Zoey at Toronto Animal Services South

When Stella passed away in June, I knew I wouldn't want to adopt a new dog for a while. Still, when I saw Zoey at Toronto Animal Services, I had to tell Elizabeth. Zoey was a five year old, dirty, itchy ragamuffin. She had big, wide eyes, the biggest and widest I'd ever seen. They were wide enough to reveal the whites of her eyes which lent a very human quality to her gaze. Along with her expressive eyes was her expressive voice - a variety of hi/lo, long/short wah-wah-wahs that, whenever she felt like conversing, made her sound like a cross between Charlie Brown's teacher and a seal. She was friendly but not pushy. She stood her ground with other dogs but had no problem rolling on her back for belly rubs from people. Irresistable enough already but even more, she reminded us of Barclay. Same as Barclay, Zoey was a Bearded Collie. Or an Old English Sheepdog. Or a mix of the two. Anyway, close enough. (We probably won't know if she's a Beardie or an OES for sure until her hair grows out).

Ever since Barclay passed away two and a half years ago, Elizabeth had been looking at Bearded Collie rescues and sighing whenever a particular dog in need caught her eye on Petfinder but none had ever passed through TAS-S as far as I could remember. Then two weeks after Stella died, Zoey turned up. I wasn't ready for another dog but if Elizabeth wanted her ...

One of my main concerns was how Rocky would handle the new housemate. He's not a dog's dog. I'd introduced him successfully to other dogs before but it had to be a slow, carefully considered process and none of those dogs had ever moved in. Still, I knew Rocky well enough to know that his reactivity was not dominance based. He's wary of new dogs because he himself is somewhat frail of limb and doesn't want to get knocked about and hurt. Once he understands a dog is not a threat, his behaviour immediately changes from displays of (impotent) aggression to indifference and/or mild curiosity and eventually, a sort of dependence.

At the meet and greet, Rocky behaved like a lunatic - typical - and Zoey was at first unfazed but then after a few rounds of barking on Rocky's part, she decided she'd had enough and started exhibiting reactive behaviour herself. She wasn't going to be a pushover. I kept Rocky at a distance but in view of Zoey and pretty soon he mellowed a bit. We all sat together for a while in the main foyer at TAS-S, close but not too close. Rocky lay on the cool floor and ignored Zoey - a good sign.

We repeated the visits a few more times and about two weeks after the first meet and greet, we decided it was time to take Zoey home. She was groomed, bathed and rechristened Smitten.

Smitten shorn

The first day, we kept Smitten and Rocky in the same room but far apart and both leashed. There were only a couple of outbreaks of barking from Rocky. The second day, they were off leash but we kept an eye on them. No incidents. Third day they were free roaming and fine together. By this point, Smitten had already realized that Rocky, despite his curmudgeonish demeanor, was no threat to her. She was about the same size as Rocky, but she was young, fast and agile whereas Rocky ... well, Rocky's got his problems not the least of which was that he'd never been able to move very fast and for a dog like Smitten, he was like a slow motion replay. By the fourth day, Smitten was stealing food from under Rocky's nose (we put a stop to that) and Rocky was following her around the yard almost like the way he used to follow Stella.

Smitten is a Quebec dog and she's come pretrained in French so we say, "Assis" when we want her to sit, "Coucher" when we her to lie down and "Viens, ici" when we want her to come and "Au pied" when we want her to heal. Like most dogs, "Viens" works best when there's a treat in hand and "au pied" is getting better. When she does something bad, we scold her in English and she looks at us with her "I don't understand your silly language" stare.


We're not sure what her immediate past was like but she came with a few minor health issues, a couple of which we are still dealing with (1. her allergies and 2. a bad stitch up job preformed by the vet who did the spay) but for the most part, she is a healthy, happy dog. We adore her and now that Rocky is sleeping on the same couch as she is, I guess he's okay with her too.

Remember these two?

One is now living with his owner. The other is living with a foster, still awaiting his neuter, because his two boys haven't come out yet.

This is their reunion. They are unnecessarily cute.