Meet Plume, our newly adopted family member.
We found her on Petfinder.com, she was in a shelter in the Lanaudière, about 70 km from Montreal We went there a week ago to meet her, but she was coughing so she couldn’t be spayed and we couldn’t take her right away.
She’s still not sterilized but the shelter called us that we could pick her up anyway and make an appointment with the veterinarian to do the spaying in a few weeks.
So today we drove again to the shelter to pick her up. We filled out some forms, paid the adoption and sterilization fee and let Plume jump into the car. On the way back she sat quietly in the car and just looked outside to the passing landscape. When we arrived back in Montreal, we first went for a walk to test how she acted away from the other dogs in the shelter. She passed with flying colours. She was great, pooped an peed when we entered the park and listened to our directions, and it looked like she already had accepted us as her new bosses. We even dared to let her go off-leash, and she ran from Alison to me when I called her, and in the other direction when Alison called her.
After the walk we took her home, and took her and Poupoune for a short walk around the block so they could get acquainted on neutral terrain. Then she entered her new home. This to great dismay of Poupoune who is in general not fond of other dogs, and in particular hates to share her house with other dogs. She’ll has to get used to her new housemate, the time she was the sole master of the house is over. Plume wants to play with her, but gets a growl in return. She has to play with other dogs, in the dog park; Poupoune only plays with humans.
Plume is a mutt, but we aren’t sure what breeds are in her pedigree. She’s definitely house trained, walks on the leash without pulling too much and even obeys when we call her. It doesn’t matter that she only bears the name Plume for a few days. It’s not a stray but either ran away from home and got lost, or the old owners dumped her when they went to hibernate in Florida. Or something like that.
Yesterday we made the house “Plume ready”: removed loose items from the floor, bought a water and food bowl for her (a very cool food bowl, with ribs so she can’t eat too fast) and a big bag of food. I also made a little door in opening of the broom closet door to block her from entering. The door starts about 20 cm from the floor and the resulting opening is just big enough for Poupoune to crawl in, so we can leave Poupoune’s food out and Plume can’t eat it. It also gives Poupoune her own den, so she can get some rest from the evil intruder.
Now Plume is lying on the floor in the kitchen in front of the fridge, attentively looking at the activity around her. I think she’s happy and I think we’re happy with her.
