Friday, December 12, 2014

Hello Birdie

Meet Birdie, the newest member of our family.


Birdie is a 7 year old American Pit Bull Terrier that came to us from the Central Oklahoma Humane Society after she was found emaciated and abandoned in western Oklahoma.  You can tell by looking at her belly that she was used for relentless breeding and them presumably dumped when they were finished with her. People are gross.


I've had a bleeding heart for shelter dogs my whole life and for pit bulls ever since Matt and I started dating, almost 10 years ago now.  Pits get a bad rap, but they were once known as the "nanny dog."  They need to be raised in loving homes with plenty of socialization to counteract any aggressive tendencies, really the kind of home any dog should be raised in. 

Matt's parents pit bull, Tara, sweet pup passed away this summer.

We knew when we bought a house we wanted to adopt a second dog, that was one of things I was most excited about.  No more hoping to find decent rentals that are pet friendly, but have size restrictions, breed restrictions, you can only have one, etc.  I came across Birdie one morning on the OK Humane website, went to meet her that afternoon, took Matt back the next day, and 2 days later she came home with us.


 At first she would barely move off the couch, I looked at Matt after a few days and said "I think we've adopted a pillow."  She's been such a sweetheart from day one and cuddling is her favorite thing, but I was worried about her extremely low energy level.  I'm assuming she spent her life neglected, pregnant, in a cage and didn't really know how to be a dog.


After a few days of Shep showing her the ropes though she understood that backyards are fun!  Tennis balls are fun!  Walks are fun!  Being a dog is fun!  She also wasn't potty-trained which makes me think she had never lived inside a home, but she took a cue from Shep and was completely potty-trained within about 2 weeks.

Birdie has been with us since November 1,  a little over a month now and she's a different dog than when we brought her home.  She used to freeze on walks because she was so afraid of road noise.  Now her whole body wags when we pull out the leashes.


About a week after we brought her home we were all outside doing some yard clean up, Shep was busy monitoring squirrel activity as usual and Birdie just started galloping around the backyard and doing what seemed to be jumping for joy.  

Did you ever see that video that was going around a while back of the cows jumping for joy after they were released into a field and saved from going to a slaughterhouse?  If not you should look it up.  Anyway, that's what it reminded me of.  


It's so sweet to see how getting dogs into loving homes makes their little personalities shine.



We took Shep to the shelter to meet Birdie before we brought her home, Shep loves to be the alpha female and Birdie happens to be submissive and mellow so the dynamic between them has really worked out well.  We do separate them whenever we leave the house, probably not necessary, but that way we don't have to worry. 


Birdie is such a mother, you can tell she's used to caring for puppies.  She carries a stuffed animal with her everywhere and when we get home from walks she won't come inside until the three of us have gone in first.



Mother/dogger Christmas pjs.

Birdie loves my mom, probably because they can gab about kids together.


I think this pic is so funny, the dogs look exceedingly serious.  Classic parents trying to smile for a nice family photo but the kids aren't having it.  They're just thinking how they hope mom doesn't post it to FB with some lame caption like "Sure do love this bunch!! #familyfurever" and tag them.  If that happens they'll lose all emo credibility. 

Speaking of Facebook, it's like, so lame.  Shep is totally going to deactivate for at least a  week but first she's going to post a status about how she's deactivating and see how many "likes" it gets.  If it doesn't get 50+  she'll probably just stay on because what's the point of deactivating if you don't garner attention from it? Truth Shep. 

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