The first week or so...

The first week or so!

It always amazes me with a new pet, how it can seem as though you have had them in your life for ages and yet it is still such a young relationship.  Never more so when you adopt a rescue and it seems with bells and whistles when adopting a dog that has had such a difficult start as Rudy and many of the other Romanian Rescue dogs!

The photos below are on day one.  We brought Rudy home and into the garden to go for a wee if he wanted and generally to have a good sniff around which he did on the slip lead.  As we expected he was really scared of the doorway and so we spent best part of an hour enticing him in with Chicken and generally just being and allowing him to suss things out.  Being the UK, it started chucking it down and so eventually Josh picked him up and brought him inside.

I decided to start this blog partly because I like writing, partly because I just have a feeling that this is going to be quite some journey with young Rudy (otherwise known as Rudders, Rudel Strudel and many more equally daft names) and I don't want to forget where we have come from when we get there.....  And also with the, hopefully not too arrogant wish that it might be helpful for prospective adopters of Romanian Rescued street dogs/special needs dogs  and document some of the ups and downs of our journey.

Whoever named Rudy, thank you.  It does suit his personality 😍 and he responds well to it. Words like 'toilet' when it's peeing down and he is refusing to do just that, while I stand there getting soaked, not quite so much. I have never known a boy dog hold his wee in such a determined way 😅 - unless he doesn't do one outside of course and then it can flow fabulously although I have to say apart from when he has been frightened by something (like me wheeling the butchers block in the sitting room to iron on)  he has been exceptionally clean in the house! 

One of the very striking things about having a new rescue dog ( and especially so with Rommies) is the vast amount of unknowns.  We don't know his exact age. We don't know if he ever lived in a house at all ( I wonder as he stands beautifully to be groomed). We don't always know what traumas they may have experienced. With Rudy Poos we know he was found on the road and it's thought he was hit by a car.  We do know he was in a lot of pain. And ultimately that his front left leg couldn't be saved.  Then when you start doing things you've always done with dogs, like, for example putting your hand on their collar or sticking  a finger inside the collar to check tightness, Rudy squeals like a banshee if I go to hold his collar,  Something has happened there, whether it be a dog catcher (yes, in Romania that is a real thing) tried to catch him, or as I wondered if he had been with a family and they threw him out of the car by his collar......  Who knows..... And we never ever will.

So, what are we left with,  We are left with dealing with the symptoms of trauma.

What does that trauma look like?  It can have many faces and it can spring up and surprise you just when you thought all was well and include many different behaviours such as insecurity, a desire to please, altered behaviour from that which was expected or described when in Romania, grabbing food from our bowl and eating it elsewhere, being hugely fear aggressive to the cats when in Romania they were cat friendly. There will be many surprises along the way.

Cats

We have three cats.  

Two big grey long-haired boys from the same litter. Curio and Top-C. They are part Norwegian Forest Cats and very lovely (if moulty, Rudy is in good company on that score, although he disagrees at present 😉).

We also have Willow who came with her brother Vinny. They were semi-feral when we got them from CPL and had had their left ears clipped as it had been intended to return them to be feral but marked to show they were spayed and neutered.  Unfortunately Vinny disappeared after a year and we never ever managed to find him which was really sad, he was a stunner. Josh and I spent many hours sitting on the kitchen floor feeding them their dinner kibble piece by kibble piece.  Willow is the most cuddly cat you could imagine. She loves head butting Josh.  Imagine our amusement when Josh went to see the nurse with sore ears and her first question having looked in his ears, was, do you have a cat??  😂  Willow had been head butting him past his ears and there were Willow hairs in both his ears causing aggravation 😂😂😂😂  Josh is a bit more careful about Willow's affections now lol.

So Rudy, was very very unimpressed with cats and not at all cool.  He turned into a snarling gnashing Tazmanian Devil.

Now imagine those jutty out bottom teeth gnashing and look at our very own Taz.  It's actually quite scary and vicious sounding when he gets scared like that - for that is what it is - it is just fear  as everything is so, so new.  Major amounts of reassurance are needed!! So our scared new Rommies need us to be the ones who take control and manage the situations for them.  The post adoption support from Sadies is so key in this and is second to none.  I really cannot fault the time and effort and time in conversations, advice and reassurance that has been offered and will be as long as it is required.  I am fostering Rudy long term but I am quite sure the same follow up support is there for those who adopt.  

We have made concessions to arrangements in the house because our previously dog savvy dog happy (or at least accepting) cats,  were very much not happy, rather scared and scared unhappy cats equals unhappy me!

So currently the cats eat on the landing, where Rudy can see them and that they are fed first. They were using the front door instead of the sitting room doors as they had been pre Rudy, but yesterday it was as though they had all thought F this and one by one decided that it was time to start claiming back the sitting room and the garden.  This requires Rudy to learn not to chase.  Funnily enough, when he chases it isn't in Taz mode, it just looks like good sport.  If he is in his crate he is in Taz devil mode if the dare to walk through the room. If they come in and sit he is gradually accepting it.  It will be a slow process and not quite what I had in mind for cat friendly.  I assumed a bit of a frosty few weeks but not Taz Devil and not chasing.  I don't mind admitting I was worried and a bit pissed to begin with but we WILL get there and in the grand scheme of Rudy's issues..... But for those who are considering adopting and fostering I guess I am saying that this experience has opened my eyes to the fact that just because the dog is a certain way in Romania doesn't mean they will be the same once they arrive here.  When they arrive they have had a horrendously long two day journey followed by two days in kennels which may be pretty basic and they will be wondering what happens next.  Then  they have a car journey to their new home and in my case a hand over from the very kind Emma to me at a service station.  So they are completely overwhelmed when they arrive but in Rudy's case very willing to be friendly and keen to please.   What I hadn't been prepared for was that the first journey in a car after this would traumatise him very much. That is another story for another day.

I have so much more to say about Rudy and it's only been just over a week, but I won't bend your ear any more for now.   Hope you have enjoyed this or at least that it may help someone.  Do feel free to comment and chat.  Love from Becca and Rudy xx