Molly Vinter

RIP Molly (was Misty), 6 July 2021

Molly’s mum said, “We got Molly from IRR in Feb 2008, she was approximately 1 year plus, so she was over 14 when passing over the rainbow bridge.

The novelty never wore off with Molly, every single day we adored her, she had a great life with us and she was such a happy dog with that Retriever smile. There is such a huge empty space in the house …. time will heal eventually and the many happy memories will take over.”

History

MOLLY originally called MISTY was though to be somewhere between 9 and 18 months when she came into IRR care. She is really affectionate, gets on well with other dogs and appears to be housetrained. She could be a Cross or it could have been she just hadn’t matured yet but, whatever, she’s a lovely little girl.

Misty was a surrender to the Pound. When she was taken to be neutered, the vet found she had stitches that had been in for at least 3 months as the hair had fully grown back around them. Unfortunately, they were infected so she couldn’t be opened up.

As she can be dominant with other female dogs, she may be better as an only dog or with a male.

FROM HER FOSTERER, LUCY

Misty has been great but is still a bit nervy. She relaxed quite quickly and was completely happy within a couple of hours of Lorraine going but is a bit jumpy still at sudden noises and movements. Strangely though, she isn’t jumpy at all with the kids and it seems to be grown-ups that scare her more! She also seems much happier and more confident with men and is following Graeme around constantly.

She’s definitely housetrained and has actually asked to go out which I wasn’t expecting on the first day – no accidents at all bless her. She’s had some training it would appear as she stops what she’s doing when I say “no” to her and also responds to basic commands i.e. sit. But she pulls like mad on the lead so we’ll be working on that. She’s been fab with the cats so could definitely go somewhere with cats as long as the cats are dog savvy and don’t run.

She tried to chase a strange cat on our walk earlier but that was simply because it ran I think – we’ve had one of our cats in all day today and because she hasn’t run from Misty, Misty has pretty much ignored her. In fact, as I type, Molly is asleep on Misty’s bed (clearly the dogs bed much more comfy than her own!) and Misty is asleep at my feet approx three feet away from her – no interest in each other at all! They’ve been like that most of the afternoon. She loves cuddles and is very affectionate, just wants to be loved really.

All in all, first impressions are very good and hopefully the jumpiness will go
when she’s more relaxed with us.

UPDATE ON MISTY

Lucy says, “Just thought I would update you now that Misty has been here for a couple of days. She’s a star – in fact, she’s the 7th dog we’ve had for IRR and the first one we’ve felt we could actually keep!! (No…..!!)

We’ve had two accident free and completely silent nights – she just settles down after a biscuit and we don’t hear a peep out of her. Still no accidents at all so I think we can safely say she’s housetrained.

She’s much more confident now but still nervy in some respects. She’s not very good being walked near a road, as she has no road sense at all and doesn’t stay on the pavement, and she is very jumpy around cars. That and the fact that she pulls like mad on the lead makes me think she’s never been walked properly. But we’re getting there, we all walked to school this morning (yes, toddler, pushchair and the dog – chaos as usual!!) and she was a bit calmer. We sat by the road and watched some cars for a while and she seemed happier.

She’s also still very nervy of some noises but it only seems to be sudden ones – something as simple as somebody sneezing, for example, whereas the children running and shouting doesn’t bother her at all. The other thing that we’ve really noticed is that she is terrified of alleyways. The first night we got her I took her out for a walk in the evening and tried to take a shortcut through an alleyway back to our house but she absolutely refused to move. She was terrified poor thing, and she’s been the same in daylight too. So those are the things she’s nervous off but she’s still been very, very calm with the kids, which is great, and no problems with the cats either.

She’s getting some bounce back so she might be better off being rehomed to somebody with slightly older children as she’s knocked Charles over quite a few times. She would be a great family dog though and I’ve tested her by taking away toys from her and even food mid-meal and she just looks at me quizzically with a ‘what did you do that for??’ look on her face!!. She’s got no possession issues at all.

She’s met several other dogs so far on our walks and is very friendly to them although, obviously, she’s been on the lead so I’m not sure how she’d react if she wasn’t on the lead.

All in all, she’ll be a great dog for somebody. She needs company so I think would be better with a family and somebody that is home most of the time and, as I said, she could definitely go with children but older ones might be better (age 3+ I would say?).”

FURTHER UPDATE ON MISTY

Lucy says “I have left Misty for the first time this morning when I went to Tesco’s and she was fine. I was only gone for a couple of hours but no problems. The neighbours kept an ear out for her for me and apparently she didn’t bark once, just settled down and slept. But she’s a useless guard dog, they kept coming up to the front of the house to make sure she was ok and even peering in the front windows and she didn’t stir!! I think she’d lick any burglar to death bless her.

Also, she’s much less nervy now, when I took her for her walk last night, she had no problem with the alleyway that she previously refused to go down and, on our walk to school this morning, she just trotted along nicely and didn’t care about the cars, unlike before.”

IN HER FOREVER HOME

Marian & Geoff have a super big garden for Misty (now renamed Molly) to romp around in and had bought her lots of lovely toys and a super new bed. She is going to be well loved there.

Molly was a bit nervous to start with and wouldn’t go in the house but, unlike when she first arrived at Lucy’s, she was wagging her tail like mad and was obviously happy to be there but just not quite brave enough to venture inside! However, she only took 5 mins to feel comfortable and was then inside and rushing around exploring quite confidently! Thanks to her foster mum, she is already a very different dog to the one who came a few weeks ago.

UPDATE ON MOLLY

Molly is doing fine. We took her to Virginia Waters yesterday and she immediately jumped in the lake. She was in a fine old state when we got home, so we washed her off. Many dogs came up and she wanted to play but, unfortunately, we can’t let her off the lead yet as, although she knows her name, if there is anything of interest going on, she completely ignores you!

We bought a harness halti, as she pulled so much on the lead, but she will get better in time. She has had many visitors to admire her, which she has loved, and acted the star attraction very well!

She wags her tail a lot and seems to love us all. She has a boyfriend called Alfie – a border collie. They jump and play like crazy. She is incredibly fast and jumps and spins with great agility round the garden, a joy to watch.

The only cloud on the horizon is that my two cats have not come downstairs and are being fed etc upstairs, they are really frightened. They have both seen her, and sworn like troupers at her on the first day, before running to their now sanctuary. Molly barked at them and seems quite vocal at noises and cats, which doesn’t help, but we’re working on stopping her from barking.

We noticed she looks at and listens to little children and feel sure she remembers Grace and little one.