Aw Punkin!

Meet Punkin.

Punkin in a reflective moment.

This is Punkin, a foster dog we are taking care of for CSAC, the Cocker Spaniel Adoption Center. She's 12, weighs about 20 pounds, has luxuriantly curly hair. She's very lively for an older gal.

She has a somewhat sad story. She was owned by one person from puppyhood, but when he died, the "family" took her to a kill shelter where she was in danger of unnecessary euthanasia. She's a good dog and very healthy, but she is TWELVE. In your average shelter that means you have very little chance of adoption, and thus, survival.

CSAC took her in. She was with another foster mother for a couple of months. That foster said that Punkin was so depressed for the first couple of weeks that she refused to eat and just moped around. We took her because her foster mother was going out of town for a month and could not take Punkin with her. We saw the depression/moping/refusing to eat/snapping at us for the first couple of days she was here.

We are thinking of keeping her. This is a nice dog who has settled in well, and I keep thinking that it is not good for her that every time she thinks she's home and safe, she has to go somewhere else and start over. My friend Christine once said that each time we re-home a dog, we take a litle piece of their heart away. Dogs are amazingly adaptable, but this girl is elderly. She deserves to settle down and not have her life upended again.

She's active and in shape. When the back door opens, if she sees a squirrel, she LEAPS from the porch and shoots off after it. She barks enthusiastically at people doing crazy ass behaviour like riding bikes by the house or jogging nearby when she's on a walk. Punkin can't be having with craziness like that. She likes people who approach her quietly and slowly, but doesn't like being grabbed. But really, who does?