Rescue a pet

Shadow - Flan and Shadow are litter mates

As October is adopt a pet from a shelter month, lets talk about our pets. We have 3 cats - 1 from a shelter and 2 from a friend's yard. We had Lily the pug for about 10 years. She came to us when she was 6 from Ohio Pug Rescue.

Lily

Now we have Abbey the miniature schnauzer. She is 3 years old. We adopted her on July 21st. We found her using petfinder.com. We drove 3 hours away to pick her up at My young and old fur babies in Woodsfield, Ohio. Our dog came from a breeder and Abbey was a non-producer of puppies along with another mini schnauzer. They were both terrified and huddled together. We had to pick one. It was so hard to leave the other one behind. She was adopted a few days later so I felt better.

Flanagan 

Abbey has been a wonderful new addition to our home. She was scared of everything. We took her to our vet and she shook the entire time. Abbey had ear infections in both ears and hookworms. She started to warm up more after she started feeling better. She is still scared but doing a lot better.

Abbey the day after she came home

Just last week she started going in the kitchen and dining room. Before she would only go in the living room and bathroom. We feed her in the bathroom. She had never had an accident in the house. She loves going for walks (4-5) a day. We live in a condo development and don't have a fenced in yard.

I decided to take her to obedience training. Not because she was behaving badly but I wanted to have her trust us more. We are going to Foundations 1 at Digging Dogs in Mentor, OH. She has learned some of the things but is often scared and refuses to walk. The was scared of the cones, the far wall, and the teacher. She is not as scared of the teacher anymore. The class was for 6 weeks. Tonight is actually the last class. She is not ready for Foundations 2 so I will work with her and try to get her ready for it. We will skip the next session that begins next week.

Abbey now

We have had a great experience adopting our pets. The dogs have both been wonderful! Cats are cats and have their moments but they are great too. So if you need a new pet in your home, make sure to adopt. There are plenty of rescues and shelters around. You can visit your local vet, Petsmart and shelters. Good luck!