system. sandrine is
not a wolfhound, she may be a mix or a deerhound, but she is clearly not a
wolfhound so the wolfhound people would have nothing to do with her. at least two people in the area went to
visit her and reported her to be very shy and not a wolfhound and left the
shelter without her. dave & i
decided she needed to get out of there but it was a bit of a logistical
nightmare – by the time our application was approved it was the monday before
thanksgiving. i went over how to
get her out again and again – i hate driving with a passion so that figured in
and also we didn’t want her to languish at the shelter for another week before
we could get there. finally dave
in all his wonderfulness insisted i let him take care of it and we booked him a
plane ticket to columbus, oh for wed - he flew up there, snagged the lady and
hit the road in a rental car to get her home before thanksgiving and i can tell
you she absolutely adores him for all his efforts.
shortly after meeting in ohio...
and the next day at home...
sandrine is now ella bean and she is more terrified than shy
and she is so absolutely lovely…like seriously lovely. she needs to gain some weight, grow
some hair in areas where it was likely lost to fly strike and get used to
living in a house with a family (a crazy, large family no less) but that will all come with time. the night dave and
ella got home she was a bit shell-shocked by her new family and house and as soon as
she came in the house she made a bee line for my “introvert chair” and didn’t
move out of it other than to eat and go outside for the first 48 hours.
she then moved to pow’s crate, which is
way too small for her but seemed to provide some comfort. in the month she’s been here she’s made
what seem like baby steps but in actuality are huge giant leaps forward; she’s
only rarely cowering or dropping to the floor, she will hang with everyone all
day at work, she’s started playing with fela (who also drives her crazy) here
and there and she just seems more comfortable across the board and now she usually
finds herself a safe spot closest to where we are. for our part we are letting her do what she wants/needs – we
realize this is a long game and have no interest in pushing her. if she wants/needs to spend all day in
a crate way too small for her then she’s allowed to do that...for now. she’s sweet, she’s loving, she’s
beautiful, she’s just all around lovely and that family that returned her
because she was too shy just didn’t understand her and it’s their loss. she’s not shy at all - in fact she truly
seems to enjoy humans - she had just clearly never been in a house before and was
nervous, scared and didn’t know how to be.
ella + fletcher
here's a little video snippet from last week of one of her first attempts at play - she's not quite sure what to do with merle (ella + fela + merle)
welcome to the family ella…you a colella now whether you like it or not.