Hi, we wanted to let you know that we're still around and making improvements. Here's Chester's journal from yesterday.
When we first started this adventure, adopting Chester, we each had a few preconceived ideas of what to expect. We didn’t have a specific plan of how to go about rehabilitating Chester, we just figured that love, patience and time (and Casey’s persistence) would do the trick.
I have to tell you, ALL my previous visions of how this would go are already out the window. Chester functions on his own time and completely in his own way. In most situations he has exceeded anything we could have expected in terms of progress. If Chester’s life stayed exactly as it is today, I believe that he would be a happy dog. He has a comfortable home, people and another dog who love him, plenty of food and water, exercise, toys and structure. But his life won’t stay the same and with each day he is awakened to more and more that life has to offer. Yes, he wagged his tail the other day (just that one time), but he smiles a lot. He won’t sit or lie down when you tell him. He won’t even come when called … he knows his name, but WE don’t. “Chester” was a tag the GBR people gave him. No one in his life now knows entirely what his past consisted of or what his name was.
For the most part Chester doesn’t care what we call him as long as he has the basic comforts. He simply hasn’t a clue that this is just the beginning for him. His life will become so much better.
In our family, including our now grown children, we have nicknames for all our animals. With regard to our daughter, a single nickname for a pet would be too easy. She always had several names for each one and each name usually invoked a certain sound or octave change when spoken. That might not be too difficult if you think of a “normal” family with a few pets. Actually we’ve never been “normal” and over the years some of our pets included our purebred Polled Hereford cattle. Our children started raising breeding stock for 4-H and FFA projects. We weaned and halter broke calves and the kids showed them at junior association events and fairs. Each calf (or cow) had nicknames … and sometimes several … because they were all purebred and had formal pedigree names. Those stories are for another time.
Chester already has a few nicknames. Bandit and Rascal are each fitting names for his rapidly developing personality. Each day, we watch to see how many times he “steals” Casey’s black bear toy and wonder when she will take it back. They always do it when the other one is away from the area, but last night’s episode was precious.
These stuffed bear squeaky toys belong to Casey. She’s had them for probably 6 months. One is brown, the other black. Chester has recently “claimed” the brown one as his and Casey seemed okay with that. A few days ago while she was outside Chester grabbed the black one too and put it with his other. Under the table it went. We laughed but let them sort it out. Last night Casey retrieved the black bear and was lying in the middle of the family room floor, playing with it. She asked to go out. No sooner was she out of sight than Chester came out from under his table and swiped the black bear and put it back by his brown one.
When Casey returned to the room, she was baffled. She looked around where the bear had been. She sniffed around. Then she went to the bedroom closet (there’s a box where I put damaged toys for later repair). She looked on the sofa where Glenn sat. She was truly puzzled at where that bear had gone. All the while Chester watched, smiling, from under his table. He had both bears securely snuggled where she couldn’t see them. Bandit? Rascal? You bet!!
No comments:
Post a Comment