Pitter Patter of Little Paws

It's been over a month now since Shifu joined us here at the cottage. He's fitting in quite nicely, better than we ever could have imagined. He's so very quiet and seems to want nothing more than to please us...and eat.

We've finally worked out a feeding routine that keeps everybody happy.  There's a difference between feeding an 80 pound dog and an 8 pound one.  It took me a while to get used to smaller quantities of food.  Shifu was a little skinny when we got him - right around 7 pounds.  He didn't have much of an appetite the first few days but he's made up for it.  Now we have to make sure that we don't give in to the always hungry eyes and feed him too much.

He does a lot of things that remind us of Jasper and he has a similar sweetness.  Yesterday I spent most of the day on the couch, working on registrations for my upcoming conference, and he was in heaven to be able to spend hours sleeping next to me.  Sometimes he's so quiet that I forget he's there and it's a little bit of a shock to look to my right and see a ball of fur.

All those hours of sleep, however, gave him extra energy in the evening and we were treated to several minutes of the puppy crazies - mad, dashing, running through the house.  Unlike a large Golden Retriever, little Shifu can fly around corners, up on the couch, down on the floor, down the hall to the bedroom and back without making much noise (except for the jingling of his collar) and without slowing down or knocking over anything in his way.

When we completed the adoption, we learned that because of (what they thought was) his age and a possible heart condition, he wouldn't have been put up for adoption at the shelter and would have been destroyed if the rescue group hadn't taken him on.  I am thankful that they did get him and that I was in the right place and right frame of mind to want to help.  Everything worked out the way it was supposed to.  We are able to give him a happy life and he's given us some lovely companionship.  I knew our house was empty the past 6 months but I didn't realize just how empty it had been until 8 pounds of fluff filled it up.