Wolfie

Rommie is a very handsome 3yr old Retriever cross who is neutered, fully vaccinated and wormed. He lived in kennels in Romania with a female companion for several months after being rescued by ROLDA.

FIRST REPORT FROM BELINDA

Rommie has finally arrived after his very long journey and is behaving beautifully so far! He has eaten his supper, had a drink and investigated the garden with our girls. He is bigger than Connie, our golden retriever. He is lying at my side at the moment, sound alseep, with Connie, Millie and Stella.

He seems to be very laid back and relaxed, though he was slightly apprehensive when he first met our four, even though it was one at a time.

He hasn’t met our cat yet, and was mildly interested in the chickens. His transporter said that Rommie was very good on the journey, and got on well with his travelling companions.

UPDATE FROM JANE

After having a few days to settle after his very long journey, Belinda and Terry reluctantly moved Rommie to his fosterer, Jane, in Gloucestershire.

Jane reports “He flinches or cowers at any quick movement or raised hand. Even when you bend down to stroke him he’s not sure what is coming his way. He’s done this when we’ve hung up his lead, picked up a toy or simply reached out for a fuss. However, he does seems to be making progress in this respect as his trust of us grows. He sometimes playbites and has a tug at your sleeve but this is done very gently.

Occasionally he will surf the work surface or kitchen table but he’s not possessive over food and toys appear to be an unknown to him. He will have a mad 20 seconds running round the lawn on his own but doesn’t yet join in any form of play with us.

He’s clean in the house and stays in the kitchen overnight without a problem although you may get the odd whine. He doesn’t obviously ask to go out but we leave the kitchen door open most of the time anyway so he’s free to wander in and out as he pleases. At some point he’s learned that upstairs is out of bounds and he hasn’t attempted to push this boundary so far.

We’re using only English commands as my attempts at Romanian seemed to fall on deaf ears! ‘Sit’ varies from a down to a squat but at least he’s learning to ask for his meals. Giving ‘paw’ is some distance away. He doesn’t yet recognise his new name but is starting to respond to ‘come’. He is starting to spend more time outside on his own which may be due to the sun shining or just to his growing confidence.

He didn’t want to leave the house on either Friday or Saturday but, with John’s help and much coaxing we managed two walks yesterday (Sunday) and I’ve just walked him this morning without a problem. He’s surprisingly good on the lead. He met a couple of Whippets on his first outing and just turned his back on them. He was freaked when two Lurchers ran barking up to their gate as we passed by and he was all for doing a runner had he been able to. We’ve been avoiding other dogs that haven’t been on a lead.

He’s a digger! We now have a mine shaft in the veggie patch and he buried his bone between the peony and the fence only to be moved to a ‘safer’ place later. The photo of him with the bone (present from a friend) gives you an idea of its size, suffice to say that it’s still pretty visible despite John lending a helping hand with the shovel! Despite all the digging, he’s still amazingly clean!!!”

Julie, mum to Ricky 3 Legs met Rommie at the weekend and, like many other people, immediately fell in love with the gorgeous boy. He has an ever growing, orderly queue of admirers forming.”

FURTHER UPDATES FROM JANE

Tuesday …………. Sue and Steve came to meet Rommie and, as expected, it was love at first sight.

Wednesday………..We have been walking Rommie with Megan and Julie this morning. He met loads of other dogs and was an absolute dream.

Thursday…………He’s learning to play. Last night, one by one, he carried ALL his toys from kitchen to lounge! He is putting on weight and is being spoilt rotten. He’s just divine.

FIRST REPORT FROM HIS FOREVER HOME

Rommie is now called Wolfie and lives with Susie, Steve and Alexander in Gloucestershire.

Wolfie was very good in the car getting to us and seemed very accepting of going somewhere new – seeing what he has been through. He spent some time pacing about the ground floor of the house and garden when he first arrived – the cat was very obliging and slept most of the day upstairs! – but he settled down fairly quickly.

He was quite active his first day, following us around the house, and I took this to mean that he was a bit anxious, which is hardly surprising but he has settled in now so well, I can hardly believe it.

Shortly after arriving, the church clock struck ten – one local dog howls throughout, but Wolfie doesn’t seem to even notice them. He is the most chilled out dog I think I have ever come across. According to the Jan Fennell book that we have (the Practical Dog Listener) he is displaying all the signs of being relaxed – stretching out, deep sighs, weeing in copious amounts in the garden!! We have been trying to follow her basic principals, but don’t always get it right – I feel as if we are all learning together.

He loves being in the garden and is a real digger, and the first morning buried his breakfast. There are also several excavations where he tried to find the perfect spot for a bone. Since then he has relaxed over his food, as he realises it is still going to keep coming, and is eating noticeably slower from his bowl. I have moved over to the BARF diet and he absolutely loves meat and bones, but I have yet to find a raw fruit or veg that he will eat (pulverized) but I will keep trying! I have gone back to four small meals a day to start off with. The meat and bones seems to keep him satisfied and he is less interested now in our food. His rather anti-social ‘wind’ problem also seems to have disappeared with the change in diet – which is very welcome!

Wolfie was very excited to ‘meet’ a neighbour’s dog through the trellis this morning and there was much tail wagging. You could see that he wanted to make friends and I think, from our limited experience and from talking to Jane, he will be a very sociable dog. There are lots of dogs around us who he can meet when he has spent a bit more time with us. Stephen and Alexander took him out for a short walk this morning and, apparently, he was relaxed on the lead and perfectly behaved, although he doesn’t like cars.

He has become very attached to us very quickly and us to him. I can’t imagine him not being with us – he really is the most splendid, special dog. When we first went to meet him we all fell in love with him on sight and felt that he was ‘our’ dog. Alexander had been awake most of the night before we picked Wolfie up – he was so excited – and they fell asleep together on the floor in the afternoon!!

I’m sure that it won’t be all plain sailing – the poor old cat has had his nose put out of joint, and I think it will take time for him to accept Wolfie (Wolfie by the way has been brilliantly behaved with the cat) – but we couldn’t have got off to a better start. Thank you so much for thinking of us as Wolfie’s forever home.

SECOND UPDATE FROM SUSIE

We walked Wolfie to the vets today – just a short walk away – just to get him weighed. He is almost spot on for his size and the vet was really pleased with his weight – he could do with a little bit more fat, as he is very lean, but he is doing really well. He was very fond of the smell emanating from the bakery we passed on the way home. We bumped into a friend with her young daughter – who starts school in Sept – who was eating a cream cake, and stuck her finger into the cream and licked it off, just at Wolfie’s head height – I have absolutely no qualms about his nature whatsoever, and he was perfectly behaved, but this was an unexpected test of his character (I would never have engineered this) and he passed with flying colours. I think you can safely say that he has been child tested!!

This morning I discovered that he had ‘tidied’ a dirty vest of Alexander’s into his dog bed – he obviously likes the smell. Alexander has plenty of vests so I have let Wolfie keep this one and Alexander will have to learn to be tidier in future. Wolfie has also taken a shine to my oven gloves, which I also let him have – they probably smell wonderously foodie and niffy – they had definitely seen better days, and I really did need a new pair. He also loves his soft toys, as long as they look ‘puppy’ like – he was very unimpressed with a soft whale.

For some bizarre reason best known to himself, he gets very excited when he has done a poo and he barrells through the house at top speed to let us know how clever he is – he has slowed down a bit after he had gathered such speed that he slid across the front room on a rug and crashed into a wicker basket. I have put up a baby gate for rainy days – Wolfie’s ‘big digs’ in the garden on rainy days make for an unbeliveably mucky dog so, at least, I can clean him up in the messy room before he charges into the rest of the house! Apart from this short lived burst of excitement – which is the signal to get the poop bags out – he is an incredibly calm dog to live with.

As you can see – he is turning into quite a character!

TWO WEEKS ON

Susie says “Wolfie is doing really well – his personality is starting to emerge, and he is starting to be more playful – he likes running around the park at great speed like a complete lunatic, with his tongue hanging out – he can actually run as fast as a greyhound!! He is such a foodie that he has been quite easy to train to come back for treats, and he definitely knows his name. As he is growing in confidence, he is just starting to see how far he can push the boundaries!!

Alexander is really benefitting from having the dog – it has got him out of the house and into the fresh air, and he seems much better for it and he is going to take Wolfie to training classes on 8th June. The ME specialist thought that getting a dog was a great idea.

It seems that Wolfie has always been with us, and I can’t imagine not having him now – although if the cat could speak, he would say otherwise!! MacKenzie has moved from abject fear into complete hatred, and has had a few swipes at Wolfie, but both seem to be coping – Wolfie would quite like to be friends with Mackenzie if he would let him! The cat has taken up residence in the top of the house and the front garden, and the dog in the bottom of the house and the back garden – which seems to work reasonably well. Sometimes I feel that I don’t see as much of the cat – but he comes and sleeps on my desk when I am working, and he sleeps with Steve and I at night – Steve points out that the cat (who is 16) sleeps most of the time anyway, and we probably spend more time with him, as we all seek him out!! On the whole, bringing a dog into our house with a very spoilt, elderly cat who is used to having the run of the place has been easier than I had expected – mainly because Wolfie has been so accommodating. He has ‘chased’ the cat only once, in a playful way, but stopped when the cat stopped – Wolfie obviously thought that it was a game. MacKenzie has made it quite clear that he doesn’t want to play, thank you very much, so there hasn’t been a repeat. I have absolutely no qualms that Wolfie wouldn’t hurt him – I was going to say Wolfie wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he hates flying insects with a vengeance!!”