From Georgia With Love

We've talked about it for a few months now and I've been putting it off since I lost Shadow back in October of 2010, so it was hard for me to get a new dog - or even look for one.

It seems as though when the time is right, the time is right.  This past October we entertained adopting a dog and looked around at various places, we even applied when we saw a few dogs that we liked.  But there was no response and we ended up at a local shelter here in NY.

We weren't sure if it was better to adopt from a kill shelter or a no-kill shelter.  The debate was if we adopted from a kill shelter, we'd be saving a life, but if we adopted from a no-kill shelter we'd be making room for another animal to be saved, at the same time supporting the no-kill philosophy.  

Another application submitted and we decided that if we didn't hear back in a weeks time, we'd go to the local shelter.  A few nights before we looked through the website for dogs that we thought we'd like, we saw a few and emailed the shelter if they were still available.  Some were and some weren't.

On the morning of the 29th, we checked one more time and saw a new face - her name was Kora.  She was described as a young female collie mix.  We called the shelter and they said she was still available for adoption, so we sprung out of bed and quickly got ready to make a mad dash to meet Kora.  

Filled with anticipation we made out way through the shelter and saw her lying down on the ground.  Extremely shy and very scared - but who wouldn't be after all that's gone on in the past month or two of her life and the revolving door of other dogs and people day in and day out.  On her card it says that she arrived just a few days earlier, not even a week at this shelter.  

There was something special about her, and we went to the meeting room to see if we'd all get along.  At first she jumped on the bench and was curious to see what was going on.  Not making any eye contact with us or acknowledging that we were even there.  She explored and jumped on whatever she could to the highest point - I'm assuming to get a birds eye view of where she was, what was going on and to see this shelter life that she'd been a part of for only a few days.

A few hours went by, we sat there wondering if there was a connection, if she liked us and if we liked her.  Little did we know that that connection had already started when we saw her picture earlier that morning.  I remember Yas saying that we weren't leaving this place without taking Kora with us.  We fell in love, even though she didn't give us that attention that puppies give, even though she didn't lick our faces, jump on our laps, or even look at us for more than a second ... we were drawn to her and wanted to take her home.  We felt that removing her from this kind of environment might make her open up to us more, that all that was going on around her was distracting her from being a sweet dog that she is.

Reluctant to give her back to the trainers as they processed our application, we waited and hoped that we'd get approved.  After all we weren't sure how this process worked.  After about an hour of waiting we were approved and we could take her home!  We were happy, excited and just wanted to get her home.  We ended up naming her Yuki (means snow in Japanese) on the ride home, for the first snow that day we adopted her.

There was little information on her background, the only thing we knew about her was that she was rescued from Georgia.  

We wanted to know more about her, know where she came from, what she'd been through and why anyone would let her go.  After a recheck I saw on her medical folder the words "Saving Georgia" and this is where my search started.

After a quick search I found that Saving Georgia had a site, and a forum.  I scoured that forum through all the posts for 2 or 3 pages looking to see if I could see a picture of her or even a description of her.  It took a while but she was found.  There she was before she made it up here to NY, shy, timid and scared.  We found out that she was a picked up as a stray and they didn't have anymore information on her.  She did come into the shelter in Georgia with another dog who was a golden retriever, but it wasn't clear if they were together or if they were just picked up around the same time.  

I had a chance to speak with the person who rescued her in Georgia and was ever so thankful for saving her.  I remember her telling me that when she saw her in the shelter, she just had to save her.  

So that's how we met Yuki (formerly Kora), from being saved in Georgia and being sent to NY to come find us.  We aren't sure what she went through before September 15th, but we hope that she's happy with us now.  She's slowly opened up more and more, but is still a bit scared and shy ... we'll continue to give her all the love and affection that she needs and deserves.

Yuki on the car ride home

Tired from all that she's been through

1 week after adoption in the park

Introduction to the Family

Bringing someone into the Raymundo family isn't really that hard, I find it that we're very welcoming to "newcomers."  But sometimes it's hard for those coming in to fit in and get along or just get used to the our family.

Shadow has been in my family for a while now and he's what we like to call anti social.  He doesn't like other dogs, he doesn't like other people except for the people in my house, and sometimes that's even hit or miss.  

His mom, Becky was the total opposite.  She loved other people and was very friendly with them.  Other dogs, she would try to get to know, until Shadow would try to attack them.  That's how it worked when Becky was still here.

The other week we had a birthday party for Rosly and Rini.  It was a "dog party" where everyone brought their dogs.  This wasn't any ordinary dog party, it was more of a Raymundo/Malonzo family party including our dogs!  

Shadow has this thing when I'm about to leave the house, he will stay on the bed and get sad knowing that I won't be home.  I decided to surprise him and not tell him that he was going with us until the very last minute.  There he was on the bed with his eyes staring at me as if he was saying "you're leaving again me home alone again :(" but when I grab his leash he knows that he's going with me!  His eyes grew bigger and he ran for me to leash him up and take him outside.  When we get outside he sees the car door open and waits for me to carry him, being vertically challenged he needs some help now and then.

The whole ride you could hear him as he was excited to figure out where we were going.  As soon as we got to the park there was already a big black dog waiting to welcome him, not part of our family though.  Shadow in his typical response to other dogs went into attack mode.  He's done this a few times before when I was walking him around the block, one time in particular was against another chihuahua.  It was a female and I thought that Shadow might like her, and also a good way for me to meet the owner!  Shadow barely made his rounds of smelling her when he got into the attack position while growling at her.  This was the same reaction to the black dog in front of the park.

When we made it to where we setup everyone was already welcoming to Shadow!  They all knew his name and was surprised that he made it out of the house, it was the first time they had seem him leave my front door, or maybe even the first time they have seen him leave my room.  I guess he's like me, he likes to stay home a lot.  So there he was in the middle of the family and not knowing if he should be friendly or if he should be angry at everyone.  Not only that but he was introduced to the K-9 part of the family too!  Rini was there in her dress and a few others that started to come in one by one.  

I was scared thinking that he would go on the attack again, but he didn't.  The only time he would growl was when [Chick] Magnet would try to smell his butt.  Max was another dog there that really seemed interested in Shadow's butt, but he was not having that.  The whole day he stayed by me and there were a few times where he wandered away, even letting Cindy take him for a short run!  

His transition to the family was a little awkard at first, since all he did was sit in the corner and be by himself.  But we'll see how it goes from here, it's good to have him meet the other family members and maybe I'll take him to more family functions.

Until the next outing, Shadow waits in the bed.

http://public.fotki.com/bnpnyc/family/090425_rini_roslyn_bday/

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