Hunter #14 Chocolate Labrador Retriever Male 4 Years Old ID #3013

March 29, 2022

I drove down to south Jersey yesterday afternoon to pick up Hunter, a 4-year-old 90 lb. male chocolate Lab from a veterinary office there.  , Hunter was a sad case of a dog who had eaten a rock and had serious GI blockage.  Brookline paid for the surgery (he was neutered at the same time) and literally saved his life.  One of the vets at the practice took him home to recover, but she could only keep him until today due to travel plans, so Hunter came into foster care.

The first order of business was meeting resident foster fail Coco, who is not at all mean, but plays with enthusiasm.  Hunter is 10 days post-op so he was OK’d for normal activity, but I was worried about Coco stressing him.  I don’t know Hunter’s background, but despite the recent neutering he was quite ‘amorous’ towards Coco, who was having none of it.  Much whining ensued.  He didn’t eat much and getting him outside to do his business in the rain was a challenge, but Coco helped by walking ahead of him.  Bedtime was another event.  The vet told me that Hunter slept in her bed with her and her dog.  Coco sleeps mostly with us in our bed, so we played musical beds complete with panting and whining for a couple of hours until everyone settled down.

Today was Coco’s Day at doggie day care for socializing, so we had Hunter solo for a while.  He ate breakfast with gusto this morning and actually took some treats, so that was an improvement.  I noticed this a bit last night, but Hunter was not comfortable with me and let me know by barking at me until I slowly come up to him and pet him.   He is Velcro with foster mom so, she is more successful getting him to do things than I am. We were able to get him to go out to the fenced pool area and do his business on his own without pulling or coaxing which is big progress.

All in all, a great start for just the first day.