Jessie

I’m ashamed to say that we almost did not take Jessie when she needed a place to stay on vacation. When she first came to visit she was slightly snarly with Uben, and at the time I took this as kind of a sign that maybe she would not do well here. She came for a 2nd visit, was fine with little Ubes, and I said ok to taking her. I now realize that the snarly behavior was nothing but a bit of fear. This is the most fearful dog we have ever had here, and it has been a challenge to make her feel loved and secure. We have been extremely gentle and more quiet than normal in dealing with her, and after a few days she’s staring to warm up and is slightly less fearful. We understand that she came from Greece, and had been left on a beach to drown when the tide came in. What the hell are people thinking? This is the sweetest, most eager to please dog of all time. Thankfully she now has a nice family who love her.

We were very concerned about letting her off the leash during walks because to get her on a leash in the first place was a bit of an ordeal. She would only come to my husband when he sat on the couch, so he would go through a couch sitting routine to get her hooked up to the leash before leaving. We did not want to let her off the leash because it seemed clear that she would not come back to us. While out walking yesterday she went into some bushes and when my husband pulled the leash gently toward him there was no Jessie at the end of the leash…she had somehow come unhooked. He figured that she was just gone and that he would have hell to pay with me, not to mention her owners who love her. As it turned out, she seems to grasp the whole idea of staying with the humans on walks, came to be re-leashed eventually when circumstances called for it, and has been off the leash on walks ever since. She goes wherever Uben goes, stays with him perfectly, and they are a nice little pack of 2 with Uben obviously being the leader. This works well for us since Uben knows where he is and what he’s doing (although this would not be obvious to those who do not know him as he races around like a madman looking for birds to point at and chase).

Jessie has a brand new and totally deluxe dog bed. I was schlepping it up and down the stairs daily for her so she could sleep with the rest of the family in the bedroom. This got old quickly, so I broke out an extra dog bed for her (with sides so she would feel safe) and put it in the bedroom. She has this little habit here of laying beside the dog bed for about 15 minutes before climbing in. I thought she would never get into the new upstairs bed, and I could hardly bear the fact that she was bedding down on the floor while everyone else was in a bed. Finally she slowly made her approach and slowly climbed into the new bed and made herself comfortable for the night.

It is impossible not to love a dog that is damaged but eager to please, so fearful, but so totally sweet. She is welcome here for the rest of her life and I hope she always comes. She’s so fearful that I cannot imagine that she would have to go anywhere else now that she is getting used to us. And Uben loves her too, watches out for her a bit, and loves to run around in the yard with her alternately chasing her and being chased. They play tug of war with the toys and no one ever gets rude about it….he likes it so much that he takes toys in his mouth and hits her with them so that she’ll grab the other end and play with him.

Jessie, we are so glad you came to stay with us and hope you will always come back. We will totally miss you around here when you go home.