DECEMBER 24, 2022: Homecoming
Everyone say hi to Simon!!
DECEMBER 30, 2022
If you thought the departure of 6 puppies would leave me with an empty nest, you haven’t been keeping Crazy Town score! 
The three little babies who came from the same property as Fenner (but are much younger) are growing up and have been playful and engaging with both humans and canines. They loved the mashed sweet potatoes I made on Christmas, so I’ve been making it a regular thing.
It’s not that I’m above canned pumpkin, but I’m just saying it’s got a brown tinge and it was only the best for my howliday guests. Plus, I made A LOT of sweet potatoes for Farley Eugene, the worst bad boy who also had epilepsy and made me a mom, and what a nostalgic excuse to share my no-effort roasting method for these tasty roots:
- Set oven to 375
- Wash sweet potatoes and poke holes all over them with a fork.
- Put them directly on the oven rack. (you can put a sheet pan or aluminum foil on the bottom of the oven to catch drips).
- Set the oven to turn itself off in an hour.
- Forget about them and take a nap.
When you return to the kitchen to cook dinner, the potatoes will be cooked, cooled, and the skin will be separate from the potato. Just peel it off like a candy wrapper. You can smash the flesh with a fork or mush it into a puzzle or a lick mat, and let me tell you it makes for puppy poops that qualify as art in this house.
Anyway, in addition to our three cute white babies, Simon came to join us on Christmas Eve, and he’s been a gift and quite a presence! He’s a 6ish month old Mastiff mix who is clumsy, awkward, hilarious, but most of all FRIENDLY, SNUGGLY, and always down to party! He also hasn’t got a clue about rules, so he gets in funny trouble.
Simon landed himself in Crazy Town for … drumroll…hind-end weakness! Our specialty!!
There is suspected hip dysplasia from his X-rays, but he’s got pain medication and we are going to build up his strength while he’s here. Although he does sometimes carry a leg when he’s hurting, it doesn’t stop his desire to play nor extinguish any of his charm.
I’ve found that by giving him frequent periods of rest and controlling the degree to which he exerts himself, he’s not having to limp so much, but he’s still afforded every opportunity to build those muscles.
Simon is a dream on the leash which I totally didn’t expect. We are working on a massage and stretching regimen, but Simon is having a hard time sitting still for very long, especially when his friends are around, or he sees a toy, or he needs to lick me in the face.
He does well in his crate and often sleeps upside down, snoring… unless… his tiny next door neighbors come hop, hop, hopping over to wake him up!
FEBRUARY 9, 2023
We’re all smiles in Crazy Town and not just because of the beautiful weather!
The back yard appears barren and it feels like I’ll be removing muddy paw prints from the floors in perpetuity, but we’re sitting on a 1/2 acre of Bermuda grass, which, as a gardener, I happen to know is immortal.
If I couldn’t kill it, the dogs don’t even stand a chance.
FEBRUARY 9, 2023
They’re all pretty cute, but Simon in slow mo is 
.
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
This is the Downward Simon, similar to the yoga pose you’ve probably heard of, but your front paws have to be in a hole and you have to fart a lot.
MARCH 25, 2023
Simon, you might have noticed, has been absent from the news as of late. That’s because he’s been piloting super-secret, once-pipe dream ideas about how to better serve our dogs and their adopters.
Jen and I feel strongly our foster program should add value to the dog’s overall existence. We know that training starts here and that passing the buck to the adopter does not benefit the dog or their relationship. We have also seen that our dogs’ trajectory is influenced by what we do or don’t do here.
We choose to do what’s best for the dog, even to our own detriment sometimes.
Today’s work today.
I’ve had a unique experience as the mom of special needs dogs. That was a great start. Then a program I started last year (ostensibly walking other peoples’ dogs to raise money for the orphanage) added more knowledge, giving me a snapshot of how canines are really living inside their homes. It began to answer questions I had about rehoming these same dogs later in life.
The worst part – many of them WERE rescues, unhappy in their lives, both human and canine. There’s a disconnect and I noted certain behaviors over others drive a wedge in relationships. Families don’t know they can address them, let alone how to do it. We need to help. A few obedience lessons isn’t enough. When you adopt a rescue dog you adopt all their behaviors too, but in Crazy Town they’re uncovered and addressed before the dogs even go up for adoption.
Ray was one of my first Walk with Me dogs and his story, above all others, is a glowing reason for the work.
Ray’s family lives on a beautiful property on a beautiful lake, and his dad adopted him because he wanted a buddy to ride a paddleboard with him. How great for a dog, right?!
Well, no one at the adoption event knew or volunteered that Ray has a raging fear of men and didn’t like water. His reactivity to his dad, all sounds, both on the leash and inside his home, was to the point that I put an adopted dog in “foster care” for a month so Ellen and Jax could mentor him and I could study, finding all the patterns in his behavior.
Every Walk with Me story supports hypotheses drawn from what the dogs have been telling me for years in foster care, and now that Jen has come on board, we can raise the bar in a real way, continuing work I have sacrificed everything to do, but growing into something I’d only ever called a dream — one that she believes in wholeheartedly and shares.
We choose understanding the dog, implementing behavior plans in foster, investing time and energy into appropriate matchmaking, transitional and post-adoption coaching, and free training/mentorship to our families.
Simon’s adopters, whoever they may be, are the first to whom we can offer these PERKS!
MARCH 26, 2023
Hascal and Simon…had a play date 
MARCH 29, 2023
Simon tagged along to ship off the first of several super secret packages and was, let me just say, as proud of his manners as he is that he personally licked the boxes!
Thank you, Simon for the assist.
Y’all, he was so cute and engaging and smooshy in the store, I ran out of treats!
Simon!!!! 
MARCH 29, 2023
No, Mom. We were NOT wrastlin’ on the bed just now. 
Simon & Archie
MARCH 30, 2023
Simon is a 10ish-month-old Mastiff mix galoot who, more than anything, wants to love you up! He also enjoys sniffing the earth, a good game of ball, playing with his friends, and chewing his horn! He is soft and squishy and snuggly, and sometimes…Simon needs hugs.
Simon originally came to Crazy Town because of a limp and questionable hip luxation, but I’m happy to report that he hasn’t favored a leg in months, even after a run.
Simon loves to play fetch outside and he is wonderful on a leash. He enjoys going for walks and has been tested in many environments, and with other handlers, and the boy takes it all in stride, enjoying every sniff, appreciating every minute. He is popular in stores too, and very well behaved!
Simon is a growing boy who also needs adequate rest and decompression time, and will happily do so in his crate with any chew, bone, or other enrichment tool (he’ll bring his favorites to his new life!) and can be found snoring on his back when he’s finished chewing.
He pees and poops outside, loves car rides and trips to the park, and gets along with every dog he’s ever met, though some amp him up more than others. He’d be a fairly easy single dog while he matures, but would probably do well with an older sibling. Meet and greets are important!
Simon has also been evaluated outside of the orphanage and, not surprisingly, found to be very adaptable, comfortable, and more chill without all his goofy pals; he’s quick to make himself at home in new places, with new sounds, people, new routines. He’s happy to be alive!
And he’s down to be your BFF.
Even better—Simon comes WITH a trainer and oodles of support! Anyone out there thinking about adopting a dog for the first time, but feeling unprepared? We got you! Been a while since you had a dog in your life? Feeling rusty? We got you!
If you are interested in meeting squishy Simon, please get in touch!
Please share and help Simon find a couch and a personal snuggler! He’s too smooshy and too perfect to be a dog with “no fixed address!”
