Christmas Visitors Arrive!!!

(Laura playing with Mac (left) and Merci)

It was an exciting evening tonight when Gabe came over with a new friend for Merci to meet... his Wire Hair who is 13 yrs. old - MAC....He is a big wire hair - weighing in at approximately 35 lbs. He is so shaggy and if he went "Baaa" instead of barking, I wouldn't be surprised!! Merci was so excited when they came through the door!

Gabe and Laura with Mac and Merci

Duke joined in the festivities and there was only one small casualty - Dukie was so excited he jumped up and hit his head on the side of Sarah's and she got a bump... nothing a frozen bag of peas didn't take care of!

Duke, Merci, and Mac

(You try getting 3 dogs to pose at once!)

Catching up with Merci

MERRY CHRISTMAS MY MERCI!!

As the season gets busier, I got sicker and sicker and sicker.. So I haven't had a chance to update Merci's blog lately. Since feeling better and getting Christmas in order, I decided that Merci was a little stinkpot and was in desperate need of a bath.

She did so much better this time around!! I didn't have to take a bath with her! LOL... And she smells so good now. I even invited her on to our bed this morning for a 1/2 hour tickle session which she thoroughly enjoyed :) Her feet are finally coming clean - I thought they were permanently stained from the mill. But with scrubbing and clipping, they are finally looking almost all white and certainly like she has been a lady of leisure living the life in a loving home (just the way it should be!!)

With the weather being so cold, Chris and I deemed it necessary to turn the blow dryer on her. (mistake!!) She didn't like it one bit. Chris held her against him and I held it away and on low and she calmed down a bit and was dry in no time - and can you say SOFT!!! What a looker she is!

Chris was walking her in the morning early this week by the ponds and his boot was untied. He bent down to tie it and she jerked and off the leash came. He ran for a good 5 minutes and finally caught up with her.. Lets just say.... WHAT BAD HIP??? She can surely run with the best of them and had us fooled completely. Chris got his morning workout and everyone was happy when they arrived home (yeah right!!).

Life is good and Merci makes it all that much better. She is a little gem and I'm so happy to have her in our lives.

Friday Night is Nyla Bone Night!!!

Merci has been waiting all week for her Nyla bone! I told her Friday night when mom and dad relax, she can have her treat. She sniffs at the counter everyday where I keep it. Here is the video of her chomping away on it. We thought it would give her a good half hour of fun... yep.. pretty much gone in 10 minutes!! She's got a set of jaws on her!!

MERCI WITH HER NEW PEOPLE FAMILY

Here we are on the day we picked up Merci at Cheryl's in Iowa!! Grammie, Laura, Chris, and I all drove down on pretty icey roads to pick our girl up. I was in Fox Terrier heaven with all those precious dogs surrounding me. But Merci won our hearts and home to Minnesota she came on November 8, 2008.

HERE IS MERCI'S DOG FAMILY (AS I KNOW IT)

I told Merci this morning how beautiful her baby Maggie May/Zurie is. Cheryl sent me a picture of her and she is a gorgeous wire hair!! I find out more and more about Merci everyday. She delivered her last litter as sick as she was at the mill on April 27, 2008 – not even 7 months ago. And here she is healthy and loving life now. I bet she was the best mom as she is always cleaning herself. One of my favorite pictures was of her and Nolan at rescue and she was cleaning Nolan’s ear!

Here is a picture of Nolan at the mill as well. I know he looks tons better, and is feeling better now too! She and Nolan made such a beautiful puppy!! I emailed his mom today in hopes she can tell me how he is and how her experience at rescuing him has been going.

Merci got burrs on her feet last night walking in the woods, so I’m going to get her some booties – it’s cold too and she loves walking, so we’ll see how she takes to those. She woke me up dreaming last night – making all those funny sounds dogs do like they are barking but not really. Probably something like us screaming out in our dreams but it sounds more like a garbled groan! I asked her this morning if she got that rabbit she was chasing!! (she didn’t answer but I got a kiss which I liked!!)

This was the 2nd day in a row she bounded down the stairs with confidence! She’s got those stairs down pat!! YEAH MERCI!!

It was just a week ago that we brought Merci home. I woke up at 7 a.m. and she was still snoozing her her chair in our room. So I got my walking clothes on and went over to her and she stretched and yawned and I gave her some cuddles and tickled her tummy. She was groaning and when I stopped, flipped my hand with her snout for more lovin'. She's really warmed up to us in a short time. A week ago, she'd barely let me pet her and that was even with some coaxing. She has been eating standing up a lot of the time, but reverted back to laying down to have her breakfast this morning.. I snapped this while Chris and I were reading the Sunday paper and having coffee. She doesn't beg for food at all which we find shocking!!!

With all the walks, she was in need of a bath bigtime.. so I got her up to the bathtub today and she was all fine with that until the water came on! She did ok until we got to the face and she really didn't want to have anything to do with that part and tried to jump out of the tub. (so different from Zoey who loved water and jumped in the tub for me) I barely got wet, so that was good. She is excellent about getting brushed!! Just stood there like a trooper (so different from Zoey who would run and hide when the brush came out). So, today was another first for us and I say she passed with flying colors!

Merci had a breakthrough this morning!! She has mastered the stairs and is pretty proud of herself. I swear she looks like she is smiling! I was upstairs watering plants and turned around and she was there. So I showed her how to do one step at a time going down. She was very apprehensive and panting quite a bit, but she did it!!

So I grabbed the camera and ran upstairs and look who came up behind me! I told her I'd give her a gold star if I could... but she settled for a training treat. She has come such a long way in such a short time!

On this morning's walk she was a big girl, so Chris and I decided to let her have the run of the down stairs and now the up stairs too I guess. I have all doors closed off except our bedroom where I have a bed set up for her. I guess we'll have to just see how this little experiment works today...

Yesterday Chris went on an errand and when he came home, he couldn't find Merci... called for her and went upstairs, and guess who comes out of our bedroom? YEP... she's a bit of a con artist we think. She refuses to go up stairs for us, but obviously doesn't have much of a problem doing it when we're not around!!

Cheryl emailed me today and attached photos of Merci and Nolan when they were at the mill. This is Merci before she was rescued. They called her Queenie. I think Merci suits her perfectly now. Her photo (left) hardly resembles my sweet girl. It shows how much love and care Cheryl and Dr. Frost gave Merci. I'm as thankful as she is.

Merci is really enjoying her walks and is doing incredibly well. Chris and I look forward to it as much as she does. She met a dog on the bridge going over the ponds tonight, and this owner was much more sociable. They both sniffed each other out and she was so excited!! It was fun to see that thrill in her. Chris and I talked again about the possibility of having another dog in our lives. For now, we're just happy with it being just the three of us. It takes a lot of patience and trust building with rescue dogs.

She was pretty wet after our walk this morning and I had to dry her off. I've learned to show her and let her sniff everything before it goes near her. She let me dry her paws off which is so different from Zoey - who would hardly let us touch her feet.

Chris finally went back to work after a few days off and worked a 1/2 day today. He let Merci stay out of her kennel for 4 hours and she was a good girl!! He said she got up and came to the back hall when he walked in and seemed really glad to see him. They were both tired, and were on the couch watching "Cash Cab" when I came home at work!

Merci getting her neck scratched while watching "Cash Cab" with Chris

Last night I came home from work and Meri got up and came over to me with her little stub wagging. Chris and I took her on a walk. She did so well, and had a lively spring in her step! She could hear a dog barking in the distance which really perked her up and she wanted to see where it was coming from. Someone walking three Shelties appeared, and boy is she our "little miss social." Unfortunately, they did not want much to do with her. Their owner needs to work on social skills! Chris and I agreed that she is missing all her companions at rescue. We're really hoping she has fun when Dukie shows up at Christmas. He does very well with wires since he visited both households where resident wires, Mac and Zoey lived. Dukie can be a bit frisky and wants to play, play, play... but we saw Merci hold her own at rescue and he might have a bit of adjusting to do once they meet. Time will tell. I spent the better part of last night on the computer - blogging about her and she was waiting for me at the top of the stairs when I finished.

Chris and I felt bad about leaving her in her kennel all night, so last night we decided to bring up her little bed and put it in the chair in our bedroom to see how she did. I think she was like... "what is going on here?" But soon settled down and slept through the night. It was probably the first night in her life of never sleeping in a crate.

We're slowly working on the stairs. She is fine with one, but that whole flight put her in a bit of a panic and she stalled out on the bottom one. She finally ate some food last night which was a relief! It's really funny watching her drink water. It's like she's a pelican and scoops up the water!!

MERCI

Checking out her new bed

Rescuing an adult dog is like teaching an older dog how to do pretty much everything most dogs learn as young pups. For instance, her name. I talked to a trainer who said teaching her what her name is will probably be one of the harder things to teach. But it can be done. Just teach it to her as you would anything else with praise and treats. So when I call her or say her name, if she turns her head or comes to me (usually with me patting my legs), I praise her and give her a training treat. We've already made some headway in that area as she came out of her kennel this morning, and came up to me with her little stub wagging and kissed my out stretch hand... I need to remember.... baby steps.

Where I really noticed remarkable improvement was her going up the single step we have from our family room into the kitchen area. Yesterday I had to put her front paws up and then give her little rear a boost to give her the idea of how to accomplish the small task of a stair. Today, she must have gone up and down that step a half dozen times by herself!!

She is showing little interest in her food this morning. Maybe because of the Nylabone she demolished yesterday afternoon??? I have her on the same type of food that Cheryl did except it is the "lighter" version, as we girls must watch our figures!! I did coax her by holding out a piece of food to her, and showing her where her dish is. I think she is also a little depressed without all her friends around her from rescue.

Merci isn't too sure about the leash and wants

to play tug-o-war with it!

Chris and Merci out on a walk

The leash... that was rather interesting. It was more of a toy at first! But seeing her get frisky with it made me so happy. She caught on very quickly, hardly pulling as we coaxed her out the front door because the garage door had too many steps. She was very happy on her little shopping excursion to PetsMart to pick out her new pink plaid jacket when she ran into a couple of rather large dogs. Her little stub went crazy and as little as she is, she went right up to them and sniffed them out!

Not too sure about this coat thing, but it keeps me warm!

From Mill Dog to Merci

If it wasn't for the efforts of Cheryl Collins who started Wire Fox Terrier Rescue Midwest, dogs like Merci would live and die at puppy mills. These sweet dogs have never known the love and companionship of a human family. When we lost our sweet Zoey, I thought my heart was broken. At my daughter's insistence, I visited this rescue website and immediately felt the need to give another wirehair the same love I gave Zoey. When I saw Merci's picture and read her story, there was an instant connection. I e-mailed Cheryl with my story, and within a month I was approved to rescue a dog and was driving to Iowa with my family to meet Cheryl and all of her dogs on November 7, 2008. When we first saw Merci, she tentatively approached us and I held out my hand and she licked it. I pretty much knew it was over at that point, but little Ike jumped all over us and smothered us with kisses so there were decisions to be made. After an hour of playing I asked Laura, Mom, and Chris who will we be taking home? The answer was unanimous- Merci! Although she was quieter than the other dogs, there was something in the way she looked at us that said, "take me and love me". Her new life and our new life with her began at that moment. This blog is Merci's and my journey in helping her become the dog she was always meant to be.

Please visit Cheryl's website:

http://www.wirefoxrescuemidwest.com/rescue_website_005.htm