When I think of Max pre adoption I always picture the photo of him on the steps on the chain in his adoption ad – sad and hunched. This photo struck a cord with our whole family and we knew he was the dog for us and a new brother for our dog Moose.
To be honest I am not sure who is more grateful to Chained Dog Rehabilitation & Rehoming NZ – us or Moose. Moose loves having a little (big) brother and he takes that job seriously.
So much so that when Max got stuck in the creek – we say stuck but he can be a little slow and if he had walked a couple of metres further he could have climbed out easily – Moose sat by the creek until someone came to get Max even when we were calling them. This was within the first couple of weeks of adoption! Max definitely marches to the beat of his own drum and while he is not at all naughty he does do things in his own time and we are lucky if that ties in with our requests.....
He has the same expression on his face whether or not he is excited, irritated, doesn’t give a toss (the most common) or relaxed and the way to tell the difference is how fast his weapon of a tail is swinging. Both Max and Moose spend one day a week at doggy day care which they love. They come home absolutely exhausted after training and playing with lots of their friends. We are fortunate enough to have a ¾ acre fenced section so Max hasn’t had to be tied up since we got him and him and Moose spend hours chasing each other and play fighting or just lounging around.
The process to adopt was so simple. We sent an email telling them all about ourselves and why we thought Max would be the perfect fit for our family. The next step was for us and Moose to met Max. We did this in a public dog park and we all fell in love. Once we advised them (which was immediately) that Max was definitely the one for us they checked out our property and he came for a trial – he never left.
Don’t get me wrong we had a few tense moments when we got Max mainly to do with food. We had to have him on a lead initially when he ate otherwise Moose would have gone hungry as Max ate at 100 miles an hour and then would try to eat Moose’s and wasn’t particularly pleasant about it. However we never felt nervous with him and it didn’t take long for him to realise that breakfast and lunch was an everyday occurrence and he wasn’t going to miss out. We were also offered help with this process from Chained Dog if we felt we couldn’t manage it ourselves.
He is the most laid back, slobbery, adorable dog and we couldn’t imagine life without him. My husband works from home which suits Max down to the ground as he is constantly interrupting him for pats and chest rubs – he really is living the life.
We are so grateful to the volunteers at Chained Dog. It certainly doesn’t seem like a job for the faint hearted and the time and devotion they give to each and every dog in their care is a testament to the type of people they are. These dogs are so lucky to have them – to be shown that life can be wonderful and to be treated with love is the norm not the exception.
If you are lucky enough to be in a position where you can have a dog please, please, please consider adoption. It will be one of the most rewarding experiences you will have.
