After years of begging my mom to let us adopt a dog, she finally decided it was time to add a new family member into our lives. After looking around at different shelters in the area, she and my step-dad met the perfect dog, a five year old Coonhound named Bailey. We didn’t know much about her backstory or why she was in the shelter to begin with. She seemed like a well-behaved dog who just loved attention.
As with most shelters, they wouldn’t allow us to take her until she was spayed. Her being an older dog meant that this was a little bit of a risk. They weren’t exactly sure how she would respond to the anesthesia, or how long her recovery period would be. The first couple of days after her surgery we called every day to check up on her. She was sore and wouldn’t eat much, so they decided they needed to keep her a couple extra days.
Finally, after almost a week of waiting, we got to bring her home on January 2, 2020. As soon as she got in our house, she leaped onto the couch and fell asleep. That’s all she really did for the first week we had her. She slept a lot and only ate a little bit every day, but she refused to eat dry food. We fed her canned food for the first couple of days she was with us.
The shelter told us that she does have Lyme disease, but that’s something we could handle, giving her pills every morning and night. She wasn’t really active at all for the first week, she mainly just slept. She loved to cuddle and would sleep in either mine or my sister’s bed with us.
Things started kicking into gear around the second week we had her. When she was fully healed from her stitches I had to give her a bath, which she did not enjoy at all. She ran around the house constantly until she was dry. It was the craziest we’ve seen her, but it was refreshing to see her healthy enough to run around again. She also finally started eating dry food, even though we had to mix it with a little bit of water, it was a good first step.
That same week we learned that she is a very sneaky dog. When she gets out of the house without her leash, you better get your running shoes on. My sister and I, with the help of two of my friends, chased her down my street for 20 minutes before we could get a hold of her (I wasn’t mad though, it was my fault the door was open).
The third week was even more exciting. We started to see her come out of her shell even more. She would run around the house and play with the toys I had previously bought her. It was exciting. She wasn’t afraid to walk down the hall anymore or go into the kitchen, as she was much more comfortable on rugs than on our hardwood floors.
My brother also brought his dog to come meet Bailey that third week. We hadn’t really seen her around other dogs, so we weren’t sure how it was going to go. We had them meet outside first and neither of them seemed to be aggressive or anything, so we moved them inside. They played the entire time they were together. Bailey was proving to be the alpha in the pair.
Then, it was time for me to go back to school. Saying good bye to Bailey was extremely difficult. She had slept in my bed for the past week with me and I didn’t want to just leave her, but I knew I had to. I can’t wait to go back home and cuddle with her again.
I’m really excited to see how she might change in the remaining years we get to spend with her. She’s a sweet little girl who makes my heart very happy. I’m glad she’s a part of the family now, and that we have the opportunity to give her an amazing life with us.