// newmodernscience

Yes, I spelled that right.

So, we went on the adventure of getting a dog on Wednesday. We’ve been looking for some time for one, and I got a call on Tuesday from our friend Doreen, whose sister works at the Marion County Dog Shelter. They had gotten this dog for her mom, who is going through cancer, and her mom and dad just weren’t interested in it, so they took it back after a week. It was a cute thing, a little male, 3 year old Lhasa Apso, and it had a really mild temperment. At least, thats what we thought. I made a visit, and it seemed really nice, so I put a 24hour reservation on him. Then, we went back the next day with the family to check him out, and Carey really liked him, and Maren just loved him, she was chasing him around in circles. So, we decided to get him and took him home…

Now, knowing that the dogs they get at the MCDS are strays, we expected that we were going to have to figure out his mannerisms and feel out how much training he had. We found out that he was pretty smart already. We bought him some of the food that was recommended, and he checked it out, but backed off of it, and looked at me. Then he went over to his water bowl and began scooping water into his food dish with his nose because he wanted soft food. hmm! and when he needed to go potty, he would go and nudge at the leash, so someone clearly had done some work with him. He did go pee on the bed once, but that was because we had left for a little bit and came back and didn’t get to taking him out right away. So, I lost a pillow over that one.

The real trouble began that night when he started getting snippy. Now, I’ve had dogs before, and I’ve been playing with countless dogs over the last couple of years because our staff bring them to work all the time, so i can tell the difference between when a dog is just playing and when he’s serious. He had been running back and forth with Maren in the living room and had gotten a cable wrapped around his leg, so I had started to unwrap it and he grabbed it and started pulling on it across the room. I asked Carey to grab him and take the cable off, and when she did he bit her finger and her leg and broke the skin both times. Later on, he bit me 4 more times on the hand without drawing blood, and finally nipped Maren once in the hand while she was playing with him. At that point we were pretty much done with him. It definitely wasn’t the playful bite, he definitely looked feral, like he was defending himself. I mean, mostly he was super nice, even for the rest of the time that we had him. He would curl up with us on the bed, and he’d let me flip him over in my arms and rub his tummy and he’d fall asleep. He’d even crawl up on the couch and sit on my neck. But in the long run, we didn’t want to take the chance on biting Maren on the face or something bad.

The icing on the cake came the next morning, when I let him out for his break and he got away from me. He managed to get away, and I saw him tear around the back of the house, so I booked it back through to the front door, and opened it just in time to see him streak past me into the street. I was wearing pants and my shirt, but no shoes or socks, and it was raining outside, but I knew that if I was going to get him back that i’d have to go NOW. So go I did, I did a flat out sprint for about 10 minutes straight trying to catch up t o him. I’d get close, and then he’d take off again, going up Vista about 6 blocks, then down all of Summer for 10 blocks, then back down Fairvew another 7 or 8 blocks. By this time I was kind of losing hope, when I spotted a house about 2 blocks up and I made for that one on the opposite side of the street. When he got there, I chased him into the driveway, and he tried to go into the backyard, but the yard was fenced off, the garage was recessed, and there was a wall of shrubs on the other side, so I had him boxed in. He sensed that he wasn’t getting away this time, so he just sat down waiting for me to come pick him up. Cheeky! Dog 1, Chris 0.

So, I took him back after lunch and explained to the MCDS what what had happened and everything. I was supposed to take him to get his rabies shot the next day, so because he bit Carey and drew blood, they had to put him in quarantine, and we’ll probably get a call from Environmental services. I felt a little sad taking him back, and especially when I had to take all of the stuff back to Petco. But, I did put us down on the puppy wishlist, so maybe we’ll start out with a younger dog and go that route next time.