Transitions

In the previous entry I described how I came to find Simon, my male dog, but never elaborated on the difficulties of bringing an old dog into a new, occasionally chaotic, home environment. When I picked him up that day, I could tell he was scared and nervous to be going away from his old home. I tried to make him feel better with treats, wet food, and affection, but he was intimidated by new people and other dogs for the first few months he lived with us.

On the first day, he kept scratching at his ears and whimpering. I was so scared that he had an infection or something. We went out the next day to find something to relieve the uncomfortable feeling in his ears, and found some peroxide-based gel that would dry out the water. Unfortunately it made the fur around his ears look all greasy and dirty, but it seemed to calm down the scratching after Simon’s initial freak-out about the new substance in his ear.

He wasn’t good at communicating when he needed to use the bathroom, so for the first few weeks I was under a lot of stress because he would just start defecating in the room at random times, not to mention marking his territory all over the furniture; all this is stressful enough without Matt thinking that he needed to be punished. He ended up scaring Simon even more than he already was and complicating the transition process. Obviously Simon knew to go outside, he just didn’t know how to tell us he needed to.

Simon is much smaller than Layla and a lot more delicate. He can get hurt easily; sometimes he falls of the bed, jumps from the couch to the bed but doesn’t make it, gets up under your feet, tries to run out of a door as its being closed, gets his claws caught in his fur and gets stuck, and many more situations where he needs to be helped. Sometimes when he falls, he’ll start shaking violently and I have to calm him down with some cuddling or wet food. Sometimes he’ll have a really bad day, but if I cuddle him and rub his belly all night long, he seems much better the next day.

When I first got Simon I was so enamored by him, I wanted to know everything about his parents and so I looked for information on his previous owners. I was confused because the paperwork that he came with had three different women’s names on it. Over the years, he had been registered to Cathie Baylock, Mindy Pressley, and Elizabeth Edwin. Who are all these women? Are they Simon’s old mommies? I had to find out, so I did an internet search to see what I could come up with.

Obviously I knew Elizabeth Edwin, I had bought Simon from her, but how did she come to be the third woman to own him?

The first thing I discovered was that Cathie Baylock was deceased. I found her obituary and Facebook Memorial Page, as well as her website. Her kennel name was Avalon Rock Yorkies. This explained Simon’s name; Simon must have been her stud before she died.

I e-mailed Mindy Pressley of Magical Yorkies to find out more about Simon’s parents and his multiple owners throughout his five years of life. Mindy thanked me for e-mailing her and explained that she and Elizabeth used to be close friends, but now they hardly speak. Mindy was Simon’s original owner; she owned the parents that he was born to. She sold him to her friend and fellow yorkie breeder Cathryn, who later decided to scale back her yorkie business (I assume as her health started to worsen).  Mindy wanted to take Simon back, but the timing was not right for her and she allowed him to be sold to Elizabeth. Mindy did not want Elizabeth to sell Simon with breeding rights; she wanted him back for herself but wasn’t willing to pay what Elizabeth was asking.

When Elizabeth sold Simon to me, she refused to tell Mindy where he ended up and this hurt Mindy’s feelings. I can tell she really cares about the dogs that she breeds and their welfare. She definitely does not want any of her dogs ending up in a shelter or puppy mill, and happily offers to take in her dogs if their new owners become unable to care for them.

Mindy informed me about Simon’s parents. His father has fifteen champions in his five generation pedigree! Out of every litter I have, I always end up with one puppy that is much tinier than the rest; they grow up to look just like Simon! Silver, glossy coat, pointy ears, usually between three and four pounds! They are delicate little pups, but they are so sweet.

Mindy added me to her yahoo group, so now I get daily updates from her about the world of yorkies, and other people’s yorkies, too. A few weeks ago, Simon’s half-sister won a championship in Charlotte, N.C.! She was a beautiful champion. One day I would like to show Yorkies. I already do the grooming part, which is a pretty hard process if you’re not used to it. Bathing, conditioning, brushing, blow drying --- I even make the hair bows for the top knot!