At this point, we are wondering what we will eventually do....we have goldens, not GSDs. Everything I read says this is not going to work out. We start off with a solid barricade between our pack and Layla. A few days later we replace the solid barricade with a chain link fence gate. First thing, Toby barks at Layla and Layla growls and barks back. As time goes by, this gets better and the others visit and sit with Layla, on the other side of the fence, every day.
A friend who has a male GSD and a female Golden says that her family may be able to take Layla in a few weeks as they would like to get another dog. Although it is not likely to work out since her male doesn't get along with many other dogs, this sounds like the best hope that we have. If that doesn't work out, we'll have to look for a family for Layla.
Layla is starting to become comfortable in the cool house, where she's never been before. She remains timid and spends most of her sleeping time behind the pool table in the corner. She spends her days sleeping a lot, listening to calming music and we take her for several walks a day, some with other members of our pack so that she can get to know them. We are happy when she and the others walk together without paying much attention to one another. We are especially happy when she is able to walk with 8 pound Belly without even a second glance.
As the weeks go by, Layla is healing up. We suffered a major setback when, left alone for a very short time without her no-chew collar, the day before her stitches are to come out, Layla eats the bandage and chews all of the skin off of the bottom of her tail. Back to the vet for new bandages, and a lot more healing to do. We are hoping that this doesn't mean another surgery and starting over again.
Dr. B put an interesting bandage on Layla's tail, now raw, which consisted of layers of honey and bandages. After a rough first try at changing the bandages, Layla was starting to trust me to change her bandages every other day. The tail was healing, but I would never be comfortable to take her anti chew collar off again. Poor girl would have a blow up doughnut around her neck for the rest of her life.....
This went on for a few more weeks, then, after she had been recovering for about 6 weeks, Layla was ready to meet her beau, the handsome black GSD. Many plans had been made for their first meeting but as soon as Layla saw him, she relaxed. After a few wanders around the back yard, it looked like Layla was leaving for a new forever home.
We watched them drive away in the back of a station wagon. They seemed the perfect couple. We knew that the family that she was going to was the best we could ever find for her. We were happy for that, but damn, we were sure going to miss Layla. It had been an intense six weeks and we had become very attached.....Our feelings were mixed, but we kept telling ourselves that it was for the best.
So....maybe Layla and the handsome black GSD were a happy couple, but no one had bothered to ask the normally easy to get along with Golden what she thought about her guy bringing home another gorgeous girl. It was not going to work out.....within hours Layla was on the way back HOME.
We decided before she got back, that we were going to put her with the rest of the gang.....we couldn't bear to have her leave again. Even though she was only gone a few hours, we realized how much she belonged here. We didn't even think of the possibility that it wouldn't work out at this point. We couldn't, we didn't have another good option.
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| Layla during her recovery period |
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| feeling good on the couch |
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