Meet Derby!

There is a bear in our house!  Well, at least a bear of a dog:-)  Derby is our new foster dog and he is one big boy!  He is a 70 pound gorgeous brindle boxer who has a real intimidation factor...until you meet him that is. 

Derby comes to us from Louisianna.   His owners are moving to Seattle, where they feel that it will be "too cold" for him to live.  Because nobody has dogs in Seattle...right?  Whatever.  Translation...they think it will be a hassle to keep him and are giving him away with the furniture and other household objects that they no longer want.  They have never once taken him to the vet.  He has never had any vaccinations,  any heartworm prevention, nothing.  What a miracle that he was negative for everything apon testing!

After getting to know him over the weekend, I absolutely can not believe that anyone would want to give this dog up.  Besides being so beautiful, he is extremely well mannered.  He is only a year and nine months old, but he is very mellow.  He was an outside dog before and I am told that he isn't house trained, but we are yet to have any accidents.  He just goes out when the others do.  He goes right into the crate when told to, even though he was never crate trained.  He also knows how to sit, walks fine on leash, and rides perfectly in the car.  Many people would give anything to have a dog this well behaved and they just gave him away.  Oh, well.  If they didn't consider him a family member, he is better off without them. 

Although he doesn't really understand how to play with the other dogs, he enjoys their company and has shown no signs of aggression.  His old family had a chihuahua, but he seems a bit weary of the bigger dog's exuberance.  This morning, he did actually try to engage in their antics a little.  I give it less than a week before he is totally into it.  He is also fine with the office cats.  There doesn't seem to be a mean bone is his massive body. 

He is a bit confused and sad about his big life change, which is to be expected, but is showing constant improvement.  When I stopped home at noon, I got my first full boxer-wiggle...the most sincere of all wags:-)