Scout goes to The Eagles Band Concert!

The Eagles Band was suppose to play at Lilac Park in Lenox. It was moved to the Lenox Town Hall because of a threat of rain that never happened.
Are dogs allowed in Town Hall? Who cares! Scout was going to a concert!

Scout stayed for about 5 songs and was so well behaved, better then some kids that came to the concert. She sat on my lap enjoyed the music and besides the music, Scout was the hit of the show.

Scout goes to a Ball Game!

It was "Woof in the Park" at Pittsfield Suns Baseball Team atWahconah Park in Pittsfield MA.
Scout has never been to a baseball game, she never even has played with a ball. Note: must buy Scout a ball.
Scout arrived at Wahconah Park with plenty of time to sniff around before the game.

Dogs had to stay on leashes and behave. There were only around 10 dogs who showed up. One small dog passed by where Scout was sitting and they exchanged a hello. Another dog who was sitting in the $7 seats kept on eyeing Scout. Scout sat in the $5 bench seats, she didn't mind. Here is the dog who kept on looking at Scout.

The game started and Scout watched the game.

She sat on the bleacher's. The person next to Scout had a beer, Scout was very interested in the beer, but had her water which was placed on the floor for her.

Scout stayed at the game for a couple of innings but wanted to get home to watch the Olympics. She was hoping to see the commercial for a new program on NBC. The show is "Animal Practice" and here is the commercial for dog swimming doggie paddle in the Olympics.

Scout gets attacked by a Jack Russell Terrier!

Scout likes to go on walks on a street called King William. It is in a nice country neighborhood. She goes past a house where 2 Golden Retrievers live. The two dogs who are always playing outside, go nuts when they see Scout.  The owners are always playing play on their" Field of Dreams"baseball diamond, so the dogs are always chasing wiffle balls. Scout gives a friendly bark but pays little attention to the dogs and owners playing ball.

Next Scout passes an old dog who comes running off his front step of the house but loses stream and just lies down on the driveway and puffs. Across the street is a dog who is blind and mostly deaf. Very sad, cause that dog has no idea that Scout is walking down the street. The dog has a doggie door to go in and out of the house. Scout pays no attention to the old dog or the blind and deaf dog.

Further down the street are the 2 Jack Russell Terriers, Beanie and Maggie. During Scouts previous walks, she has played with Maggie and Beanie or one of them. Since they look alike you can't tell one from the other.
On our walk, the door to their house opened and the owner of the house came out and the 2 dogs bolted out of the house towards us.

Here is a picture of a Jack Russell. Although the picture isn't of Beanie, it could be. Notice the teeth.

Scout stood wagging her tail waiting for a friendly greeting by Beanie and Maggie. Beanie ran to Scout in full attack mode, while Maggie just stood wagging her tail. Beanie started to nip Scout's backside, growl, back up and attack again.

I want to remind you that Scout has had little interaction with other dogs. She thinks all dogs are  friendly with tails wagging. She had no idea that dogs can be mean and bite.

The owner can running behind them, trying to get beanie away from Scout. Beanie didn't care and tried to bite my husband too. Scout was now so scared and trying to jump into my arms. Finally the owner was able to get Beanie and put him in the house. Poor Maggie, the other Jack Russell, just watched her idiot mean brother,Beanie, attack. I think if she could have, she would have apologised to Scout.

So now when we go on our walk, we get to the house with the blind/deaf dog and Scout wants to turn around, she will not go any further down the block.

Scout knows that Beanie is waiting for the opportunity to attack again. Poor Maggie, she has to put up with no other doggie friends because her brother, Beanie is so nasty.

Scout really goes to camp!

Scout had to get up early to go to camp. That is not her favorite thing to do, she likes to sleep in to 7-8am.   She had to get to camp at 8am, so we could be on the road soon after her drop off time.
I carried her in and Scout seemed to be OK. A fast transfer was made, no long goodbyes. This was to be her first overnight at camp.
I called during the day to check up on my camper. I was told by Renee,the owner of Love Us And Leave Us that Scout did go outside to play with the dogs but it overwhelmed her and wanted to come back in and stay with her (Renee). But otherwise, she was doing fine.
The next morning, I got to Love Us And Leave US promptly as they opened at 7am. Scout was with Renee behind the counter, she looked tired but OK.
She hopped back in the car. That is her in the picture after her camp adventure. She does look tired.

I brought her in the house and she went straight to bed.

She slept til noon when I woke her to go out and pee.

Scout goes to Camp!

After looking at a few camps for Scout, she found a few that she and I approved of. We looked at 3 camps. Oh, all right,places to board Scout, they now call them Camps. Some are day camps and some are overnight camps.
Scout didn't like the first one we looked at. She had to walk through a little entrance way to the camp, it was hot in there and you could see dogs that were isolated and some dogs playing together outside. We were shown the sleeping quarters which was in a basement, it was dark for Scout. It might have reminded her of the dark barn she lived in for 2 years. She was very anxious to get back in the car, didn't even want to pee on their property.

The next camp was at Shaker Hill Pet Resort in Pittsfield MA. Here is Scout by a rock in front of the Resort.

She liked the Resort. Each pet had their own room with piped in music. One of the workers at the Resort had even adopted  Scout's sister, Minx. The dogs could run outside and everything looked good. People came running to play with Scout. They even had a gift store in the front of the resort. Alas, though, there was no room at the Resort when Scout needed to be there.

So Scout got back in the car for a very short ride down the block to Love Us and Leave Us in Pittsfield MA. Here is Scout in front of a rock. Look how happy she is!

We went inside and Scout got to meet Renee, the owner! Scout's tail was wagging and they had room at the Inn when it was needed. The camp is a former restaurant/bar and the dogs roam in and outside in a fenced in property. The dogs can sleep in their crate or they can sleep on couch's. Someone is with the dogs at all times. No bitters need apply. If a dog nips, they are not welcomed back. Scout saw a cute day camper who comes when their owner works.
Tomorrow,Scout will tell you about her overnight Camp experience.

Scout goes for her first swim,kind of!

Scout goes for a swim!

Scout got her first swimming pool at CVS. It might not be big but it was the first time she entered water. The pool was filled with 2 buckets of water and I threw one of her favorite toys in it. She was able to get it without getting in all the way. So I got a toy that sank and put it in. This time she had to get all four paws in the pool and stick her nose and mouth in too. She got the toy out and we played for quite awhile.
She still hates the rain though!

Scout Goes to a Country Store!

 Scout goes to a Country Store!

Scout went on a trip today, to Whitney's Country Store in Cheshire, MA.


They also have some farm animals that Scout liked seeing except the goats, she didn't like them and wouldn't go near them.

It might have been 90 degrees but Scout had a very good time!

Scout couldn't climb stairs,bark,jump.

When Scout left the Berkshire Humane Society, she never had done anything that dogs usually do. She had to learn everything! In order to get her into the house, she had to climb stairs. I put treats on each step and pulled her one step at a time up the steps. Her legs didn't know how to climb. She didn't jump on any furniture because she couldn't jump. She couldn't bark, she only make a small ruff noise, cause she never barked or heard barking. On the car ride home, she hid her head under my arm because the light hurt her eyes.
Scout knew nothing about being a dog, but this also meant she had no bad habits that a shelter dog can have.
Scout came with her crate and a blanket which was put in the living room. She would go into it often just to relax.
Scout had never been on grass either, she just didn't know what it was.
So many thing that Scout had never done, how could anyone treat a dog like that.

Here is a picture of Scout in my bed:

I bought her a bed but she ripped it to shreds, it was the only thing she ripped up so far. She hated it!

Scout loves being supported by soft pillows also. Here she is on the couch. Notice how sad her face looks, she is so skinny too.

Just so you can see the difference here is Scout today as a country dog!

Berkshire Humane Society

This is what the Cairn Terriers looked like when they first arrived at the Berkshire Humane Society.

Here is their newsletter "Humane Tails" which tells about the lucky 17!

You can also go to Pet Connection, Channel 10 news Albany NY to see the before and after pictures/video of the dogs. Click here for the link to Steve Caporizzo's Pet Connection on 4/9/12 about the Cairn Terriers.

I will be posting about Scout's first days with us later today.
          Here's Scout pix from Father's Day.

Kismet for Scout!

Kismet


It was kismet that I went to the Berkshire Humane Society and found Scout. I began the process of looking for a dog in April, I had been thinking about it for awhile. My last dog Armani passed away 5 years ago and I missed having a dog. This time, I wanted a small dog. I live in the country and this is big dog country. I went to the Humane Society several times and would ask, "Do you have any small dogs?' I always knew the answer, no, just big dogs. Since I was traveling down to Long Island, I knew the North Shore Animal League would have small dogs, so I called them after seeing all the small dogs on their website. They told me that they only allow adoptions in the tri-state area. Since I live in MA., I couldn't adopt from them. It made me so sad that I would never find my small dog.
I live near the city of Pittsfield and they are doing major construction on the main roads. One day I was coming home and decided to take the back road home from Pittsfield. That back road goes rigght past The Berkshire Humane Society. I decided to pull in and ask my usual question,"Do you have any small dogs?"
I was greeted by a women and she said, "Small dogs, do we have small dogs, we have 30 of them!" I thought she was joking cause they never have small dogs.
I was told that they were all Cairn Terriers and ranged in age from 2-9 years old. I was told the heartbreaking story of how they came to be there and what they had to do to make the dogs presentable.
I was taken to see a dog named "Maggie". She was a sweet dog but very shy and had a hold on her.(hold meaning that someone else was interested in adopting her.)  They were bringing the dogs out slowly to be adopted as it would have been overwhelming to bring them all out at once. I was told that it the person didn't want Maggie, I would be next in line and they would call me. I went home and told my husband about the cute dog I saw. I waited by the phone all the next day, waiting for a call that didn't come.
My husband and I went back the next night, a thursday. Maggie was gone but there was another dog that had come out for adoption, "Irish". Again, the dog had a hold on her. My husband and I took her on a walk and played with her. She was shy but took to us right away and rolled over for belly rubs. The couple that had a hold on her came in the door while we were playing with Irish. They were a young couple and the guy was a big strapping fellow who I was sure was going to want a big country dog.
We left the humane society but I was hopeful that they wouldn't take the dog. When we got home, I looked at my answer phone which was beeping. (Yes, I still have a landline and an answer machine.)
The message was, the couple did not take Irish and if we wanted her, she was our dog.

On Friday, we went back and after filling out the paperwork, we took "Irish" home. We were told that everything would be a first for her since she didn't know how to be a dog. I will relay some of these things in my next posts. Here is a picture of "Irish" at The Berkshire Humane Society.
On Saturday, she became"Scout".

Dog in Cage for 2 years!

Scout's first two years of her life was spent in a crate in a dark barn along with 30 other Cairn Terriers. She was allowed out of her crate for 1 hour a day to exercise in the barn. The breeder had become too old to care for the dogs and she just began to hoard the dogs instead of selling them. The dogs sat in their crates with their fur all matted and just enough food to keep them alive. No sunshine, no love.
The women became sick and had to go to the hospital and that is when the dogs were found in the barn.
All the dogs were taken in by "The Berkshire Humane Society". They gave my dog the name "Irish" and all the dogs were sent out to be groomed, have their teeth checked, given all shots and had to be socialized. The dogs ranged in age from 2 years to 9 years and I was told that their was 30 of them. When I saw the newsletter from the Humane Society, the adopted dogs were called, "The Lucky 17." I don't know what happened to the other dogs since some had been in crates for way over 2 years.  All I know is that "Irish" came into my life in May 2012 and we renamed her "Scout" because of the way she stands with one paw up, like she is out scouting in the woods.
The is my first post about "Scout" and in my following posts, I will tell how I happened to go looking for a dog and found my Scout. Scout now lives in the country, everything is a first for her. I will tell about all the first things that she has done and follow her adventures as she enjoys her new life in the country.
I am blessed to have Scout in my life and hope that I can makeup for the first two horrible years of her life.

Follow Scout's adventures in my posts,videos and pictures.