He looks like a pretty happy guy, huh? He is now, but his life didn't start out so great. Not much of his first year is known. In August 2011 he was found listed on Kijiji (online classifieds) in Quebec by Keeshond Rescue of Ontario and quickly brought into rescue. Before we adopted him, I recieved the following information about his past from the rescue group:
"The only history we have is, he
was tied up most of his life and has suffered some physical abuse. He did not
receive the proper socialization when he was a puppy and has great difficulty
with strangers. His fear of being hit was very evident by his behaviour with hands
coming towards him. He would cower and flattened himself on the ground and look
away from us." Louise Foster - KRO
Jiggs remained in rescue for 5 months for rehabilitation and training. In loving hands, he finally learned to trust people and other dogs.
We learned about Mr. Jiggs in December of 2011. We had recently lost our first Keeshond to a type of vascular cancer and I had reached out to my local rescue contact about the possibility of adopting in the future. She told me that KRO (Keeshond Rescue Ontario) had just taken in EIGHT Keeshonden, 4 adults and 4 puppies, when authorities shut down a cruel puppy mill in Quebec and that they might need fosters or forever homes. I promptly filled out my application and was contacted about Mr. Jiggs. His foster Mom wrote me and we had many conversations about his behavior, challenges and special needs. On January 15th we found out that we were selected to be Jiggs' forever home!! WooHoo!! We were absolutely beside ourselves with excitement and immediately begun figuring out the logistics of driving to Canada in January with one dog and coming back across the border with TWO! Turns out it isn't such a big deal. You just need their license and shot records.
We arrived to pick up our new baby on January 27th and planned to stay one night and come back the next day so that we could get him acclimated with us before we had to go back to work. He and Tanuki were fast friends. This is their first meeting at Jiggs's foster Mom & Dad's house:
Awwwwww!
He has settled in with us really well and become a great running buddy! Jiggs is still a little wary around strangers, but he is such a good, brave boy and is even working past that too. I can't hardly remember a day that he wasn't in our lives. He is such a lively and joyous dog, it is hard not to smile when you are around him. ♥
1 comment:
Hooray for Mr Jiggs! :) It's good to see you blogging again too.
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