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Happy Beginnings

Where do we all begin? We have all been adopted and become part of the 7 Shelties here at Casa Kremer/Watson. Since I Shamus am the most vocal, and the most recent, I'll talk about everyone else! Magellan was the first to join the gang, my two Dads call him the Gentle Giant, 'cause he's the sweetest of all of us 4 (but don't tell Mister!) Magellan gets scared at loud noises but is a real sweetheart, until he barks...and then the house shakes!

Mindy was next in line, and she has it real cushy these days, compared to where she was living before. She's doing remarkably better now on SynFlex for her front quarter Arthritis....but can still run for food like a banshee! She does still have food aggression problems, and probably always will...but we just stay away from the old snappin' turtle when food is out!

Mister is the greatest guy in the world, and after he had all of his chompers pulled, and his Bladder Stones removed (surprisingly the same day as his big snipperoo was to have taken place....hmmm) at his ripe old age of 12 he's doing all right gumming it! Hasn't hurt his appetite though! He can still jump and play with the best of 'em!!

Me, Shamus, I'm just as WILD and WOOLY as I was on the ride home from Aunt Debbie's, goin' bonkers with each swipe of the windshield wipers. I just like to be nervous in the service in the car, and when you close the bathroom door, and the dishwasher door..and well, you know! I'm just a weirdarse dog, but when I plop at the end of the day, I plot....of course unless a Thunderstorm comes up....then it's all over!!

So, all in all we love it here at the Sheltie Old Folks Home! They feed us well, and put up with our antics, plus we keep them young! Magellan, Mindy, Mister and of course Shamus!

His Mom writes: Jack came to us from the Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue League. He was surrendered for adoption by his former owners because they couldn't take care of him the way he needed (ie: regular walking to keep the weight off) and came to Northern Virginia about 2 months ago. He spent a month with his Foster mom, Pat, in Arlington Virginia. Richard & I were encouraged to go to the foster homes and meet dogs before we made a final decision. We went to Pat's house and we were immediately taken with him. He was just all wiggles and face-licking, pet me, pet me kind of dog. We just had to have him so I asked Pat if I could take him home with me & she said "Sure!

We've had Jack since October 12th. He's adjusted wonderfully. He does tend to bark & likes to try to chase cars but I'm working on de-sensitizing him to the cars. He's been trained and responds to my commands well. Our cat, Dragg, didn't like him on the first day but after 12 hours of constant staring, he chilled out. He's been fine ever since & likes to sit outside on the porch with Jack in the sun.

Max, a handsome and affectionate young man, found a home with a family that can give him the exercise and mental stimulation he deserves. He enjoys playing with his Sheltie brother Calvin and trying to chase their cat, Thelma.

Tux-Man here. Mom's helping me type because my toes are kinda splayed and I'd have to spend too much time back-spacing to correct those pesky typos. Proper gentlemen such as myself cannot tolerate such imperfection. In fact, one of my human brothers told me that if I spoke that "people-language" that I'd probably have a British accent. I'm such a gentleman!

I am so happy here with my new Mommy, my 2 human brothers, and my 2 Sheltie brothers, Pete and Smitty. I even have a sister. She's a cat, so I don't have much to say about her except that she doesn't like me much. In fact, she doesn't like anyone except for the 2-legged family members, and Pete. Pete's an O.K. guy. He even let me sleep in his bed, although I prefer to sleep on the bed with Mom. And, what can I say about Smitty. He OBVIOUSLY doesn't have a British bone in his body, and could really benefit from some lessons in being polite. But, Mom loves him too (the silly little butterball), so I'll tolerate his nonsense.

My silly Mom calls me her little Teddy Bear. I don't know what a Teddy Bear is, but it must be something good. She gets all gooshy with me just because I LOOKED at her, and I sure like the hugs she gives me when I wrap my body around her and make little grunty noises. Don't tell her, but I have her trained very well! It may sound undignified that I'd do this for hugs, because I get a lot of them anyway, but even a Proper Englishman craves love and affection.

Note from Mom: Tux is one special little guy. I can't imagine ANYONE giving up this sweet little bundle of Sheltie love. He's the smallest of my crew, but he sees himself as the Man-In-Charge. It's so funny. And, I'd never have had the opportunity to bring this sugar-plum into my home were it not for NVSR. Thank you!

Sneakers writes: I'm doing well and I look great! At first I was a little bit shy around my new mom and dad. I was also quiet around the house. Well, things have changed! I tell my parents when I want to go out and when we walk around the neighborhood I let everyone know that I'm coming down the street. I love to run around my backyard with my dad and sit out on the front lawn making sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing. My mom took me to the vet and he said that I should lose a couple of pounds and that my teeth had to be cleaned. I lost around 2-3 pounds and my teeth look good enough for a toothpaste commercial.

His family writes: Jak came to us 2 years ago. We adopted him 2 years after the loss of our one and only Sheltie, Jeffrey died at the age of 12.  We knew that we could never replace our Jeffrey and Jak had no intention of imitating the original. He has made his own place in our home and our hearts and we don't know what we would do without him.

It was our understanding that in his first home he had some difficulty with children but we have never found that to be the case. Our son was just 3 when Jak entered our lives and they are great friends, especially if our little one has some food to share!

Jak came to us with wonderful manners and well trained. I have to admit that he has been "somewhat" spoiled but we really couldn't help it. My husband is in the military and recently spent the last 10 months away from home. Jak has stood watch over the entire family during his absence and greeted him upon his return as though he had only been gone a day.

He still loves to play ball ( I have to hide them when we are in the house or he drives us crazy til we play ) and gets along well with our other animals.

He was accustomed to being crated when we got him but well...he really does like the bed much better! He also loves to ride in the car, especially if I tell him we are going to "grandmaw's". She spoils him a little too!

Jak seems to have identified all of our individual personalities and interacts with each of us based on his relationship with that person. He is more gentle with our little one, plays rough with our older son, cuddles with our grown daughter, and is my constant companion. It has been amazing for me to watch him fulfill a need in the whole family. Some might think that Jak was fortunate to find us but we know the truth...we were the fortunate ones to have found him.

Thank you so much for your interest in "our boy" and I'll pass it along to him. Thank you also to NVSR for bringing us all together, Jak is the light of our life!

Sparky writes: I am thoroughly enjoying myself, and I have my people well trained now to spoil me with tummy rubs and back scratches. I have a huge yard to explore, but I prefer to stay inside. I am jealous of Mason, the golden retriever, when he swims in the pool, but I don't like to get wet, so I run around the edge. I have learned to negotiate around my youngest people's wheelchair, and I when invited, love jumping up on his bed to give good night kisses. In turn he sometimes shares treats with me. My big people take me on walks and I love to ride in the car.

Sherlock writes: I have had a wonderful time in my new forever home. I cannot begin to tell you how much my new family loves me. They are constantly letting me know how special I am and what a joy I have been to them. I feel that I am a pretty lucky pup and I know that they feel that they're a pretty lucky family to have me with them. I think they have caught on rather quickly that I MUST have my cookie treats in the morning, right after I come in from our 5:30 am walk, Fortunately my family is very trainable and is allowing me to work on some other tricks with them. We have had a terrific time going for walks in the park, rides in the car-one of my personal favorites-and just being together.They try to take me along whenever they can.

I still do not like thunderstorms and will wake everyone in the house up when one is around. My family tries very hard to make me feel safe. Also, my family loves me so much that they have adopted "Katie, Too" another NVSR Sheltie. Now my miniature dachshund brother, Buddy and I have a sister. Katie has only been with us for approximately three weeks. She was very shy at first. However, Buddy and I have told her that this is a really nice home and a family who loves all of us very much. I think that she is beginning to believe us.

Jonah's Mom writes: I have had Jonah since 10/17/2003 and could not have asked for a more fantastic pet. Despite the fact that he just turned 8, he has the energy of a 2-3 year old. He loves playing: he jumps high into the air to catch his beloved frisbee. He will play for hours on end. He came to me with a bag full of toys and a big bed from LL Bean, which he sleeps on every night without fail. He will actually lie right next to my bed until he thinks I have fallen asleep and only then will "retire" to his own bed in the hall. He is attached to each of his many toys and will follow me around the house with one in his mouth.

Jonah loves the car, so I try to take him with me when I run errands. He is equally happy looking out the window or curling up on the seat and napping. He also enjoys playing with my three nephews, ages 5, 3, and 2 and demonstrates great patience and affection with them. They are thrilled by his bag of tricks, which includes waving and "high fiving."

To sum up, Jonah is a wonderful dog. He seems very happy with me and is a constant source of joy and friendship. I am so pleased that I contacted NVSR to inquire about adopting. To date it has been the best experience.

I am attaching a recent photo of Jonah with one of my sister's two shelties.

His Mom writes: Beau and I are doing great! He still has some separation anxiety issues and the usual Sheltie smorgasbord of phobias, but we are managing nicely. I took him to Alabama for Thanksgiving and West Virginia for Christmas, so he's had plenty of time to get to know Tess, the other Sheltie in the family. The attached picture was taken while we were in Alabama.

I am so grateful to NVSR for this wonderful service you provide... it warms my heart to know that with your help, I'm able to give Beau a better life than he's known before.

Emma needed surgery on her hip. Her new family arranged for the surgery and sent this update: Emma is doing great. She is recovering well and has dealt with the snow pretty well. It has melted now, but has been replaced by extreme cold, even for the Northeast! Emma has good mobility in that hip and now she is free to walk as much as she wants to increase her muscle mass in that hip area. The cold has slowed us down a little, but hopefully it will let up soon. Even Emma runs straight for the door as soon as she is done in the yard. Emma is a good girl and has bonded well with the family, especially with myself. She follows me everywhere and definitely is my girl. She is spoiled and is probably the one training us. We are very happy that we went to Virginia to get Emma. I think she is happy too.

Just a short note to let the sheltie rescue know that everything is going great here with Rusty. He has a brother and sister dogs, Plus two brother and sister cats. Rusty likes going out in the back yard and have me chase him. This little fellow has a lot of energy and then he comes up on the deck and stands at the back door and looks in like (come-on you guys I've been out here long enough. .. I want to thank the sheltie rescue for all the help in finding Rusty for me, He is my buddy and we go for walks when the weather is nice. At nights when I get home from work Rusty barks when I come in the back door, after dinner he comes and lay on the sofa with me and he takes a nap on my chest. I am enclosing some pictures so you can show everyone that Rusty is doing fine. Again I would like to thanks everyone that help get Rusty in our household.

Buddy writes: Things have been great since I moved in with the Wilson's. Attached are a couple of pictures of me with Jay. He'll be 8 in October. I go to watch him play all his tee-ball games. There are also 11 other kids that live in the houses on either side of ours, and I play with all of them. Everyone in the neighborhood treats me like I'm theirs, and I treat them just the same.
An 8-year-old chow named Baby lives next door, and we get to play every other day. She's bigger & older, but I'm younger & faster, so we have a pretty good time. When we chase each other around, little Annie from next door laughs non-stop the whole time. Since we live on a quiet cul de sac, we don't have to worry too much about cars, but we're careful just the same.
There's a great trail nearby where we go for walks each evening. Once we saw a fox and another time, some deer. There are lots of squirrels & rabbits that I'd like to chase if it weren't for that darn leash.
I've got everyone pretty well trained. Whenever they need me, all they have to do is say "come", and I'm there. I've also taught them "sit", "stay", and "shake".

We are so blessed to have Scarlet as part of our family. She is doing very, very well. We hope she loves being here as much as we love having her=)

When I let her out of her crate she has a certain circling routine she must do around my legs before I pet her, and she does the same circling before I let her outside. She and Sampson have actually bumped into each other a few times when the "circling" routines conflict=)

She is very social. We walked Scarlet and Sampson (our other Sheltie) most afternoons down to the school to pick up our son. She is always happy to greet others. She absolutely loves to go for walks, chase chipmunks and rabbits (they both have nests in our yard), and she was quite perplexed with the cicadas. She would lay in the grass for hours sniffing them and then would jump when they moved. She never ate them. She was more like a research scientist trying to figure out what they would do next.

With regard to training, she already knew sit and down when she joined our family. She has now learned "wait", "stay", "come" and "quiet". She barks at school buses and garbage/recycling trucks. Sampson barks at the mail man and UPS trucks, so I think they have just about everyone covered=) She is also fetching toys now. At first she wasn't too sure about that.

Thank you very much for being part of NVSR so that we could be able to add Scarlet to our family.

Rusty writes: First thing that needs to be updated in my name, 'cause there's nothing rusty about me. I'm enclosing a couple of pix of me and my posse to back that up. The Master says it's against the law for dogs and women to drive convertibles so he had to sit behind the wheel for the picture, but when we're out stylin', we both wear our Foster Grants and they can't tell us apart.

It's taken awhile to be sure I've got these people trained not to touch me the wrong way, and to get the food ready on time, but they've been cooperative, and in exchange I give the Master plenty of attention. It's cool and quiet here most of the time, and they get off my couch and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

I feel a lot better than I did a year ago, and while I'd like to settle the score with those kindly folks who dropped me at the vet's to be PTS, Brandy and Woggy swear that living well is the best revenge -- and I plan on at least another 10 years of that!

Twinkle writes: I am doing wonderfully, and am so happy my foster family decided to adopt me. I really enjoy having a little brother and sister to play with in the yard. I particularly enjoy roughhousing with my sister. We play "King of the Bed" and "seal pups" and wrestle over our favorite blanket almost every day. We go for long walks every morning and although I miss seeing all the school children at the bus stop. Hopefully school will start again soon and I can see all my friends again. In addition, I have been able to enjoy frequent trips to the family farm where I get to walk in the woods, swim in the lake and herd cattle until I am too tired to stand. My favorite activity bar none is snuggling on the sofa in the evenings and watching tv. And I have learned that if I stay behind in the morning when the other pups go outside, I get special snuggles in bed all to myself and don't have share the attention with anyone else.

I have been on a special diet for a food allergy (no wheat products for me) but I get to enjoy raw carrots, ice cubes, and even some wheat-free liver treats for good behavior - like standing still while I am being brushed. I have attached a couple of photos so you can see what fun I'm having.

Cody fit in from the moment that he came home with us, like we had been together always. Cody is an early riser just like me and we are usually out every morning at 6:30 AM. Cody has met a lot of new friends on our morning walks, two rabbits that seem to be waiting for him to come along and three deer that are out almost every morning. He also loves to chase the squirrels that live in our storage shed. They will jump through the trees as we walk along and he barks at them. After a few trips, Cody now likes to go for rides in the car and will come running whenever I grab his seat belt harness. He loves to go to the lake and see all the ducks. We now go out every Saturday and visit the pet store. After a lot of activity, Cody will jump up on the bed and stretch out for a nap. Cody knows how to get what he wants, but we still refuse to give him table food, and he understands that.

Cody still suffers from separation anxiety and will grab my hand with his paw when I leave for work in the morning, but then he settles in with his Mom for the day. Cody usually sleeps at the on top of our feet at the foot of the bed, but sometimes will pull the covers down and crawl in and settle on the pillow also.

I must say that Cody has been a wonderful addition to our lives.


Shayla writes: I have been with my new family for a few months now: Susan and Erik, my two humans, and Lindsey, my new brother (he is a sheltie, like me, but a tri-color). I have my own toys and my own ltttle sheepskin rugs. I get brushed every night so that my coat gleams. I have new job now to help Lindsey get my humans up at 0430 every morning so that they can feed us and get ready for work. I also help Lindsey look after the house.    My humans took me to the vet, who gave me a clean bill of health. I am on a diet where I loose weight gradually, without endangering my wellbeing. Erik and Susan took me around my new neighborhood to meet all of Lindsey's friends and their humans. They are nice, and I fit right in.

Dora writes: My mom is helping me with the since I have a hard time reaching the computer. Plus, she is a much better typist than I am. Since coming to my new home, I've been very busy. I love to play in my new yard where there are lots of things to investigate. I can chase the birds and bark at the neighbor's dogs. Also, my mom and dad sit on the top of the hill and throw the tennis ball for me. I'm still learning to go out for walks on the leash. I'm a little afraid of going still but once I'm out on the leash I really enjoy myself. My new older brother Sam and I are starting to get along better. He was a little jealous when I first came along because he was not used to sharing Mom and Dad's attention but now we get along O.K. I'm not sure that we will be ball chasing buddies but he seems alright. My mom and dad have had to adjust to me as well. I think they both forgot what it was like to have a youngster in the house. I love to play as soon as I get up and they had to learn to drink that first cup of coffee quickly so that we can play. They are taking me to new places and I'm learning that new places are O.K. I liked going to my grandma and grandpa's place. I made myself right at home and they seem like O.K. people.

I really like my new mom and dad and I'm thankful to the NVSR for helping me find this new home.



Pebbles writes: Shh, I'm writing this while my huMom sleeps. As you can see I'm one gorgeous puppy and enjoying my life immensely, just as a Sheltie princess should. I'm pictured here with my two NVSR alumni fur-kins, Rex and Andy. Unfortunately I also have to share my blessings with 4 kitties, including sleeping in the big bed. Have you ever heard of such a thing, cats and dogs sleeping together peacefully? What's next? World Peace? Oh well, what else can a sheltie princess do other than promote diplomatic relationships between the species. BTW you know and I know that I'm pure sheltie thru and thru, but that HuMom of mine keeps saying I'm part chow and hound. Please set her straight. TIA

P.S. Looking forward to attending my first NVSR picnic, more specifically winning that hot dog eating contest and carrying on the Max Henderson tradition. Yummy Yummy.


Sammy's family writes: He is the best dog ever!!!  Sam is so laid back that other dogs do not bother him at all.  He loves to bark at the wind, trees, leaves, rain. He loves to run around the backyard. He loves his family. The vet says that she wishes all dogs were as calm as he is when getting checkups.

It's Sara checking in to say that life is great at my new home. I have lots of four legged company, Buddy, Chewy, Sherlock and Toby Cat who I LOVE to torment. His tail is the best toy around. My Sheltie brother, Chewy and I have lots of fun playing tag and hide and seek with each other. My other Sheltie brother, Sherlock, tolerates me well, he even lets me play with his tail, too. There is nothing better to chase than a wagging tail. My people find that I am quite a comic and that I can do the "Sheltie Spin" better than anyone. They are very amused by my puppy antics and I have much success in convincing them that I deserve "Pup Corn" treats for being so darn cute! I still do NOT like getting brushed, or noises made by the computer printer, the clothes dryer, the doorbell or the telephone. But all in all, Life is good for me, I have lots of company and lots of love. I look forward to seeing you at the Sheltie picnic.


 

Happy Beginnings Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Sheltie bar by Spot the Dog Graphics