Wally: The Boomerang Dog

This is the story of our weekend with The Boomerang Dog.

Most of you probably do not know this, but we have been considering bringing another dog — specifically another Corgi or possibly a Corgi-mix — into our home.  I have alluded to it before [refer to the puppy in the window post] but outside of family and a few friends we have not talked much about it to others.  Andrew wants a puppy but, I on the other hand, had wanted to try and rescue or rehome a corgi in need.

Enter Wally.

I found Wally’s ad locally on the internet.  The girl who has him is looking to rehome him basically because he is too lazy.  She has a farm and needs a working dog and he is not interested in herding sheep.  She did warn that he would not be good in a home with cats (likes to chase them too much) or a house with children.  When I talked to the girl on the phone and asked her about him she did tell me that he had some food aggression but she had been working on it and was getting better.  She described some of his other quirks as well and there were some things that could be worked on.

On Friday, all three of us (humans and Gwen) drove an hour and a half down to visit Wally.  At that point I was not intending on bringing another dog home, just going to meet him.  The only problem with that brilliant plan was…we fell in love with him!

He was the perfect little 3-year-old, black headed tri male!  He was derpy — a most important trait for being a corgi! — and he was all about attention, waggling that nub of his, and chasing sticks (and cats).  We asked if the girl was willing to send him home that night with us but she said she still wanted the people who had called before us that were to come on Saturday to see him still, just to be fair.  I said that we understood and we drove on home to await the verdict of their visit with our little Wally monster.

Saturday was a day of anxious waiting.  Andrew couldn’t eat or focus on anything he was so anxious to hear back about Wally!

Sunday came and we headed to the gym for a game of “Fear (racquet) Ball” and on our way we heard back!  I got a call saying “would you like to come take Wallis home today?”  We of course were excited and said yes! We finished up at the gym, headed home and then for Wally’s farm.

Upon arrival we learned that our Wally had gone home with the other couple since the woman had begged to be able to take him home that night but had returned him that morning due to the fact that he didn’t fit in as well with their family, had chased the cats and bitten the husband.  We — and Wally’s family —  just wrote it off to him not settling in enough and them expecting too much from him.  We loaded him up without a hitch and were off!

Not 10 minutes into our ride back home, but then I got bitten trying to put on his collar.  I thought that maybe I scared him because he was anxious (we were told he had been on anxiety meds before he came to the farm) so I just left him alone until we got back to [home town].  We did stop at a kmart along the way so I could wash the bite out and buy some band-aids and dog biscuits.

We got to [home town] and stopped in at the local Petco where my friend works as a dog trainer.  He was an absolute doll in the store! He was nice and polite to all the humans and the dogs, he did not pee on anything, and he just adored all the extra attention!

When we got home, Wally and Gwen were reintroduced in the road/driveway (neutral ground) before we took them both to the backyard to play.  Those two hit it off right away and played and played!  Gwen mainly just wanted to chase the soccer ball but she didn’t mind that Wally was there running around too.  Wally absolutely loved Andrew too!

 

We only met Mr. Hyde after play time…  I dried Gwen off to come inside and when I went to dry off Wally he growled one tiny growl and then took after my arm again!  He grazed my arm and grabbed onto the towel before letting go.  After that he was definitely on his guard and wouldn’t let me near him.  I didn’t know what to do!  It was actually pretty scary to have this little Corgi snarling at me.  (He was on the leash at that point but still not happy with me.)  I have never in my life been afraid of a dog until Sunday afternoon.  At that point we made an “emergency” call to my dog training friend.  She came over after work to see if she could shed any light on the situation and also help us figure out if we would be able to keep Wally with us or not.

That night we were of the mind to take him back to the farm as we were not in a position to be able to handle an aggressive dog.  The next morning we took Wally to the vet to get an exam to see if maybe he was in pain in some way and thus causing some of the aggression.  We also wanted to make sure he was up to date on shots and had a paper record for anyone else who may take him after us and also to get his nails clipped and ears washed out as they were in dire need of attention.  I felt that was the only responsible thing to do.

Wally had to spend the night on the porch (he had blankies and a nice bed to sleep on!) since I could not get him cleaned off and he was dirty from the farm.  That morning I took him out to potty and then fed him and played in the yard with him and he was back to his good ol’ lovable little self.  That made the decision from the previous night that much harder to keep!

We followed through and took him to the vet’s, where he was examined, vaccinated, and his claws and ears were taken care of.  There we  also talked to the vet about him and the he was even encouraging us to try and keep Wally, but in our heart of hearts we knew we wouldn’t be able to keep a dog that was aggressive and caused us fear.

I cried and cried on the ride down there!  I really did not want to have to take him back.  We had called ahead so they knew to expect us and when we got there the girl’s dad said, “The Boomerang Dog is back! Maybe we should rename him boomerang!”  He  also said “when we heard the phone ring last night we had a feeling it was about Wally. About the same exact time as last night!”

The family said no hard feelings but I couldn’t help but to feel we had failed in our endeavor but our family and home were not the right settings for little Wally to be happy.  Wally is happy with a farm to roam around and chickens and cats to chase.  I really hope that they keep him and let him just be a lazy farm dog. If not, then I hope he finds a home with a person or people that will love him and care for him and let him roam around to his heart’s content.  He needs a big yard to reign over in all his proud corgi-ness.

Wally, 

You were only in our lives a short time but there will always be a place in my heart for you.  I really do hope that you live a long and happy life on the farm. We both love you.

Love, 

E & A

 

Playing soccer together. 🙂