Rosie Yellow Labrador Retriever Female 6 Years Old ID# 2776

Rosie is a six year old farm girl who had been bumped around a few different farms in the Harrisburg area because she wasn’t quite productive enough with pups.  She craves love and attention, and seems to be happy to be sprung from the farm life.  Rosie is carrying a little bit of extra weight, and is settling into her foster home.  Please read her blog from the bottom up.

September 25, 2020

Rosie back again. Sorry it has been so long since I updated my blog, but it’s been a very busy month.  I had my surgery to finalize my career as a farm Mom, and along with that I had a growth removed from my eyelid, a lick granuloma treatment, and my teeth cleaned.  I have mostly recovered just a few stitches to dissolve, and I’ll be better than new.

Foster Mom and Dad have taken me on another cool trip. We went to the beach, and saw wild horses wandering around our campsite.  I like the beach, but you can keep the horses. I’m not a fan.  Foster Mom and Dad have been working every day to get me to come, wait, sit, and down.  Seems like now that they have found my favorite treat, we do lots of this stuff.  They say I’m stubborn, but I sometimes have to think a long time about what they are saying.  Language arts was not my strong subject at the farm.

I was in the dog park today, and there was a young wipper snapper that came in.  I gave him a complete sniffing, and we were cool until he got pushy. I got a little grumbly, and Foster Mom brought me home.  I didn’t really mean anything by it.  In fact, I make lots of sounds depending on my mood.  Foster Dad gets a kick out of all of the sounds I make depending on the situation.  I do get in trouble sometimes when I growl at Foster Mom, but I have been doing better with that.  Foster Mom does a lot of the treat training, and I have changed my attitude some.  Foster Mom and Dad also think I may have calmed down after my surgery.  I do love to nap, and I am an expert snorer.  In fact Foster Mom and Dad make fun of me because I don’t want to get up in the morning.  I can sleep for as long as it takes for someone to get my breakfast.

I heard Foster Mom and Dad talking the other day, and they mentioned it was time for me to go on the adoption list.  I’ve been here for a long time because of this covid thingy, and they said it was going to be a tough time for all of us to make this change.  They promised me to find the best home where I can be happy, and healthy with people who will understand, and continue to train, and love me.

August 31, 2020

It’s been a busy couple of weeks.  We all went camping, and when I say all I mean all.  With children, and grand children, there was 12 of us on our family camping trip.  Rosie had a terrific time, and enjoyed her hiking experiences, and cooling off in the steams along the way.  She did some swimming, and was happy to be around all of the commotion, and activities.   Rosie does well with all the family members, but is mostly devoted to her foster dad.The day after we got home Foster Mom and Foster Dad took Rosie to the Vet for her spay surgery.  Along with the spay, her teeth were cleaned, and a small benign growth was taken off her right eye.  She was also treated for a lick granuloma on her left paw.  She has been getting her rest in for the last several days. She has been very good about leaving the incision alone, and has not required a cone.  She is more active each day as each day passes.

August 15, 2020

Rosie here again! I have a few new things to report since my last blog update.  My favorite thing in the world is still going for a ride in my Foster Dad’s jeep.  Sometimes when we go through a drive through window, I get a biscuit.  Life doesn’t get any better than this!!!

Yesterday, we had something called a Zoom meeting with two really nice ladies.  Foster Mom and Dad said it was kind of like a parent-teacher conference.  I couldn’t really see their faces, but I heard their voices, so I showed off a little bit.  When someone came to the door, I was so excited that I showed them how I try to go through the cat door in one of the gates.  Well, I didn’t quite fit, so I took the whole gate down with a crash.  Oh well, stuff happens sometimes.  I was on my best behavior…I did my “sit,” and “down” commands, and also rolled over on my back so Foster Dad could rub my belly. But now, I need to learn some manners, especially when it comes to not being grumpy towards my Foster Mom.  This doesn’t worry me because I get treats. They say I need to be polite when I am on the sofa, or I won’t be able to stay there.  I’m also going to learn impulse control, please don’t laugh when you hear that!  I’m on this!!!!

On the 25th this month, I have to go to the vet to be spayed.  Foster Mom says they are going to work something out so I don’t have to jump into the car for the ride home.  One of the labs that used to live here had a ramp, so I’m supposed to practice.  Hmm, I’m not quite sure about this one.

Bye for now,

Rosie

July 29, 2020

Hello Rosie here!

My foster mom said she is sorry for the delay in updating my blog.  She said she is busy working from home.  That’s okay, it gives me more time for naps in a sun patch. Foster Mom and Dad are very excited about my latest trip to the vet on July 20th. Most important, I lost six more pounds, and I now weigh 98 pounds.  Foster Mom says I am beautiful now that the fur has grown back on my nose, and that I look more like a lab.  I need to go back to that nice vet on August 25th to get spayed.  I don’t care why as long as I get to ride with foster dad in the Jeep.  It is my favorite thing in the world!!!

Foster Mom and Dad want to brag about a few other things that I do very well.  I use the outside bathroom all the time….no accidents in the house.  I love the cats that live here, and I’m sure they love me too.  Foster Mom says I am not a counter surfer.  It sounds like fun!  Maybe, I’ll figure out what that is.

My foster mom and dad are trying to teach me words, but this is a little more difficult for me.  I know my name is Rosie, and I know what to do when they say “sit,” but all the rest is just blah, blah, blah.  Sometimes, foster Mom gets out a really good treat, and will say “Rosie come.”  I have to think about whether or not to get up, and walk the six feet over to her to get the treat.  Well, let’s just say, I’m not rushing it.

I love my foster dad so much that I get sad, and cry a little when he goes out.  I wait by the door until he comes back.  My foster mom is here, but it’s just not the same.  If only she would just open the door for me, I could run up the road, and find him!  The human grand babies came to visit, and it was okay-no big deal.

So, one last thing, foster Mom and Dad say that I need a trainer, and that Brookline offered to help with this.  It is super cool because they say that I am “special”.  They say that I am a little too possessive, especially about my bed, or the sofa.  Honestly, who wouldn’t be possessive, if they have never had a nice place to sleep before?  I discovered the sofa in the camper, and boy, is that ever nice, and soft!!  I get confused at night whether to sleep on my nice bed upstairs with my foster mom and dad, or if I want to stay downstairs, so if I wake up at night, I bark to let them know where I am.

I forgot to mention that every once in a while, I will pick up a toy.  They are good for inside amusement only.   This is okay because in hot weather, I hang out in the air conditioning anyway!

Bye for now.

Rosie

July 1, 2020

Rosie really has settled in and is dong well. We’re still working on getting her extra weight off so she can be spayed.  Towards that she goes to the vet agin in a couple of weeks for a pre-spay checkup.  Until then we’ll continue to work with her and love on her.  Here are some facts about Rosie:

• She has done very well with house training and after the first day has had very few accidents.
• She absolutely loves to ride and is very good on car rides.
• She doesn’t counter surf or trash pick.
• She is big, clumsy, and rambunctious and that is okay, except she would knock a young child or older person for a loop.
• She doesn’t chew and it took her 4 weeks to even show interest in a dog toy. Thanks to Brookline for the beautiful dog toys and tennis balls which she still has not touched despite our encouragement, but maybe someday she will.
• She loves the resident cats and the feeling is mutual.
• She has made considerable progress walking on the leash and doesn’t pull nearly as much as she first did. She does have what I call a Houdini move where, if she is extremely set on going a certain direction such as when she sees our neighbor, she can flip around and have the harness off over her head in a flash.  This is occurring less frequently.
• She knows her name and quickly learned to “sit”.  We have watched the training videos that Virginia sent (Thank you!!!) and she is doing well with the introductory training and commands.  She is working on “down” which she can do inconsistently.  Training is a little more difficult because she is fussy about treats.  Yes, she literally spit out the low-fat doggie biscuits.
• She has become very attached to foster dad and seems to really prefer men.  This may have been in part because we are working from home now and she had a lot of time to bond. She will paw to be petted and roll over for belly rubs.
• In the beginning, she had no idea what a dog bed was, but now is quite fond of her orthopedic dog bed.
• She has become somewhat protective of her property and will bark at the trash truck or mail truck and sometimes at things that we don’t know why.
• She generally sleeps well through the night.

June 4, 2020

It has been a whole month since I left the farm, and it seems like such distant memory now.  I have a real attachment to my new dog bed in the kitchen, and even this morning after greeting FD, I decided I would rather go back to bed, than go out this morning.  I have had no accidents in the house, so I pretty much have free reign to decide when I go out.  FM and FD say that potty time is one of my “quirks,” whatever that is.  I only go #1 once in 12-24 hours and #2 once in 24-30hours.  I guess the other dogs they had went more often.  The farmer said I kept my kennel clean, so I guess  maybe I got used to holding it for long periods.  We walk every hour or two, but sniffing is my main goal.  So many good smells.

While we are talking about quirks, FD calls me not ready for prime time Rosie. I do get excited sometimes, and I am a little large, and well I am not used to this stuff you call furniture, and  sometimes, I move things that are in my way. Whatever.  FM also calls me Houdini.  I do on occasion manage to maneuver out of my harness.  Ok, I am really head strong, and prefer to run free instead of on a leash.  So far I have always come home when called, or been captured by a kind neighbor.  You can’t blame me, I was in a kennel for the first 6 years. I have lots of territory to explore.

I also refuse to eat whatever food FD drops.  He did explain that it was a Labrador’s responsibility to pick this stuff up.  Yuck..he dropped it so it must not be edible.  He groans every time he has to bend down…its kinda funny.  Except bacon grease…yes when he spilled bacon grease, it opened a new world for me.  Where has that been all my life?

Oh yes there is one other thing that FM and FD call a quirk.  I don’t play.  They throw bright green balls, and felt pull toys, and I watch them with amusement.  I have no idea what they were trying to prove.  They do it again, and again, but I’m not picking that stuff up.  Finally, yesterday I decided it might be fun, and for a brief moment I decided to play.  It wasn’t bad maybe I will humor them, and do it again.

FM, FD, and I went on a camping trip last week.  Wow it was a blast.  I’m not sure you would really call it camping but that’s what they call it.  We saw lots of other dogs, and I was fairly vocal letting them know of all the dangers of that busy place.  After a day or so I decided they had this figured out, and I settled down and enjoyed my stay.  I did get a little scared. We were on a ride, and I saw an Amish buggy and horse.  My eyes got wide and then I got quiet and laid down in the back of the car.  I thought for a minute……

May 23, 2020

Hi all, Rosie here,

It’s been 3 weeks since I was sprung from my kennel by that nice lady, and rode half way across the state of Pennsylvania. It seems much longer, and I am really feeling comfortable in my new home.  I just had no idea I could have real people greet me every morning without having to put my nose through the fence.  FM says my nose is healing nicely and no longer has the marks where I pushed against the wire.

One of my favorite times is when I get to go for walks.  We get to walk around the yard, and boy, are there lots of smells to investigate.  I see deer, and squirrels, and rabbits, and every one I want to investigate more.  FM and FD hold onto me tight, and won’t let me go make new friends, but it’s ok.  In fact, I am enamored with FD.  I try not to make FM feel bad, but he is really my favorite.  I especially love our late night walks when he says please just go so we can go inside.  I have no idea what that means, but he sounds so sincere.

The routine is very predictable around here, and I have begun to show my true labbie tendencies by doing lots of napping.  I’m also more vocal with letting FM and FD know when they need to pay attention.   I think I did surprise them a little today, when I sensed danger from the man who was fixing the roof.  I gave him some growls, and barks that really showed I mean business. I did wag my tail, but I really didn’t like him climbing on the roof by my window.

  Every morning we take our walk, and then we greet the kitties.  They are very happy to see me, and me to see them.  We have a nuzzle fest each morning, and I encourage them to run so we can play.  They have trained too many labs to take the challenge.

FM and FD keep commenting on that it looks like I have lost some weight.  I do gets lots of walks, and the rations around here are slim.  I’m not a total fan of the food, but I do eat each meal that they put down.  I do have my standards, and low fat dog treats are not acceptable.

I still have to work on my patience.  FD and FM make me sit before I go outside. FD also makes me put my feet on the ground, even if he is not paying attention to me, and I really want him to.  I can’t help myself, I just am so happy that my humans are around me all of the time.  I see no reason that they don’t pet me every waking hour.  Sometimes, I know that they are ignoring me, and I have to give them a little paw swipe. If they are really not paying attention I give them two paws.

I also love it when my FM and FD peeps come to visit like they did on Mothers Day.  Everyone socially distanced but me.

May 10, 2020

I think progress has been fantastic.  I see new things in my FM, and FD every day.  They seem to really be catching on, and trying to communicate.  When I first got here, they really had no language skills, and we struggled to communicate for a couple of days.  I figured out some basic stuff for them, and they seem to be catching on fast.  When I want to go out, I sit in front of the door, and wait for them to look at me.

Sometimes FD says I don’t HAVE to go out.  We will have to work a little harder on want, or need with him.  I do love going out, so many new smells and sights.  I get excited, and then FD makes me stop, and sit to stop pulling.  I already know not to pull FM (she is the boss). I know this perplexes FD but he will eventually learn.

Every morning we walk around the house first thing and then we visit the kitties to let them out. I love visiting the kitties in the morning, and waking them up. The only thing is that one of them, Bailey, is a little cranky in the morning, and she hurt my nose.  I stay away from her now, but Rudy and I are great buds.

Most days, I hang out while FD works from home.  When he needs to pay a little attention to me, I lay on his computer cord which makes his laptop slide across the table.  I always get some attention when that happens.

We went to the Vet this week, and as I expected the Vet told me to loose weight.  Lots of weight. Ok I must admit I am 110 lbs, but I am not dainty.  Just look at my paws, they were meant for a much larger dog.  It shouldn’t be a problem losing weight around here. I think that they feed me something really odd.  I get some kind of fish that is supposed to be good for my skin, and stomach. They mix it with ground turkey, veggies and a pro-biotic (whatever that is).  The whole package is only okay, and I pick at it.  It’s nothing like the filling meals we got on the farm.  Also, there is no one trying to eat my share.  FD is sticking with the no treats thing unless I potty outside.  Even with that I am not that interested in treats.  Sometimes I eat them, sometimes I don’t.

I have decided that I prefer to sleep downstairs in the kitchen.  The main reason is that there is a terrific orthopedic dog bed there. At first I had no idea what it was. I walked around it for a couple of days. I could smell that other dogs had used i, but I was not sure if I was allowed.  Finally FD showed me how to lay down on the bed. I did fall off the first time, but it was very comfortable.  I do have a bed upstairs, but this one is much much better.  After FM and FD go to bed, I sleep all night unless some critter comes near the house.  I really love this place, and no animal is going to invade my space.  I bark until they leave, and FD tells me to go back to bed.  It doesn’t happen often, usually I sleep through the whole night.

Well it’s morning nap time, and I’m going to take a little nap in the sunshine.  Best to all until next week!!

May 3, 2020

This has been a whirlwind couple of days since that nice lady picked me up from the farm.  I took a long long ride and I enjoyed it very much.

I have been very excited with all of the changes and this morning I decided to slow down a little and take a great snoring nap on the kitchen floor.  It smells so good in here, but since I’ve never been in a kitchen before I really don’t know that FM and FD sometimes accidentally drop tidbits.  I’ve looked up on what they call counter, but I really just wanted to see the TV, and what FD was looking at.  Ok, now I know: no paws on the counter.

I really like having people around me all of the time.  I keep checking to be sure FM, and FD are still there, and so far they have only left me for a short time.  I do get a little nervous when I’m not seeing one of my new peeps, but they always seem to come back to see me.

They have some strange rules around here. I wanted to go inside, and explore but FM & FD insisted I get something called a bath.  The first thing that we did was get into a kiddy pool with warm water, and get what they call an oatmeal, and vinegar bath.  It was heaven to have FM & FD give me my first spa treatment.  I never had one of those before, and after I got all wet, they even dried me off with a towel. What a place.  I’ve never had that done before.

FM & FD have what they call new dog protocol that involves being quarantined in a hallway until I get “adjusted”.  I’m not sure what this means, and I really wanted to explore so I slipped out of both harnesses, and pushed over the silly gates to see the rest of this pen.  Seems like FM and FD have gone to what they call phase 2 containment. Using some very inventive barriers, they have me blocked from the carpeted areas.  This makes no sense to me.  It’s just like when the state closed all of the rest stops on the turnpike.  For some reason FM and FD insist that I go out every hour. The good part is that I get to walk, and sniff, and if I go potty outside I get a treat.  I never got a treat for going potty before.  I wonder if I get a treat for going in the house too? Doesn’t seem to work that way…very confusing.

On the downside I am a big girl, and the meal sizes are a little smaller than I am used to.  I don’t beg, whatever that is but FM told FD to be sure not to feed me anything but my dinner in my bowl.  He seems like a good guy, but I think he is always listening to FM.

I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on around here.  I have a Vet appointment on Wednesday, and the only thing that I know for sure is that they are probably going to take issue with my weight.  With all of these walks I should be slimming down very soon.