Life above 60 at 50 below...: My new (and hopefully temporary) shadow...

About 3 weeks ago, we went down to work in the morning, and outside on our side porch was a little dog. I knew right away that I'd seen this dog before, because I had let it into the house about a year ago during Jamboree when it was just a pup, and was loose outside. Since, I've seen the dog, and its siblings around town off and on. It was not that cold on the day we found her, but still, -20C is cold for an 18 pound dog with very thin fur.

Despite her smell (like fish, and wet dog), we decided we should take her inside until we could find out more about where she lives, and why she went astray. She didn't have a collar, and we didn't have one either, so we fashioned a noose (basically) out of some rope, and tied her to the bracket on our wall where the fire extinguisher hangs. This was the perfect location so that she couldn't reach anything worth chewing. She cried a bit when we left her, but otherwise she was fine.

At lunch time that day, we got a small bag of kibble from the store, and fed her that. She also had a huge drink of water. We then decided that a bath was in store if she was to stay indoors with us until we found her owners. She smelled so bad, that we could smell her when we came in the apartment entrance downstairs, and of course, our apartment smelled as well. It was time to light some of my scented candles!

When we put her in the bath, the first thing she did was drink a lot more water. I think she was very dehydrated, despite being outside in the snow. She was surprisingly calm in the tub, and gave us the chance to give her a good scrub down. We used Sunlight dish detergent to try to get any fish oils out of her fur. We dried her off, and gave her some towels to curl up on.

In the mean time, Barry and Patrice lent us Nugget's kennel which she doesn't use anymore and a leash, and Lorrie lent us a little collar.

That afternoon I phoned around to the potential owners in town, who eventually led me to the most recent owner (she's had about 4 in total). They said they didn't want her back essentially. So since then I've put an announcement on the radio station, facebook posts, and have emailed our co-workers in Inuvik to see if anyone would like her, but there have been no takers. The next option is to take her to a shelter perhaps in Whitehorse or Yellowknife, where she'd likely be adopted pretty quickly.

She is a very nice dog, and it is not that we don't like her. However, we travel fairly frequently for work, and often times both Deon and I are gone at the same time, meaning we'd need to find a sitter for her quite a few times a year.

It seems as though she is trying to impress us, as her behaviour improves every single day. We've got quite a few "rules" down pat:

(a) She must sit and stay when her bowl is placed on the ground before she can chow down on her food.

(b) She cannot cross the invisible barrier (loosely marked by two bar stools) between the kitchen and living room.

(c) She cannot cross the threshold to the bedroom.

(d) She is supposed to sit still when being put on her leash to go for a walk (we've almost got this one down).

(e) She is not supposed to jump up on our legs when we are standing, and she is not supposed to bite our toes when we are walking (this one is taking some work, but she's doing pretty well).

(f) I'm also trying to teach her "in your crate" so that she'll go in her crate at nighttime and during work by herself without us having to coax her in. I know that she sees her crate as a safe haven, because she goes in when the vacuum is on, and also when she's tired of being elsewhere in the house.

We're also making good progress from a hygiene aspect. We've bathed her 5 times now, and she's getting whiter. She came to us with a lot of iron staining from being wet all of the time, especially on her paws, underside, and around her face. I think my most recent dose of Herbal Essences orchid/coconut shampoo really helped to bring out her white highlights, haha. We've also cut some of the hair around her eyes. Unfortunately she's one of those dogs who has runny eyes, and it really shows up on her muzzle. We've trimmed her hind end as well, where she has feathery fur. We thought we had everything straightened out until yesterday out of curiosity, I lifted her ears, only to see that they were filled with black gunk. It turns out that this is where the remaining smell is coming from, and we did our best with q-tips to clean them out... however, that is a work in progress. Lorrie might give us some of the medicine the vet recommended for Dodger.

At any rate, we're torn on what to do with her. We already have a dog, but he doesn't live with us. We can't just turn her back out onto the streets. And she is a good little dog, and deserves a caring owner. We are more than capable of keeping her, and Deon's not even allergic to her... but I don't like the idea of having to rely on people all the time to look after her.

So without further adieu, here are some pictures of the little mutt... whatever you may call her. Deon calls her Stinky, I call her Gizmo, because she is as crazy as a windup toy. But we don't want to come up with anything firm, because we hope to give her away!