When Savannah was born, Larry & I had a bouncy, irritating, long-haired black mixed breed dog named Baby. We got Baby as a puppy when we had been married about 6 months. We quickly fell in love with our 'first baby' (thus, her name). We were not the greatest pet owners, though. We both worked a lot of hours & Baby was mostly an inside dog...which means she had a lot of 'accidents' & chewed up things while we were gone. We really didn't have the time it takes to train her & take her for walks & such, but we loved the fuzzy, bouncy, jumpy little thing. When Savannah came along, Baby was so gentle & loving with her. She would let Savannah lay on the floor & yank on her ears and hair without so much as a bark. She would sit on the floor outside Savannah's bedroom at night and whimper when Savannah cried. She was very protective of our 'new' baby. It was only when we were trying to sell the house about a year later that we finally had to get rid of Baby. We were moving to an apartment where we wouldn't be able to have a pet & Baby's constant flea problems were, I'm sure, driving away possible home buyers. With great sadness, we found her a new home with strangers that promised to love her.
Fast forward several years. With three children and a small home, we never really had room/time/energy for a dog. When Samuel was younger, he developed quite a fear of dogs, cats, birds...just about any animal outside of a cage that moved. He could handle giant tigers & lions & other scary-animals in cages at the zoo or the pet store, but a tiny 2 lb kitten that walked toward him was frightening. Go figure. And with baby sister so close in age & being the "cool" big brother he was, his fear of animals soon made their way to baby sister.
Let me tell ya...going to a friend or family member's home where a dog lives has been torture ever since. One or the other of them (or both!) spots the pet at a distance and the panic attack is on! Between shrieking, screaming, running at 100 mph to get away, climbing cars, trees, people...anything to get away from the vicious man-eating beasts.......let me just say that adding a pet to our own home has been the LEAST of our hopes for a longgggg time.
In the late Fall of 2006, you may remember that we began to consider getting a pet. (if not, go hunt through the archives for posts about Coco) At that time, Samuel was the one with the greatest fear of dogs, so we decided that if he went to pick out a puppy from a litter of black labs, it might help. Our thinking was that he'd see it as a tiny baby & be able to watch it grow and his fear would be lessened. At first, it worked. We brought Coco home with us a few days before Christmas 06. Everyone loved her at first. She was a calm, sweet, sleepy puppy that the kids adored. But very quickly, she "woke up" & came out of her shell. Samuel handled it pretty well, but Sarah's fear went into full gear when this toe-eating machine would walk under the kitchen table while she was eating or when she would chase her in the yard (trying to get her to play). She was convinced that if Coco caught her, she'd bite her. In the end, all of the kids witnessed Coco bite Savannah in the face, requiring stitches, and so Coco went to live with one of the police officers here in town. Ever since, Sarah's never really "recovered" from her fear of dogs. Samuel's gotten comfortable with an increasing number of sweet dogs since then--including our neighbor's Yorkie who is quite bouncy & hyper.
Over the years, we've figured out Sarah's dog fears---she's scared in 3 situations.
1. Dogs that are bouncy/hyper/jumping. I call them "yippy little dogs". I don't really like these dogs either, but not b/c I'm scared---because they drive me nuts.
2. Dogs that are huge. This one makes sense to me. If a giant animal ran at me, I'd be scared, too!
3. "Surprise" dogs---ones that she didn't know were there. If she rounds a corner & a dog walks out to see her, she panics. I guess this one sorta makes sense, too, because you never know how a strange dog is going to act.
The only type of dog she seems to warm up to are the calm, quiet, still, older dogs who sleep a lot & are just companions, but not playful ones that are constantly begging for you to run with them or toss a ball or whatever. Know what I mean? I picture the dog on that old Chevy Chase movie that would lay in front of the fire place & was always catching its tail on fire without realizing it. A "door stop" type of dog that just sits around. And to tell ya the truth, those are my favorite kind of dogs, too!
Earlier this week, a lady posted on Freecycle about having a bunch of dogs to find a home for. I wrote her on a whim & asked if any of her dogs were older, quiet dogs. I explained Sarah's fear of dogs & she sent me a picture of the dog that would best fit what we're looking for. Meet Marshmallow:
Marshmallow is an 8yr old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. She's extremely soft, very sweet & gentle, quiet & sort of shy. She's scared of storms (just like Sarah!). Oh, and she's been spayed. It sounds like a perfect fit, right?
We're going to meet Marshmallow at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. Please join us in praying for this to work out. The kids have been talking about Marshmallow all week long. They're already attached to the idea of us getting Marshmallow. I hope it works. If it doesn't, we'll know that God has some other plan for Marshmallow & we'll keep looking.
Our thinking is that if we can ever get one dog that Sarah feels safe & secure with, she'll begin to grow out of her dog fears. Please pray that she feels safe with Marshmallow.
