I think when we adopt dogs it's just human nature to imagine what their life was before they were with us. Especially if they were found as strays.
Unbelievably, Princess Miss M was found as a stray. The same Miss M who has a slew of sweaters because she can't stand the cold, who can't let her dainty feet step in puddles, an who needs to bring out her fuzzy rug and fluffy pillow to lay outdoors. Here she is"Glamping":
I always wonder how she could survive for any amount of time on the "mean streets" of Chicago, especially being an unspayed female who clearly never had puppies. Then I realized, even on the streets, no one messes with Miss M.
Miss M has street smarts and self-defense moves. There was once a dog at the dog park who tried to mount Miss M. Instead, Miss M slid into a sit, rolled over and kicked the dog with her kangaroo feet:
I'm guessing if that didn't work, she could threaten to sit on them:
Or just stare at them:
Or, maybe she wasn't on the streets for long. My other guess is she saw the Animal Control van coming, she was very excited to meet the people, and even more excited to ride in a car, regardless of where it was going.
Do other people make up stories trying to figure out your dog's history?
16 comments:
absolutely! We often wonder how someone could've dumped/lost/not wanted Franklin, then we remember that we tried to give him back. And we like to think about Lola running wild.
I totally made up this super sad story in my head about how Turk made it on the streets. Daniel thinks it's a bit too dramatic though - I attributed his fear of stairs and sewers to things that happened to him when he was a stray - and Daniel always teases me that Turk must have been 'kicked down the stairs and into a sewer.' He's still afraid of sewers, but at least he conquered his fear of the stairs! :)
Hahahaha this post cracks me up haha ms m is too funny. I love that "no one messes with ms m" totally true. So glad she made it to your place where she can be taken care of properly!
And I often wonder the same... It's crazy we will never kno and the pups are so tough and resilient that they just keep going forward.
Hope you have a great weekend!!
Although Ms. Rosie wasn't a stray and she wasn't adopted (I had the extreme pleasure of getting her at 5 weeks old), I often wonder how she would do if she were to roam the streets. She is so spoiled I don't think she would make it having to "fend for herself". Luckily for all our dogs, they have found permanent homes not just in our houses but in our hearts as well. BTW, I just LOVE Ms. M's "Elvis Lip"......lol...
Maize was about to be on the mean streets of rogers park when the grooming salon saved her. I dont think she would have survived, this dogs doesnt like rain, wind, cold, or heat. She needs the outside world to be quiet calm and a nice 70 degrees.
I think it's natural to wonder about the lives our rescued pups lived before they came to us. We love them so intensely, spoil them so thoroughly, that it's almost inconceivable how they ever made it without us. I think it's because we are all too aware of the sad fate that meets so many unwanted dogs, and it's just shocking to us that these dogs we love so much, whose every comical facial expression or interesting quirk elicits such delight in us, could ever have worn the label of "unwanted."
Love the pic of Ms. M staring! I don't know how long Petey was on the streets, he was picked up in the South Bronx and had obviously never been in an elevator before I took him in one. Nor did he know what a bathtub was since he jumped in it when it was full of water. But he ADORES people.
He is, however, afraid of brooms, so perhaps he was chased withone
We came up with the unlikely story of Badger and Mushroom as littermates (they do look a little similar and are roughly the same age). Whereas Badger was immediately found by a shelter, Mushroom spent 6 months wandering from Tennessee to South Carolina, getting pregnant, and then ended up in a high-kill shelter, which leads us to what we know. She gets cold, too, but it's warmer in the south, and she may never have had to deal with winter.
oooh I just love Miss M. I can totally picture the kangaroo kick, and that last picture is so funny. Petey's lip gets in the way of his underbite every now and then, and it always makes me laugh.
Monkey was a stray, and I attribute his ability to catch birds and squirrels and devour street trash as survival instincts honed in the "concrete jungle" of Chicago. I have full faith that he'd still be thriving out there if it weren't for Animal Care and Control.
Miss M looks pretty street smart to me, especially never to have had puppies.
Laci isn't street smart, but she too had never had puppies before she got fixed at 3 years old. I imagine her as someone's house dog at one time that got to sleep in beds and sit on furniture and that something may have happened to her former owner, because it makes NO sense to me why she was picked up as a stray. She is my baby girl now, so I guess the past is less important than our present and future together.
My puppy Norman was found as a stray at only 8 weeks! I can't imagine he was on the streets very long. He's pretty wimpy, hates the cold and loves to eat.
She is a tough looking thing to those who don't know any better :)
I know Fozzie was picked up as a stray, and I'm certain he came right up wagging to whoever tried to pick him up. It's not hard to imagine that he was someone's dog once, but he jumped or busted out of the fence to chase a cat and the owners didn't try too hard to get him back because he's such a high-maintenance man :)I would guess he wasn't a stray for too long, as he has such a strong need to be close to people!
My Elka isn't a rescue, so I'm more or less clear on her history.
I love reading about other dogs, though! Miss M sounds like one smart cookie with just enough toughness ^^
We know enough about Braylon's past that I try not to think about it since it was so bad. We sometimes laugh about her being such a "hunter" though, since we think that's how she used to entertain herself in her days tied up in a shed. Although since she was a mama dog we do sometimes speculate about what kind of mom she was. She likes to go "lick crazy" and Jay always says, "Do you think she thinks she is cleaning me?" We say she has motherly instincts. =)
Hades was supposedly a stray as well, and I wondered how our poor little wimpy baby lasted. Although here it's very common to owner surrender dogs and say they are strays to avoid a fee. He was in pretty good shape, I wouldn't doubt if that had been the case. Phoenix is not too kind to dogs.
Miss M how did you get so cute? My favorite is the third one. Your eyes..makes me wonder what you were a thinking.
Emma
Well yes, of course Levi lived in his million dollar house. And just today we were wondering how Neptune with his ADD survived on the streets. He is so sad and helpless, I just can't imagine how he got by! All he wants to do is cuddle and I imagine him being shunned by other street dogs for being too "soft." There is a pet communicator (I guess that's what you call it) that comes to our pet store once a month and I'm tempted to bring the boys to find out about their former lives. I just can't help myself.
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