Thursday, February 24, 2011

Yellow dog issues

I am tentatively declaring the yellow dog officially housebroken. Yesterday was her fourth day in a row without a single "accident". She also knows "sit" and "stay", and is making progress with "down" and "fetch".

She struggles with "come". She sometimes obeys the command, especially if a treat is involved. But more often than not, she sits at a safe distance and stares at me with mistrust. I swear, I never used that command to scold her in any way. Whatever the issue is, it comes from her previous life.

Her tail is a mess. It was shortened through a "traumatic event", according to the vet. She's all right now, and whoever groomed her left a tuft at the end of  her tail to dissimulate the deformity. I cannot help but wonder how it happened. Maybe someone went at it with a hacksaw or, in the best case, she had a horrible accident involving a heavy door.

If I ever adopt a child, will I also be worried silly about previous traumas, unexplained scars, medical history..? Do other potential adoptive parents have the same worries?

1 comment:

  1. Every time we talk about adoption this comes up for us. We worry that the child will be emotionally scarred and we won't know how to help them. But I guess those are the kids that need love the most right?

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