today, we are going to talk about this beautiful [&naughty] pup.
i have had a few people ask about her rescue // adoption story, so i thought i would share it.
here is the original post i wrote announcing we were adding her to our family.
around mid-july 2012, i googled 'minneapolis rescue dogs' just for fun. i did it without telling blake. i just wanted to look. yeah, right. within an hour, i had found *14* dogs that i wanted to fit into our 2 bedroom apartment. i was bawling at the sight of all these beautiful dogs that deserved homes & humans & toys.
daphne was one of the first dogs i found & i just kept coming back to her. she was beautiful. she was a puppy. and it looked like she was smiling. [this was her adoption photo]
so, i bookmarked her & 13 of her friends and just waited for a few days.
finally, i was thinking about all of those dogs that deserve a safe space & knew i was ready to tell blake.
so, i pulled up the computer & all 14 dogs. i didnt say anything the fact that i was SO drawn to daphne.
as he was looking though, he said ; i think daphne is the one.
yay!
we talked & talked & talked about how much a dog would change our lives. financially, emotionally. we live in an apartment, so she would need a lot of exercise. shes big, so she would need a lot of food. and what type of toys?
we started researched eco-EVERYTHING. the best food. dog sweaters [seriously]. toys & treats we could make at home. all of it.
we filled out an application & waited. that afternoon, we went for a 40 mile bike ride & talked for hours about how we knew we were ready to add a dog to our family.
that same day, we got an email from julie, daphnes foster mom. [the rescue we used, fosters ALL of their dogs. they dont have a physical location ; all the dogs are living with families until they are adopted]
she was super impressed with our application & wanted us to come over and hang with daphne.
so we did. that afternoon, we biked over.
julie had been fostering daphne for a few weeks. she was recovering from some nasty surgery [ill explain more in a bit], so they hadnt worked on much training. julie had a backyard, so most of daphnes outside time was spent in the yard.
as soon as we met her, we knew she was wild & crazy. she jumped up & bit blakes hat OFF his head. she was running around like a mad-dog & had tons of energy. she kept coming back to us. we were in love. also, julie was awesome. she answered all of our questions & we just felt so connected to her.
so, that was that. we committed to becoming a family of 3.
well, here is what we know :
she was found by animal control in indianapolis, indiana.
when she was a puppy, her family put her in a full-body harness.
sometime between her being a tiny puppy & her being a 45-pound dog, she was abandoned // ran away [no way to tell]. when she was found, she weighed OVER 40 pounds, was pretty big and *still* had her puppy harness on. [sad face]
her entire body had grown *around* the harness, so the rescue had to do surgery to remove it. i guess it was so rock-hard, it had to be broken off into lots of small pieces. [still a sad face]
she was brought to julies house to recover from her surgery. and then we met her about a month later.
from what we can tell, we DONT think she was abused or mistreated. she loves humans & is really great [trusting] with kids. she still has really bad scars on the front-side of her elbows from the harness. she still licks them occasionally, but they dont seem to bother her in day-to-day life.
speaking of day-to-day life ; she has had a pretty eventful one in the last 8 months ;)
she has eaten rat poison, chocolate chips, whole loaves of bread, 2 blenders, $100 worth of yarn, a bike seat from a $2000 bike, an artificial christmas tree, her metal crate, her dog bed, 4 couch cushions & an entire couch [yes, really], books, whole pumpkins, and a bunch of other things i cant think of right now.
she goes to doggy daycare 2x a week right now to work on her play skills. someone bit the tip of her ear off [yes, really]. and after that healed, she developed 'happy tail' [when a dog wags their tail enough against a hard surface that it breaks open & bleeds] & got blood ALL OVER EVERY INCH OF OUR APARTMENT. the tail is mostly healed, but we are NOW dealing with some barrier aggression. it has gotten SO much better, but we are hoping we are *almost* over it in the next few weeks.
she is definitely a handful.
she costs a lot of money & is a bit of a maniac sometimes. she has made hard days harder & has made me think 'what the hell did i get myself into?' way more than once.
but of course, we love her. she has found her forever home with us & we have found a dog that makes our hearts all big & mushy.
whenever i walk in the room, her [big, bloody] tail goes crazy. when i come home after a long day at work, she loves to come up & lick my face for a few minutes, if i'd let her. [its a bit gross after about 20 seconds...] she loves sneaking apples & bread from my plate & laying her head on my legs when im reading a book.
i totally love her & im so glad she is in our lives.
if you are within 60 miles of the twin cities & are looking for an awesome rescue, we went through safe hands.
also, if you are looking for other daphne-related blog posts, go here.
and yes, this sweater DOES have antlers...
