Friday, September 5, 2008

Dog on the Blog: Caitlyn Finds Her Way Home

This is our Caitlyn. She is a big girl -- part greyhound, part great dane. She has soft velvety fur in some of the most beautiful shades of tan, grey, taupe and white.

Caitlyn came from an excellent rescue organization in San Antonio. She had been placed for adoption five times, and she was returned five times!

One of her placements took her to Austin. Somehow, Caitlyn got out of the yard at her new Austin home and disappeared. Her new family looked frantically everywhere they could think of, but there was just no sign of Caitlyn.

Then one day she showed up -- at the San Antonio home of her foster family! Somehow, Caitlyn had managed to travel all the way from Austin to San Antonio by herself.


Caitlyn is an amazing girl.

But after so many failed adoptions, the rescue decided that Caitlyn was probably not destined to succeed in adoption, and they looked for other options. That is how they found us. Heather drove Caitlyn from San Antonio, and Caitlyn came to live with us on the farm.


(Caitlyn is trained on a seagull flying overhead in this photo.)

We were told she had a bit of an independent streak and could be difficult sometimes.

That was like saying Bill Cllinton likes girls! Caitlyn has a stubborn streak that would make any mule proud. Coupled with her size, she can be intimidating. When Caitlyn decides she doesn't want to do something, it takes a lot of willpower and resolve to dissuade her!


Because she is temperamental, Caitlyn is one of our "special" babies who cannot be put out or serviced by any of our workers, here at the farm. Caitlyn will only respond to Ricky, me or my son, Doug.

When Ricky and I are able to go to Galveston, Caitlyn is one of the dogs who always comes with us. Because no one could take care of her if we left her at the farm!

You can see in these pictures that Caitlyn enjoys being in the surf. We always keep our dogs on a leash at the beach. We would never risk letting them run loose and possibly getting into trouble with another dog or another person on the beach.

So we run with her down the beach as fast as we can go, and we know that she is just "dogging" it for our benefit, because we cannot keep up when she tries to run flat out!


Caitlyn is not real fond of other dogs, either. So for the most part, she is a single girl. But when we are at the beach, we take Caitlyn and Todd out at the same time, and Caitlyn has been developing a friendship with Todd. She will jump at him, trying to engage him in play with her. Todd responds in kind! They ignore one another at the farm, but when they are at the beach together, they play and enjoy each others' company.

When it's Caitlyn's turn in the bed, she stretches all the way from the top to the bottom of a king size bed! She really enjoys snuggling in the covers!

Caitlyn lives inside with our "house dogs". She is our special girl. Caitlyn has found her way home for good!

Jay Hellerich, executive director
smiling dog farms
a 501(c)3 corporation
wharton, texas
979-257-3377
www.smilingdogfarms.org
http://smilingdogfarms.blogspot.com


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