Friday, October 10, 2008

Big Black and Brown Dogs Rock, ya know....


Today we introduce our blog, Big Black and Brown Dog. Sounds more like the title of a children's book, but hopefully with more insight into what a big black dog is and can be. Today will also be the only time we will make the following statement. From here on in, it'll be all good news. Promise. A big black and brown dog is the very last to be picked in an animal shelter as a pet. Why? Don't know exactly but conjectures abound. Our goal will not be to try to convince our readers to adopt big black and brown dogs because they are best. They are, but that's not going to be the point of our blog. Our main desire with this blog is to make it a fun read about Astrid. I'll use the adjective 'our' all the time . 'Our' consists of me, Astrid's mom, who was blessed with being human this time around and having thumbs so I can hit the space bar and type this blog, and Astrid, the big black and brown dog.

Astrid was a guest at a shelter when we got her. We found her in the Santa Cruz Co. Human Society in Nogales, AZ. I don't know what would have happened to Astrid if we hadn't taken her. She may have lived out her entire life there as it is a 'no kill' shelter. The Santa Cruz Co. Humane Society in Nogales struggles financially all of the time. The last time we visited was towards the end of last year, 2007. Conditions at the shelter were probably tolerable when we found Astrid but her spirit helped her thrive. However, when we visited last, the conditions, through a generous donation, had gone from tolerable to a facility the staff, board of directors, volunteers and guests could be proud of.

That's just a little background of Astrid, the big black and brown dog. If I had started this blog when we first got her, I could have documented how she attended Petsmart's Basic training course, beginning just two weeks after we got her. I could have blogged about how we thought she had agression issues with other dogs and how we found out it was purely a 'leash issues'. She now attends doggie day camp, an indoor camp where 25 dogs freely interact all day long. We would have blogged about trying to use a harness on a dog that had been taught to walk by ones side, loose leash but we didn't know. That would have been a really good read because Astrid in a harness was nothing short of comical! Silly humans. We've missed a lot of fun to blog about but we will start right now. Astrid will have her second anniversary with us December 28. Because we don't know her exact birthday, we designate December 28th her birthday, also. We were told she was two when we got her, but some gray popping up around her mouth and few gray strays on her head leads us to wonder if she may be a little older. We don't care. Astrid is pure black and brown canine joy.

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