Alex and I found Ryder on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009. We had been searching Craigslist, the Human Society and just about every website we could looking for a new dog for Simon. We were looking for a medium sized dog... 30-50lbs and approx. 6 months to a year old when we adopted he or she. We defiantly have the time, money, space and love to give to another dog and feel as if it would be selfish not to!
On Tuesday we made a few calls to local shelters and asked to put some holds on dogs we had seen online, but there are already holds, so we decided not to. We just went to look! We saw some precious ones, but we knew it had to be the perfect one because Simon is shy and spoiled and we knew he could only have the perfect sibling.
The shelters did not work out and we'd almost given up hope on Tuesday, but then I saw this add on Craigslist and it just was calling to me... 8 week old German Shepherd/American Eskimo Mix. I thought about it for a minute, then called Alex upstairs to look at it. 8 weeks old...?!?! We could have gotten an 8 week old at the shelter if we wanted and just said that's way too young for us! I thought I would just shoot the person over an email and maybe just ask her a few questions... I mean she said he would be 40lbs full grown so that IS what we are looking for! I emailed her and.... my email was rejected back to me. I thought that was strange, so I emailed her again. It was bugging me that the link was not working! I waited awhile and BAM the add was REPOSTED on Craigslist. I quickly emailed her again... strange because we weren't looking for this little of one.
Within 2 minutes I had a phone call and before I knew it we had an appointment to "LOOK" at him at 5:30. If you ever plan to just "look" at a dog be prepared that you will fall in love and you'll be taking it home with you no matter what. We met with the lady... I will just say EVERYTHING about it was strange. It was strange where she wanted to meet us... it was strange that her phone number was blocked... it was strange we couldn't know her last name... it was all very.... VERY strange. I felt I needed to take him... He needed rescuing! If we only knew just how "strange" it would get...
Ryder was originally named Frost... and it SO did not fit him. I always knew I'd get two boy dogs and they would be Ryder and Ruger. Well, Simon was named Simon and it was just too late to change it by the time we got him and he was four months old, so now I have Simon and Ryder. Maybe another's in the near future.... I think NOT! Read on...
Simon does not like Ryder. Period. So are working on that. Simon snaps at him occasionally because Ryder tries to nurse off of Simon and thinks he's biting a nipple... which in fact is NOT a nipple! OUCH! ;o)
We took Ryder to bed with us and placed him in a kennel. That was a little hard to do because to this day Simon has NEVER been in a kennel and I said I would NEVER allow my dog to ever. Ryder is 3 pounds and I was fearful he'd get squished in the middle of the night or roll off the bed, so we just let him be in a kennel for the night. I will make a looooong story short. RYDER DIDN'T SLEEP! And neither did I the WHOLE... ENTIRE... night. I sat up with him from 11pm until 9am when Alex got up. He cried. He cried like a baby and I knew something was just not right.
The next morning we seriously considered returning him because well... Simon hates him and he was just too young and going to be a lot and and I a lot of work! I cried my eyes out over him for about 4 hours... my sister drove 2 hours from Tacoma to calm me down... I talked to various friends on line about this (you know who you are and thank you for getting me through it!) After talking to people and the vet we learned...
Ryder is NOT 8 weeks... (That is why the lady could not give us a birth date for him!) Ryder is FOUR to SIX weeks... WAYYY to young to be away from his mom! We is not even weened yet! The food she sent with us is adult dog food that she has had him on. We were told he was kennel and puppy pad trained. Neither are true. We were told he sleeps through the night... NOT TRUE. We don't know if she honestly gave him shots or not... and now we don't know if he is German Shepherd and American Eskimo at all. We see the German Shepherd, but also see that it could be lab or pit bull as well...sigh...
I tried to contact this lady... time and time and time again. She's vanished and now it makes sense why she was SO secretive about everything! Ryder has to been fed every 2 hours... he cries like a baby and has had an EXTREMELY bad start at life.
He was probably stolen or from a puppy mill... we WAYYY over paid, but I know deep down we saved his life so it is worth it. It's going to be a hard, hard road. He is NOT Simon and will never measure up to be the dog Simon is and we are learning that, but Alex and I can both truly say... "We love him!" He is our new baby... not a dog truly a baby!
We don't know his past, but we can give him an amazing future. He's happy and now has a very full belly. He is doing well with potty training. He LOVES treats! :o) We has a ton of new toys and we can't forget Simon so he has a ton of new toys too!
Simon will come around. He has lived a whole year and he is the center of our universe and now he shares that and it's hard for him. Alex and I have been taking lots of one on one time with him. It's been great having my sister here to allow us to do that! So that is his story... everyday will get better. I will sleep someday, but for now that baby needs me. Night two was way better than night one, we are hoping that night three will be even better!
August 20th his first bath!
LOVES the arms of the couch!
This is Simon last night wanting extra attention! "Yes Simon... Momma still loves you!" He's always going to be my number one baby! :o)
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