Angus and Morgan

Foster Mom Karen M in Parrish, FL received a wonderful update from Jennifer who adopted Magnet (nka Angus) in August, 2008. She and her husband (Lorne) drove from Canada to Florida to pick him up. They got off to kind of a rocky start, but Jennifer, being a terrier kind of person, persevered. (In the picture, Angus is on the right.)

Hi Karen, Hope you are keeping well. Thought I'd give you an update on Angus's progress. It has been about 3 months now, and he has settled down quite a bit. Even our friends have mentioned how much he has changed. He experienced his first snow the other day. We had an early dump at the end of October - he loved it, he wanted to be outside all day, and kept looking up at the trees as the snow was melting and falling off.

He loves exploring in the fall leaves and has honed his hunting skills pretty good. He is learning that most dogs will not be a threat, especially if he meets them and has a chance to sniff a little. He and Morgan took about a month to sort out the pack hierarchy; they don't really play too much, sleep a lot during the day, and look forward to their walks.

Morgan usually likes to be where we are, or where the food is, Angus would be outside 24/7 if we let him. He is in squirrel paradise right now. His coat is getting a little thicker. We have a jacket for him for really cold days, which he seems to like wearing. He has turned out to be a real lap dog, loves to drape himself across your legs. He can jump about 3 or 4 feet in the air, he would be great at agility if you could get him to focus.

He swallowed a bee this summer over by our raspberry patch, and got stung in his throat. I took him to emergency vets right away, and he was fine, just had and allergic reaction. Needless to say, he has not really bothered with that area of the garden since! Angus has many qualities I wish Morgan had - If we could roll them into one animal, you'd have the perfect dog!

Go ahead and post the email and photos. I'll try to send you some snow shots when I get them downloaded. I guess I didn't really realize just how tough adopting would be. I thought maybe Angus would be just like Morgan, but if all dogs were like our own (we raised him from a puppy), the shelters would be empty!. This experience has taught me more about myself than anything. I have new patience and compassion that I did not have before.

Talk to you soon, Happy Thanksgiving, Jennifer and Lorne