Sunday, January 25, 2009

The New Addition

Here is the latest addition to our family - Marcy. She is eleven and a half years old and for the first year of her life, she lived with an Air Force family who was being transferred to Japan. They weren't able to take Marcy (named Mercedes at that time) with them, so my dad took her in so she wouldn't have to go to the pound. Marcy is a mixed breed.



For the next ten years, she lived with my Dad and has been a loyal family member. She has seen the family through some tough times during that decade, including the death of my mother from cancer. My Dad is no longer able to care for Marcy, so she needed a new home. We couldn't stand the thought of her going to a pound either so over the Christmas break we drove the truck to northern California and picked her up. She rode over 500 miles in a cage in the back of the truck home with us.
One of our main reservations about taking Marcy was how it would affect the household princess, Cory. Cory has been with us for fifteen and a half years and is definitely way late into her retirement years. She has never lived with another dog. She sleeps most of the day and walks very stiffly. Her eyesight and hearing are going also.


But it has worked out well. Cory actually acts more lively with Marcy around and I've actually seen her go out front and crouch down in the "Let's Play!" stance...something I haven't seen her do in at least two years. These first four photos were taken on a recent morning...I take them out front with me to get the paper first thing...they enjoy the morning air and looking up and down our rather boring street.


Marcy has adapted well to our house. She is an extremely obedient dog which is really the only way we could sign up to taking her in as she is also very powerful, even at eleven years old. She is a pleasure to be around. We have temporarily put runners on our wood floors because both dogs were slipping and sliding. I actually saw Marcy do a Scooby-Do move a couple of times.

The two dogs enjoy each other's company. I've seen them stand in our computer room doorway together on several occasions, watching us as we move about the house - wondering what we are up to. They sort of remind me of Mutt and Jeff, which is my new nickname for them. The only time I see any competition at all is when they are being fed or when I reach down to pet one of them (the other comes running right away!). We'll see how things go in the long run, but so far so good.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! You've got your hands full with those two. I'm used to large dogs, but she looks tall and like she's all muscle. Great that you gave her a good home!

Gwen Buchanan said...

oh good luck in your new endeavor J....The same thing happened when we decided to get 3 new second hand dogs 3-4 years ago... at the time we had one 12 year old terripoo and he was deaf and going blind.. he hardly ever made a sound.. it was almost like not having a dog at all.. more like a stuffed toy... after the other dogs came .. it was as if someone turned his switch on and he came to life... it was marvelous to see...