...and BEARS? Oh, my!

It has been a busy, busy week down here on the farm.  In my last post, I alluded to the fact that there may be a bear joining us.  Well, I wasn't far off.  Meet Mustang:

We'd had our eye on Mustang since his arrival at the Bedford County Animal Shelter.  We met with him and he was an absolute oaf - a gentle giant who liked to give hugs but had clearly had little to no human affection.  When I got word that he had been adopted and returned to BCAS and that his time there was probably short, there was nothing to do other than try to prepare our home for a hundred pound puppy.  We had a 10x10 kennel that we added some panels to in order to create a 10x20 space and purchased the biggest dog house that we could find (which, turns out, he preferred to sit on top of rather than inside).  Once we got him home, we realized that his biggest quirk was going to be that he treated every door like it had a juicy NY strip steak waiting for him on the other side of it.  After a couple of days of stubbed toes and sprained wrists and ankles and lots of exasperation trying to navigate all manner of entrances and exits, I think we've finally rewired his synapses to fire in a more reasonable fashion.  He WANTS to be well-mannered; he's just never had the luxury of anyone showing him what that means.  The fine folks at Bedford Humane Society got a move on to make sure that Mustang would be ready to go on a PawSafe Transport on April 8th. He'll be heading up north where there is already a potential family interested in him (way to go, PawSafe!  that's how you network!).

Since Mustang has been with us, he has gotten his shots and been neutered.  That's just the technical stuff.  The really amazing stuff is that he has learned to appreciate belly rubs and will happily roll himself over for one.  He's learned that people can be GOOD -- that they don't always leave you and never come back.  He's learned what it means to have a routine and he's thriving in that.  He's learned that he LOVES his woobie and that it makes a really nice pillow when he's not tossing it about.  Most importantly, he's learned that he is a dog that deserves all of those things and more.  How ecstatic am I that we get to be a part of helping this fella get a forever home that he can call his own?!