Matte

Matte is our new bassett hound. Well new to us. The guy we got her from said she is 3 years old. Now the vet says she is at least 5 years old. I am not sure why the dude felt the need to lie to us??? If anyone has met Pluto you should know Matte is nothing like him. She is much smaller, a girl, red and white, a smaller snout and ears, and has a much milder temperment. She is calm and sweet. Probably because she is an old girl. They get along quite well. Pluto plays and plays and if Matte doesn't feel like it she will just tolerate him. Other times they rouf house together. It is cute.

Much of the process of adopting Matte reminded me of what it might be like to foster an older child or adopt an older child. When we first saw Matte she looked shy, but you could still see her gentle nature. She let us pet her and seemed to like us pretty quickly. She was dirty, but nothing a bath wouldn't cure. When we got her home Pluto immediately like her but she wasn't sure of him. She cried a little at bed time, but she did fall asleep. THen the next day when it was time for that bath she liked the water well enough, but I started noticing ticks. Now the last caregiver said she had dead ticks and they would fall off, and that was true but she also had live ones. She didn't just have a couple there was one after the other. I am not use to that because Pluto is clean and well groomed. My emotions were mix (not just because I am pregnant either). Part of me was very angy at that man for not taking better care of her and part of me was very sad because the job of cleaning her completely seemed so overwhelming and honestly gross. Those tick are nasty. Plus I didn't want Pluto to get them. I jumped up, dried her off and raced to the closest vet. I was a mess. I was crying and wanted them to dip her right then, but I calmed down and came back the next day. At home I sat down with her and pulled one after the other off. She was so sweet and just layed there like she was releaved and very thankful. It was ahorrible job. She had them between her toes and just everywhere. I thought I got all of them but they still got 20 more the next day at the vet. She is all clean and has all her shots and is a beautiful addition to our home.

I am sure with parenting older childern that weren't born from you many of the same challenges are faced. Introducing the current children, hoping they get along well and maybe even fighting the urge to be biast toward your birth children. Then cleaning the 'crap' off or out of that poor child and praying to God that it doesn't badly influence your squicky clean child. Then finding the resources to help with anything you can't do on your own. But most of all just loving that child in your now more complete home.

I will post a picture later.