From Texas To China With Love

We have two dogs; a German Shepherd and a chihuahua. I know...a huge difference, but it is comical when we walk them because hubby is tall and I'm short. Our GSD is Heidi and our Chi is Scooter.

The German Shepherd is the baby at 3 1/2 years old. We adopted her from a rescue shelter in May of 2004. She was a "return". The previous family adopted her and decided to bring her back a year later because they couldn't stop her from urinating in the house. I heard that the couple had jobs that required her to be locked up in a room for long periods of time. He was a truck driver and was hardly ever home and the wife worked long, inconsistant hours at Wal-Mart. They didn't have time to nurture her. She then sat in the shelter for 6 months before we came around and adopted her.

When we were looking at the dogs at the shelter, she was housed with another GSD female that was larger. She kinda was in the shadow. I kept going back to her while DH looked at other dogs. What sealed the deal was I convinced DH to take her for a walk and when he stopped to check her out, he kneeled down to look at her and she wet slobbery kissed him!

It has taken Heidi over a year, but she finally settled into family life. She still has relapses when there is a thunderstorm or "daddy" is gone on business travel, but I try not to make a big deal of it because it stresses her out more.

She is definately preparing us for parenthood. Within the last week she has been coming into the bedroom at 3AM in the morning asking to go outside. Then all she does is loaf around. She then does the same thing at 5AM and 7AM. UGH!

Scooter is our old, little guy. He is 10 years old and pretty much would prefer to be an only dog. He prefers to be around mommy, but will snuggle up against daddy when he wants an extra dog treat. He tolerates Heidi, but isn't overly excited about having a sister.