So in early April of 2019, we weren’t really looking for a new dog (okay, maybe we were quasi-looking), but when a dog named Lulu turned up at the shelter, she kind of caught our attention.
The paperwork indicates she is a Shepherd cross, and according to the fun, if unscientific, Dog Scanner iOS app, and our own observations, this is correct.
We signed up to adopt her, but before Lulu could be taken home, per the policies of the San Diego Humane Society, she needed to be spayed. Once that was done, we collected the new addition and brought her and her lovely Cone of Shame home.
Being an owner surrender, we were able to learn some information about her previous life. She was mostly kept outdoors, and evinced a slight amount of discomfort with being in the house, although nowhere near the level of Dennis, who spent his first few weeks trying to get out of the house so he could hide behind the garbage cans. And as you can see by the HipsterCam, she quickly got over any feeling of being uncomfortable in the house.
As noted in the write-up from the Humane Society, Lulu is happy-go-lucky, carefree, engaging, adaptive, and cheerful — meaning she appears to be very well socialized to humans and dogs alike. However, she appeared to have no idea what a “stuffie” was.
It’s also unclear whether or not Lulu had ever met a cat before, although she has definitely met cats now. First she got to see them through the screen door:
And after about a week of those interactions, she got to meet them in person:
At this point Lulu and the Hipsters have had a number of IRL interactions, and it seems like they’re all going to be able to get along. As with Dennis, we are taking the introductions very slowly, although in this case it’s not because Lulu is afraid of the cats; it’s largely because she wants to play with them (she has play-bowed to them multiple times), and occasionally tries to paw them to get them to play, which they don’t like, and also because Chaplin, while he was great friends with Dennis, has adopted a “#notmydog” attitude towards other dogs who have invaded his turf, including visiting dogs he got along fine with when Dennis was with us. We figure this is because they previously had Dennis’s seal of approval, but now that Dennis is no longer with us, there’s nobody to vouch for other dogs’ good intentions. But through repeated interations, and lots of treats, he seems to have come around to thinking that Lulu isn’t half bad, for a dog.
For her part, Lulu is very interested in chasing squirrels, rabbits, lizards, and other small creatures out of the yard, but she appears to realize that the cats live here, and don’t deserve to be chased. Well okay, maybe Chaplin deserves to be chased every once in a while. But Charlee definitely doesn’t. Right Lulu? Lulu?
Good dog.
