August 24th, 2007 by coral | Posted in Pets |
Rio came to us by way of our backyard fence. The neighbors behind us had this cute tiny puppy when they moved in back in February. She was a cute little yapping black fur ball named ‘Bear’. We watched her grow and heard her yap all the time. We noticed she was growing but slowly and did not have much meat on her under all the fur. We started to sneak food to her over the fence and began to notice she had no shelter from the weather and seldom any food or water. Finally in May, Paul and I decided we would go ask her owners if they even wanted the dog. He owners gladly handed her over and she gladly ran the whole way to her new fenced in yard. Daniel and I got her a new collar and some toys, and when Paul went to remove her old collar we found her skin was beginning to grow around the collar and choke her. We decided at that point we decided to change her name from ‘Bear’ to ‘
Rio’. We thought that was more girly and a new name for a new and better life. We knew then that it was a good thing we got her. Paul and Daniel built her a dog house, a nice place where she can hide in the shade. Since then she is eating and growing like a bad weed. We originally thought she was a runt, but now we are finding out that she was just starved. Not only was she starved for food but also attention and training. When we tried to bring her into the house for the first time she was so scared, and when we finally got her inside(because it was just TOO hot outside for her to stay out) she spent most of the time cowered in the corner afraid of the cats. So now she loves the attention from the kids, but is so big and excitable that she tends to run us all over if we let her. Training her is a slow process but we are working on it every day. The yapping all night has already almost stopped just from having a full stomach, and she is learning ‘sit’. She also does much better when coming in the house. Now we are trying to teach her ‘fetch’ and ‘down’. Ashley loves to go out and play with her several times a day and loves to help train her with lots of treats. 
One Response to “Rio”
By schalicto on Aug 27, 2007
That’s a great story! I’m so glad that you could help her