Meri is Free

America was scheduled, along with several other dogs, to be euthanized today at the Martinez shelter.  Her intake date was March 30, 2023, so if my math is correct, I believe today marked her 200th day there.  Imagine living in a 4'x4' kennel for over 6.5 months, surrounded by dogs when you're scared of dogs, with almost no human interaction on a daily basis and never seeing beyond the shelter's walls and immediate grounds.

But America is free now.  I pulled her and took her home today.  I'll be fostering her until I can find another long-term foster or adopter.

We were aware that Meri knew some basic commands from the time we spent with her during our field trip 3 weeks ago.  Quite by accident, we discovered then that she knew "down."  Not just knew it, but had it down pat.  My husband just happened to lower his arm while he was sitting on a chair, and Meri immediately laid down. 

Turns out she knows more basic commands.  Today, we discovered she knows "sit," "shake," "down," and "stay."

I noticed that Meri always chose to lay directly on the floor rather than on the dog bed.  I wondered whether she just liked the cooler floor, or if she just didn't know it was ok to lay on the dog bed.  She did finally lay on it once I laid down on it first.  After that, it was her go-to spot.

We also started crate-training today. But I think Meri was already crate-trained because while she had some hesitancy to enter the crate the first couple of times, she overcame that pretty quickly.  One time, I just pointed to the crate door and said "inside" and she just walked in.  Once she got comfortable on the dog bed that was outside of the crate, I moved it inside the crate and by nightfall, she just automatically went to the crate to lay down on that bed every time.  She's there right now, snoring as I type.

Another first today.  Meri's never shown any interest in toys.  Balls, stuffies, bones, or anything else.  Not even in the slightest.  I put that bear in the picture above next to her in the crate, and she wasn't interested -- until a few hours later when she put the bear between her paws and started chewing on it ever so gently.  It lasted less than a minute, but I was happy to see it.  Dogs don't get toys at the shelter, unless it's tennis balls or rope toys when they're out in one of the play pens for 10-15 minutes.  So Meri hasn't had a real toy of her own to play with in over 6 months.

Overall, it was a great first day.