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After living with us for 4 1/2 months,
it is about time that I introduce
our sweet new pup.....
ZELDA!
a rescue based in Charlotte, NC.
You can find them on Facebook
When I saw her on Petfinder,
then named Kylie,
I immediately felt drawn to her
and knew that I had to meet her.
Save Just One arranged a home visit
after our application was approved.
She was just what we were looking for,
small (33 pounds) and full grown (2 years old) and short hair!
Kylie was listed as a 'pit mix'.
Our adoption is finalized promptly.
We were a little 'shocked' when Save Just One's Brooke
just got up and left - we have a dog!
We had felt that 'Luna' was a good name for a dog,
but this girl didn't seem like a Luna at all.
She was 33 pounds when we adopted her.
She had actually gained weight in foster care, too!
The first week.....so scared and confused and overwhelmed!
Come on skinny little girl, let's put on some weight!
Her first trip the the river.
In hindsight, we should have not gone
since she'd only been with us for two weeks.
She was barking at people constantly,
and horrible at walking on a leash.
It was there we first began wondering
if maybe Kylie/Luna was not 2 years old.
We had several comments like....
"How old is your pit bull puppy?"
After about a month, her facial structure began to change.
And with a raw diet, she finally started to gain weight (read: muscle).
For more information on a raw diet, you can start where I did:
Our suspicions began to be confirmed as we watched her grow.
She got more muscles and became stronger.
Instead of a full grown pit mix, we had an older pit bull puppy.
Somewhere after the first couple weeks,
my husband said we had to settle on a name for the dog.
I wasn't fond of Kylie, and Luna just didn't work for such a young, active pup.
So one day, I walked past her in the kitchen and said,
"Dog, could you just tell me what your name is?"
And a few hours later as I walked past her again,
the name "Zelda" popped into my head.
It just came out of nowhere, and I was completely shocked.
It wasn't a name we would every have consciously chosen.
(And no, we don't play video games now and I never did as a kid.)
I walked out of the room and she followed me.
When I turned around, she sat down in front of me and looked up.
I said, "Zelda? So is that your name?"
And her tail began to swish across the floor.
Finally, after about two months,
Zelda is settled into the house.
Here she's at attention, working for a treat.
Can you see the confidence in the picture above?
Compare it to this one again, from her first week:
To me, that is a striking difference in mood,
not to mention look at how her face and chest have filled out.
Remember how I said she was gaining weight?
Here you can see again the changes to her face.
And also notice how happy she is here!
As it turns out, when we adopted Zelda, she was not two years old,
she was approximately 8-9 months.
She went from 33 pounds to 45 pounds in 4 months.
And I think she may have a little more growing to do.
Her first camping trip!
She was a bit of a wreck, barking at people.
We started to notice that even though she loves people and dogs,
she is definitely watching out for our family at all times.
I love this goofy shot of her at my parents!
She looks like a body-builder here,
and even though she's getting really strong,
she not quite that hulking.
From a fearful dog who would air-snap at children...
....to a happy dog who we can trust around anyone.
Zelda's favorite place to be is wherever humans are, especially me.
She stays close to us and doesn't wander far.
On a couple occasions, when the gate was left open,
we found her sitting on the front steps, waiting to be let inside again.
As you can see in the above picture,
Zelda is not actually black.
She is a very, very, very, VERY dark brown
and has some lovely coppery brindle highlights when the Sun is right.
Here she shows off the 'terrier' in 'pit bull terrier'
while we were camping at the beach.
Zelda loves all dogs and people, and gets along great with our cat, Lucas. We frequent our local small dog park, and Zelda is a great playmate and knows her manners. Zelda is great with the girls now, and they love to feed her treats and have her sleep with them.
She has a couple bad habits, like barking at people walking and jumping on humans for affection. Her barks are strictly alarm-bells and the jumping is improving. We do positive reinforcement with Zelda through clicker training. It is AMAZING and helped with bonding. We are reinforcing that good things happen when you are around humans. We also ignore her attention-seeking bad behaviors. And one more....she is fixated on wool. Yes, you read that right....wool! There have been a couple chewed Waldorf items. I'm sure that wool smells lovely to a doggie nose....
We're working with her daily and are proud that she's a 'breed ambassador'. I'm happy to report that the vast majority of people we encounter are not only comfortable around such a maligned breed, but are true pit bull lovers! We haven't had a single negative reaction, and Zelda has certainly won over the few people who initially thought we were crazy to adopt a pit bull.
But in Zelda's reality, she's just a dog. She loves us, wants to please us and wants to be in our presence most of the time. The rest of the time she wants to relax on a soft bed or couch.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Zelda has been a real blessing to us and we all love her a lot.
~carrie~
