Holly is home with us

[Chow Chow Mama]

Sweetpea and I met today to trade Holly from car to car and save her from the shelter. I am going to foster this little girl and hopefully we can get her all fixed up and ready for a new home (though DH already says he wants to keep her)

She came into heat today - isn't that just rotten luck for the poor girl?

Holly's car ride home:






First introduction to H&H:




First reaction to being brought in the house:


Inside checking things out:




One on one intros (Holly is on the left, Hannah on the right)




Trying to coax her outside to potty for the first time:


She will not come in from the backyard no matter what we try. I told DH to just give her time and she'll eventually come in. Either that or we'll release the hounds and take to the backyard like trackers to get her butt inside. It is snowing and we don't have outside shelter for her.

Intros went pretty well. Holden growled at her outside but not inside. Hannah LOVES her and wants to play. Holly is just scared and confused and wants Hannah to leave her alone. She's growled and snarled a few times - Hannah doesn't take hints. She'll either be in our laundry room tonight or in Hannah's crate depending on how we think she'll handle things. Tomorrow is bound to be better once they all realize they're stuck together.

More to come later...

[Dogdad]

How wonderful, she is so pretty and has a great Foster?????? home. Keep up posted

[Mia]

Aw...how wonderful you and you hubby, and Hannah and Holden are. I am sure when Holly gets a little more comfortable, she will chill out. You know chows - it takes them a while. Silly chow chows. Wish you lots of luck, as I said, it's just a wonderful thing you all did.

[Chow Chow Mama]

My DH would be a hoarder if he could

[chow fancier]

She looks good. Bless you for saving her. It is probably good luck on her part that she didn't come into heat before now. If she had, she would probably be pregnant as she was running loose at the shelter, wasn't she?

Try meat or cheese to get her to come back in when she wants to stay outside. It worked on Teddy, who didn't take to being indoors at all.

[jacqui]

Thank You for the update,beautiful pictures and saving her life
she looks like a sweet girl.
wishing you all the best with her and I hope everything goes well with them all being together

[Chow Chow Mama]

Thanks guys. I am happpy to report our first night went well. We finally got her in - not the way I would have preferred (the 4 of us had to almost corner her in the backyard) - but we got her in. Now she goes out on a 20 foot lead. That'll teach her! She slept in the laundry room blocked off by baby gates and only whined a little bit. No destruction that we see. This morning she gave me purple kisses when I went to let her out . She's letting us pet her more and is even coming up to us to be pet.

Hannah is now jealous of her but still really wants her to play, too. Hannah is showing some food aggression so we'll be working on that. Holly won't sit by and let someone pick on her, either. She laid into Hannah something fierce. But all of that is to be expected. We knew it wouldn't be cupcakes and candy canes immediately. I think that once everyone settles down she and Hannah will be great friends. Holden seems pretty oblivious to her. He leaves her alone and doesn't make a fuss about her. I am shocked considering how he acted like he was going to kill Hannah at first. Maybe Hannah has calmed him down

She's had 2 accidents in the house but seems to understand going potty outside. Hopefully today I can manage a bath for her because she's filthy. And I'd really like to get one of those doggy diapers on her so I don't have to follow her around cleaning up blood. We'll see about that one, though. I don't want to scare her. She likes to jump up on the couch but listened when I told her to get down. I'm going to need to put a sheet up in case she jumps up without me seeing. Blood and I don't mix.

We are glad we could help her in this way. She's going to be a great dog. We're working with her on her new name and once she calms down we'll start working with tricks. She wouldn't take treats last night but took a few today so training shouldn't be too hard once we start. I had all three kids lined up in a row taking treats from me. So cute.

[CoraP.]

I am SO happy to hear Holly is safe!! She is probably so used to being outside all the time,that's all she knows. Good luck, and THANK YOU!!

[fillyok]

I was hoping you'd post some pics of the greetings. They look cute together. It sounds like things are going okay so far and with her being in heat, I thought it might get a little ugly. Holly must have a very sweet temperment. I'm sure things will settle down soon. Thank you so much for taking her in!!

[sweetpea]

I'm sure she knows to potty outside. On our way with her, she started getting antsy. She was acting as if she wanted out of the truck. So we stopped at a road side pinic area. My husband walked around with her, then I walked around it with her until she peed. After that she was fine. We got back in the truck, she laid down on my lap and went to sleep. I think right now she isn't sure how to tell you when she has to go and she's still nervous about everything. She is an absolute sweetheart. I spent about 4 1/2 hours with her on my lap. Today I have to clean the truck because she is shedding so badly. I do wonder about her being in heat, how that will affect her taking to Hannah. Like I mentioned last night, we allowed Gracie to have one heat cycle. When she went into heat, she wouldn't play. She must have felt like crap. Once in a while she'd act like she was going to play then she'd sit down and just watch the others. Holly is going through a lot right now. She's with the right family, so glad you and your husband took her in.

[Auddymay]

True, you won't be able to really gage how she will ultimately act toward H&H until the heat is over, and she has settled a bit. Try just putting an old pair of Ryan's underwear (if they are tighty whities) on her backwards, with her tail out the hole. It will keep her from stamping blood every time she sits.

I can just see how it went. Holden doesn't bother her, because Hannah is all the greeting committee anyone needs. She has the exhuberance of youth. It can be off-putting, but sounds like Holly has it under control. A couple times of being told off, and Hannah will learn her limits.

You have done a wonderful thing.

[muddydead]

For just getting to your home and actually interacting with your family so well is a great sign. So she seems to like your children too? That will be a big plus for her when adoption times comes! The tussles we(used) to have every times a new Chow would come into rescue...the resident Chows have to first understand the newcomwer and vice-versa and then newbie hopefully understands their place in the pack (Omega) and things settle down. That is the difficult thing about "home-based" rescue, they are actually in your home and interacting with your family. There are things I like better about it, even though it is more difficult, downside- you cannot usually take as many in. They start seeing what it is like to be part of a family and get to be part of a household routine. Great job! Yeah, most of us know how the "heat" cramps feel, we are not ourselves then and it is the same for her I suspect. Good idea about the tighty whities! I have actually done that before, but had to cinche the elastic part a bit tighter around the waist with tape so they did not fall off and even taped a pad inside. Not the biggest fashion statement, but it works and check out the look on the neighbor's faces when they see that, lol!!

[Laura]

How wonderful that you got her out of there! I am a bit shocked that a shelter would release an unaltered dog. I thought that wasn't allowed. Chloe was a grouch when she went through her one and only heat so watch out for the grumps.
She is a very pretty girl and a lucky one too!! Poor Holden and all these women .

[Chow Chow Mama]

Holden still seems pretty oblivious to the new addition. Hannah is calming down, Holly is calming down when Hannah comes near. Holly is still very jumpy. She was sleeping by my chair and I sneezed and she went running. DH says, "Holly really likes me!" and then he gets a huge grin. She already can do no wrong in his eyes. Just like Hannah...

She has been outside most of the day with H&H and so far so good. She wouldn't come in again this morning for several hours (we have a 20 ft lead on her just in case) so we left her out as long as she wanted. She finally followed Hannah in. She has been sleeping in the hallway most of the afternoon. She is really a sweet girl and once she feels comfortable I think she's going to be a wonderful love bug.

She was not too impressed with her doggy diaper

[CoraP.]

I love hearing about Holly's progress! It is so interesting. Poor girl, being so jumpy. Who knows what her life was like before.

[TJordan]

Oh how wonderful. I am happy for Holly!! It sounds like they are adjusting nicely.

[Babs64]

It sounds like everything is going pretty good. I am so happy Holly has got such great foster parents...Maybe we'll get to meet her at the next midwest chowfest! I can't wait to see her picture after her bath. I think she is going to be gorgeous.

[sweetpea]

How is Holly doing today? So far it sounds like things are going pretty good. She is such a sweetheart, very lovable. I'm agreeing that I think she's going to be so pretty once she's all cleaned up. Can't wait to see more pictures of her.

[Chow Chow Mama]

Day 2 still so far so good.

DH and I attempted to give Holly a bath last night... WOW is all I can say. She FREAKED out. I'm assuming that might have been her first real bath, but Tucker was the exact same way and he got baths on a regular basis so it's hard to say what was going on in her mind. DH got all scratched up and I got less scratching since I was the bather and he was the holder. She's better but she didn't get as good of a bath as I would like. We'll try again in a couple of weeks to see if she calms down any.

I have to figure out what's wrong with my camera before I can post some more pictures. I think I might just need new batteries. I'm going to look at it after I finish my book. I have a really cute picture of Hannah trying to lead Holly around the backyard on her leash. At least I think it's cute, it may not have turned out.

Holly went to the vet today since there was a cancellation. She was terrified. The vet said her heart and lungs sound good and her HW test came back negative but they'd like to retest her this summer after she's on preventative for a while. She also got a Parvo/Distemper booster and her rabies vaccination. She weighs 44 pounds and is slightly thin per the vet. That will change in no time, though, now that she's here with us. She won't be able to be spayed for at least 3 weeks since she's in heat. The vet guesses this is her 2nd heat and estimates her to be about 1.5. She hasn't had puppies yet.

She's slept in Hannah's crate the last 2 nights and didn't make much of a fuss about it. Though she did spill all of her water and dump her food today when I put her in there to get a tire changed. I think she was worried because that was the first time no one was home with her.

I caught her playing with Hannah this morning. Jumping and pawing each other. (She'd probably never admit it) She's also coming in on her own when the other two run inside. She hasn't barked which doesn't surprise me since she doesn't feel comfortable. She tries to let us know if she has to go out which is very good. She's taking treats now and I'm working on sit and her name with her. She doesn't seem to be food aggressive with people (don't know about with H&H yet) since she let me sit by her and pet her while she was eating and she takes treats very gently. She jumps, though. Not as much as Hannah did, but she does it especially when she's getting ready to go outside.

[jacqui]

thank you for all the updates.I love reading about how well Holly is doing
her pictures are so sweet,you could just tell she was a good girl.
please keep us posted with your great updates

[Chow Chow Mama]

Here are some pictures from today

[CoraP.]

It's great to hear that Holly is doing so well. Hannah holding on to her leash IS a cute picture. Holly looks so bright and inquisitive . Thanks so much for the update!

[fillyok]

She is a DOLL!!! I love that pic of Hannah holding her lead. Holly looks so inquisitive and sweet. I'm so glad you were willing to take her in, but I bet she'll be hard to let go...coming from a failed fosterer, I know these things.

[Chow Chow Mama]

She really is a doll. She has been giving purple kisses since yesterday. Not often, but every now and then she sneaks them in. She had a bully stick tonight and was a little frustrated with it at first because she couldn't snap it like a milkbone. But when she figured out she was supposed to chew on it, she sat down and got to it. With a little time she'll be able to gobble it up almost as fast as Hannah. Poor Holden always looks so sad when I give Hannah a bully stick and today he looked like his heart was going to break because both of the girls got one and not him. He won't even humor me and take it let alone actually eat it. I always give him one of his favorite treats, though, to try to make up for it. She also had another accident. She didn't try to tell me she wanted out and she was out just an hour earlier. That's one accident per day so far. Not bad considering.

[fillyok]

I just thought of it...I think Holly is a Shiba Inu. Take a look at the pic and tell me that's not a match. If you're serious about only fostering, you might contact a rescue for them.