Cassandra Chocolate Labrador Retriever Female 5 Years Old ID #3202

Cassandra is now available please read her PetFinder post https://www.petfinder.com/dog/cassandra-70343180/pa/warrington/brookline-labrador-rescue-pa06/

January 19, 2024

Our beautiful Cassie is Available and searching for her new family.  She is fully-recovered from her spay surgery and her ears are clear!

Cassie has been having a blast in the snow.  The cold doesn’t bother her in the least.  She is eager to play fetch early in the morning when it must be below 30 degrees!

We had a flooring guy in to do an estimate and she fell in love with him.  She brought him her nasty ball and dropped it at his feet.  Sadly, he was too engrossed in his tablet to return her affection.

December 28, 2023

Cassie is recovering nicely from her spay surgery. The hardest part for her may have been not being able to play with her ball!  Foster Mom hid it from both Cassie and Foster Dad so it was out of temptation.  She was very happy to get it back 6 days post-op and fetch has resumed!

Our big girl continues to love car rides!  All the way to Brooklyn and back to pick up foster sibling for Christmas – probably 5+ hours in the backseat without a problem!  She also continues to love MEN!  We met the Mailman on a walk and loved him up good!  Plus, he had treats so that was a bonus.

Santa brought a beef bone for her stocking.

Much appreciated!

December 10, 2023

Mama Cass continues to charm all who meet her – except when she can sometimes be over enthusiastic in her greeting – she loves everyone – we are working on refining her approach.  She especially loves men with trucks. When she sees a truck parked, she is pretty sure that a workman is around somewhere and he will for sure give pets. We just have to find him!  … peering through truck windows.

Cassie also loves car rides!  So much so that getting her OUT for the car at the end of the ride can be a challenge.  There is a rumor going around that she sat in the car for 3 hours.  If you heard that, I can confirm, it’s true!.  It took a visit from Foster Aunt Debby and a treat to get her out.  Up until then even a hot dog would not sway her.  But the combination of Debby – a new person to love AND a treat was powerful enough to break the spell.

Cassie is learning to play.  She and Foster Dad have taken to wrassling and rough-housing – gently – on the floor after a walk. Foster Mom introduced a ball which Cassie had previously shown zero interest in.  One toss and it was GAME ON!  She instinctively knew to chase it AND bring it back.  Impressive.  And, she is good and tired after a good fetch.

The re-check of the ears showed some improvement but that the ears are still infected.  So, another round of medication.  Another re-check next week and if that goes well we will be able to proceed with vaccinations and spay surgery.

November 26, 2023

Week two with Mama Cass and she continues to make friends easily and be a quick study.  Our GenZ-er was home for the holiday and Cassie quickly made friends and figured out how to get this human to share their bed.  TBH it wasn’t that hard.  One night in a bed was enough to make Cassie think perhaps Foster Mom would share, so she gave it a shot.  The answer was NO, to which she quickly responded and returned to her dog bed on the floor.  Cassie is a great sleeper.  She is ready for bed about 9:00 PM-9:30 PM – although she did agree to stay up for the Eagles win over the Chiefs on Monday night football.  She sleeps happily until 7:30 AM– 8:00 AM and is in no particular hurry to get up until we do.

We have continued to work on her ears with antibiotics and cleaning them and they are improving and do not seem to be bothering her much, if at all.  We have a re-check at the vet this week.

She has adjusted to dry kibble.  It wasn’t her favorite thing but we have found mixing in a small amount of shredded cheese makes it more interesting.  Oddly, she does not seem to care for peanut butter OR cream cheese so we have not used the Kong at all.

November 18, 2023

One week into our adventure with Mama Cass and this girl is super chill and wicked smart.  She catches on quick!  She mastered the formerly scary staircase, walks great on a leash, lets us know when she needs to go outside, welcomes everyone she meets.  She still doesn’t care for the TV but she tolerates it.  She sleeps beautifully on a dog bed next to our bed.  We have the crate open and available to her and toss a cookie in the corner every now and then.  She has begun to explore the crate on her own, even without a cookie incentive, which is what we are going for.

We had our first Vet visit this week. Confirmed she is 100 pounds of chocolate love.  Everyone commented on how beautiful she is.  Our girl was completely cooperative and only complained when the tech swabbed her ears.  As suspected, her ears are infected.  We had been cleaning them daily and they were a bit of a mess.  Now with medication we are hopeful they will clear up.  Her exam was great

November 10, 2023

Cassandra – or as we like to say “Cassie” or “Mama Cass” (this girl is THICC). Took the Blue Route to her retirement yesterday.  She is so very chill!  She slept from Phoenixville until we got off I-295 in Cherry Hill when she decided to sit up and have a look around.  The back of the SUV seemed kind of high at first glance, but after some thought, Cassie decided it was do-able and made the jump.

The backyard was super interesting!  So many leaves, birds, squirrels, and chipmunk smells to explore.  Once she had a pee, we ventured into the house.  Unlike many farm girls, Cassie has been inside a house before as her farmer allowed her access.  The house wasn’t scary but it was new, so needed exploring.  What it didn’t need was Cassie popping a squat to mark in the kitchen!  Oh well, a minor first day mistake and the rug is washable.  With a consistent schedule we will hopefully avoid a repeat performance.  She did great with pooping and peeing on a short walk after dinner and peed almost on command in the backyard before bedtime.

So, the car ride and the house wasn’t scary but you know what was?  The TELEVISION!!!!  Who knew?  This Amish gal has apparently never seen talking heads on a screen before and she did NOT like it one bit.  We worked through it by going to MUTE and then streaming something innocuous that could be paused occasionally.  I think she is mostly used to it now.

Next up on scary was the STAIRCASE!!!  Cassie had proven she could do the three steps up the deck, no problem, so the mechanics were there. The staircase – and it is carpeted – was a bit intimidating.  But much like Ariel, she wanted to be where the people are, in this case, upstairs, so she made it happen.  Slept great on a dog bed on the floor.

Good morning and time for Cassie and the Return of the Scary Staircase.  This time it was extra scary.  DOWN?  Bless her heart, she tried, and she wanted too.  But getting those back legs to cooperate was a challenge.  It took patience – on my part – and courage – on her part.  After about 40 minutes and with some additional support from Foster Dad, she got it done!

So that was a successful and exhausting start for everyone!  Time to nap!!!