Freddy Update

Freddy

It has been a while since I posted about Freddy's progress. He has lived with us for 6 weeks as of Saturday. 6 weeks is such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, but it is like he has lived here forever. It amazes me how quickly he learned the routine and rules of our home. It amazes me how quickly he has claimed us as his people. From the stories and accounts I had heard, I expected the transition to be long and difficult. After all, he had lived with his old family for 8 years.

Of course, I wonder how much of what I was told was true, and what was said in an effort to make one's self look better or how much emotion was created out of guilt.

Freddy's old owners seemed nice enough. They acted like giving him up was like detaching a limb (although I think back to the original email and how it mentioned that they were considering putting him to sleep). He came with a heart wrenching letter, about how much they loved him and wanted to keep in contact, wanted pictures, etc.

We called the first night and the woman cried when we talked to her. She said she would be in contact and she was given our phone number and email address. Two weeks went by, and we didn't hear from her so we called again. She said she had been thinking about calling us, but never got around to it. We decided that would be our last call to her. We would let her contact us. She hasn't.

Maybe I am wrong, but her lack of contact and Freddy's quick adjustment make me wonder if his perfect life with his perfect family was so perfect after all.

But the important thing is how well he is doing. He learned his new name without a second thought. It took a few days, but he learned to eat food out of a bowl like a dog...and even to eat dog food! We were told he hated going for rides, but yesterday we took him in the big truck when I went out on a short run with my husband. Freddy did well. We were told he wouldn't walk on a leash, but he walked like an old pro when we stopped for potty breaks. As a matter of fact, he walked so well on the leash he almost had a gait of a dog you would see at a show. I wonder how much of what we were told about Freddy and his hang-ups were really about him and how much was about his owner.