Letter

A photo of me looking gorgeous on my play mat, aka Mrs Minder’s yoga mat.

Dear Shelter,

I’ve been with my new owners for a year now.

On my first night with them I was very nervous: I panted and hyperventilated and was all over the shop. Those early days were all about me learning their habits, and them learning my habits.

As you know, I wasn’t toilet trained when I first went home with Mr and Mrs Minder. They chucked me out of the house whenever they saw me starting to paw the ground, and pretty soon I learned to do my business outside.

I also wasn’t obedience trained: that was a much bigger learning curve. Mr and Mrs Minder got a Halti for me, which kept me from pulling unduly on the lead. It was a very hard ask to stop me being unfriendly to other dogs, though!

After six months of being over-reactive, a dog trainer who specialised in aggression training came to the house: she worked her magic and now Mr and Mrs Minder understand a lot better what my signs are when I’m getting stressed. In return, I know I can trust that they’re looking out for me in ways that they didn’t see before. It’s much more harmonious (because we’re working together, not fighting against each other) and I am much calmer on my walks. Of course, being under two still, there’s a way to go … but there’s always a plentiful supply of snacks ready to reward my desired behaviour, so naturally I try to get them!

My favourite element is WATER and my favourite thing to do is ANYTHING WITH WATER. I love it when I get to swim in the dams or creeks or puddles left by rain! That fills me up with joy, and even after a long nap I retain my sense of deep contentment! I also love my chew-toys, especially when Mr and Mrs Minder play with me, although I’m pretty good at entertaining myself as well.

I reckon I’ve landed pretty well here. There are some things I would change – like the way I get tied up when I incessantly chew people’s shoes: I can’t help it that their feet might get hurt because they’re still inside those very tasty foot-coverings … I’m only asking them to play, after all … but overall, life is good here. They cuddle me and take me to the vet when it’s needed, so I know they love me – even if they don’t understand that hurrying me on from a blade of grass I’m sniffing is like reading half a book and then not being able to read the rest: I would’ve thought they’d be more tolerant of that, being the voracious readers they are! Mr and Mrs Minder’s house is a good place to be.

I hope things are going well at the shelter and that the cats and dogs there are finding their forever homes.

Love, Doggo