Willie (Now Galway)
ADOPTED 9/20/03 ... Click here to read more about his success story!
(click on a picture to view a larger image)

Sunday July 20th, 2003

Willie seems to be just like his brother Frankie and is scared to death of normal dog life. However, there is definitely more sparkle in his eyes today. I think he will come around. He was actually romping a little in the back yard this afternoon. However, his roaming privileges in the house have been suspended after two separate incidents where I took him outside, he did nothing and then came in and did it in the house. So we have some real work to do here. He did do it once more outside and I shoved a piece of newspaper under him in the hopes that the smell would trigger it again out there. No such luck.

Willie wants badly to run amok in the house, but the back yard is still a bit intimidating. So far there hasn't been much play with the others, but he did have one chase back to the house followed by Tula and Cocoa. If Tula will stop grousing at him for disturbing her, they might yet have some fun.

Monday July 21st, 2003

Little Galway was one of the smallest and weakest of the Hazlet, NJ Siberians. When he first came out of the clinic after his bath--weighing under 20 pounds even though he was eight months old--all he wanted to do was to cuddle in his foster mom's arms and retreat from all of the chaos. He was so scared because he'd never seen such a big intimidating world, and his belly hurt, but he believed that the lap he was on and the arms he was in were the safest place he could be right then. Voices talked about how he had diarrhea and probably had every worm known to veterinary science. He hunkered down into the warm arms. The arms took him to a big van with a big crate, where he retreated to the back of the crate and lay quietly in the hopes he wouldn't be seen. One other friend from that confusing and awful place where he'd been taken from was in a crate behind him, and that was reassuring.

It was very late when the van stopped, and Galway was afraid to come to the front of the crate. The arms reached in and pulled him out, holding him gently. "It's ok, little guy," the voice said. "We'll find a good home where you'll be loved and have plenty of food and good care and friends." He heard the voices of three other Siberians behind the house. The nice lady took him back to meet them, but they were big and intimidating and his friend from before had been taken off in another van. The lady kept saying something like "Let's go pee, little guy," but he was too scared to think about that. When she brought him inside the house, there was a dark little crate sitting there...perfect haven! He darted into the crate and lay down. Suddenly good smells started coming from the kitchen...was she making something for him? Really?? Some food all his own that he wouldn't be beaten off of by the other dogs? Oh, please let it be! He gobbled up the small amount of rice and hamburger and wished he could have buckets more, but she said he was too malnourished to have the whole pot at once. More would come later.

He couldn't stay quiet. He had to cry. He was lonely and his belly still hurt, even though it was full. Now he wanted to pee, but he couldn't get out of the crate. For a couple of days, he tried to tell everyone how lonely he was and how much he hurt, but as the medicine the lady gave him began to work, his belly began to feel better. Oh, this must be heaven...he was getting food, food all his own, food the other big dogs couldn't get to because it was put down in his crate, his very own place. The big dogs were
ok if not really friendly; maybe the smaller black and white one would someday play with him. Maybe he would finally get enough to eat. Maybe he (and his foster family!) could actually sleep. It seemed like the nice lady didn't much like having him go potty in her house the way the other lady had encouraged. He began to learn that if he got this done quickly outside, he could go charging back to the safety of his crate. And he began to think maybe the back yard could be sort of interesting, now that he felt better. Was there actually hope that he could find someone that would really love him and let him be a normal Siberian puppy, even if he was too tiny to be much use. Oh, please...let there be a real home for him!

Tuesday July 22nd, 2003

Willie/Galway had a very good night last night. It was Tula, who's been on a groundhog vigil the last few days after catching one last week, who woke John up to let them all out. I think that once we got those roundworms out of him and once his little belly actually got full, he has relaxed a little and is now able to sleep. So he's making up for all that sleep he missed Saturday and Sunday nights. I have the big crate in the dining room for when we go out or to bed and the puppy crate is in my study. Right now he's sacked completely out in the puppy crate with the door wide open, looking completely blissful.

I think he's getting the hint on housebreaking. I haven't trusted him unsupervised loose in the house, but we haven't had an accident in the house since the first two. I've made it a rule that he only gets to run and explore the house if he's just been out and given his bladder a good emptying. His reward for going outside is to be allowed to run back to the house and choose either to zip into his crate or to explore the house on leash. We've now had two poopies that were very well-formed if not quite firm and I've started adding some yogurt and canned pumpkin to his rice and hamburger, on Pat Tiedy's advice. He loves it. This morning he got the last of the panacur and at noon he got some Euk. kibble mixed in with the food. He wolfed it all. We'll hold it at this until we get really good stools.

BTW, Mireille Wulf from Sibernet suggested that sometimes adding cooked eggs to their food can help with the poop eating. Something about both being high in nitrogen. Don't know if it will help in this case, but now that he's on good food, I don't believe he's as interested in the other dogs' poop as he was.

This little guy is so loving and cuddly. He even let me clip his nails the first day he was here. His only real problem is being very timid about going outside. I tried taking him out in the front yard this morning but he wanted nothing to do with it. But when he went back in his crate and I started to get my three ready for their walk, he set up such a sobbing yowl that I improvised a second coupler and took all four of them. Going with the other dogs seemed to set a good example for him and he was much better than on the previous walk we tried with him. He did pretty well, only pulling back and sitting down on the leash if he got it caught around a post. He got tired and hot (and it is miserable here today) toward the end, so I carried him home but all in all, I think he did pretty well.

As for people, we had friends drop by unexpectedly Sunday afternoon, and the husband is quite tall. Willie/Galway was not intimidated by them at all. In fact, he was rather in their face looking for attention. People are not the issue with him, it appears. He is interested in the grandkids of the next-door neighbors, so one of these days I'll ask them to come over and meet him. A neighbor came out this morning while we were on our walk and met him, with no problems on his part. I think this little guy should be pretty adoptable once we get him beefed up and neutered.

I have an appointment with my own vet to take a look at him tomorrow and tell me if she thinks he is in good enough condition to be neutered. He seems fairly healthy even if he is skinny.

Wednesday July 23rd, 2003

I took Willie Galway to the vet this afternoon to see what she thought about his condition with respect to neutering. She said that while he is indeed skinny, she thought there would be no problem with going ahead with the neutering. He has gained four pounds according to their scale since Saturday afternoon and weighed a bit over 20 lb. this afternoon. (I wonder if he could have been a little dehydrated when he arrived in Allentown, perhaps because of the diarrhea he had.) So he has an appointment for Monday morning. She too thought he was cryptorchid, but again when he relaxed a bit after we'd been in the exam room for a while, she checked again and said she could feel one. Since Dr. Koenigsknecht had felt two, Dr. Hlatky said that they would put him down only as a possible cryptorchid and be prepared to go either way.

He was great inside the office building itself. He marched down the hall with me to be weighed just fine and charmed absolutely everyone in the building.

Outdoors is still a problem for Willie Galway. He refused to go on the morning walk this morning, so later I just took him out on the front porch and let him stand there, encouraging him to sniff the plants but not insisting on going further. I will probably do that again tomorrow morning and maybe several times tomorrow. I had to wait quite a long time at the vets' office and while he was exploring the waiting room (even crawled up into the bottom of their display case...probably saw it as a potential
crate) I thought he might need to pee. So I took him out and he was panicked again, pulling like crazy toward the building. So we just went back in.

But last night he came a little more out of his shell. He's begun to play with the toys I put in his crate and he definitely appreciates nylabones. I could take five cute pictures an hour of this little guy. And he definitely knows the Siberian scooty-butt. He gets all excited when you play with his feet and then he just has to run. He and Cocoa now join in chorus at suppertime to urge me to get my own fanny in gear and get that food down! His diarrhea seems to be over with and he's feeling pretty foxy. The little guy has quite a voice too, all the way from a high-pitched burble to a low rumble as he lies down and deflates. I wish I had a WAV file to add to the web site!

I don't think this little one will be hard to adopt, baring some other behavior problem surfacing. So far he seems more and more like a typical Siberian pup indoors and in my back yard. It's just the big outside world he's scared of.

Thursday July 24th, 2003

Willie is much more at home today. Last night we had a couple of infringements of the housebreaking rules but later in the evening he came to me, obviously asking for my attention, and led me to the door so he could go outside. He's doing pretty well so long as I am patient about doing both chores when he goes outside.

He is also much more interested in going outside to the back yard now. He is trying to eat a lot of the plants, so I really have to watch him. I don't want him eating even grass and upsetting his stomach again, now that we have a tenuous agreement with it to process food properly.

This morning he staged a raid on The Riot Squad's toy box. It is full to overflowing with plush toys as well as plastic, but none of them have played with those toys in ages. So after I showed him one of the plush toys and suggested that he could have one of them last night, this morning he systematically snatched a toy from the toy box, hightailed it into the den (aka crate) with it and chewed on it for a little while, then dashed back to the hallway to pick up another. Repeat from "hightailed".

What a charmer he is! But he's also a Siberian Husky. I'm getting those looks like "Don't wanna." "You can't make me.", "What's going on here that I missed?", etc. Now if he would just join us on the morning walks! But we'll get there.

Friday July 25th, 2003

Took Silly Willy (Galway) out front again with me this afternoon and tied his leash to my waist while I did some (much-needed) weeding in the front flower bed. This allowed him to sit under a weeping cherry and behind a big blue spruce and watch the world go by from relative seclusion. This time,
instead of pulling like a tractor toward the door, he smelled around a little and then lay down in the grass with an interested look. He only asked to go back in when I pulled him out of the shade while pursuing some weeds.

A neighbor across the street pulled in while I was out there, so I scooped him up in my arms and took him over to meet her. He reached his nose out and almost gave her a sloppy kiss. She is always effusive about my furkids and she thought Willie charming. I have some work to do under the blue
spruce, so probably tomorrow I'll take him there, which is a little closer to the front of the yard and we'll see if he can handle that without spooking.

Inch by inch, we're getting there. BTW, he is still trying to pack more toys into his crate. The raids continued this morning. So far, after the last accident when he pooped on the carpet, we have had no accidents at all in the house. I think that's been two days. So far, so good on the housebreaking.

If this kid gets any cuter, I may not be able to stand it!

Saturday July 26th, 2003

More toybox raid adventures--I am letting him go just to see if he will take everything. This morning he tried to take a nylabone that was in a small plastic crate and one end of the nylabone was stuck in one of the open squares in the bottom of the plastic crate. So he pulled the whole thing out of the hall, through the living room and into the dining room, where his crate is. The desired nylabone finally came out as he went into the crate because the lip of the door on his crate caught the small plastic crate and held it firm while he pulled on the nylabone.

This evening he learned to handle stairs. Last night I pushed, pulled and coaxed him up the basement stairs, so this evening he went up to the second floor to John's study. After threatening to pull all the wires attached to John's computer out of their sockets by getting entangled in them just because he wanted under the desk, he then proceeded to yowl piteously when we both went downstairs. I love it when you get them that worried about coming down; then they are real motivation to learn to do it. So I threw pieces of kibble, which he wants badly, just in front of him and on the step below him. One paw down, then the second front one..."Now what do I do? There's more kibble two steps down but I can't reach it from the landing. Oh, like this?" "Yeah, Willie, that's it." Then more kibble on the next step. Then skip a step and skip another one. About half way down, he figured it out.

This little guy is a real character. Beyond cute.

Sunday July 27th, 2003

Willie is doing fine in the back yard these days. He trots after Tula, looking up admiringly. Now that she has ascertained that she can dominate him when she needs to (i.e., when she has the ten-year-old bone fragment, when she has the toy, etc.), she is tolerating him better. She has rolled him several times, but never actually hurt him. And they have had several games of chase. He is now exploring regularly at the back of the yard, which is a bit of a jungle, and when he comes out of the bushes, he looks happy as Punch.

Now for the even better news. He actually asked to go out front with me today and wasn't at all timid about the part of the front yard near the house. He really did very well. So I have hopes that he will someday come out of this timidity about new territory. I'm not pushing to go on walks yet, but I wonder if someday soon he may not ask to go along.

It turned out he hadn't quite got all of the stuffed toys in the house into his crate. He found another one today in the grooming basket in the coat closet. It is now in the crate. Tonight I'm going to clear out the crate and let him drag them back in, just to keep his little puppy brain occupied.

BTW, I think he has a clue what "sit" means. At least he has been doing it if I have high-end bait like string cheese. <G>

Monday July 28th, 2003

I took Willie G. to the vet this morning for his neutering. I really got bawled out for not feeding him breakfast. He just thought that was
unconscionable. When we got there, he made a whole new bunch of admirers and friends. I got a call about noon from Dr. Hlatky, saying that he had done fine, he was waking up and I could pick him up this evening.

When we arrived, they told us to wait an hour after getting home before
giving even water, in order to let the excitement wear off. Then if he
didn't get sick on a small amount of water, I could feed him a small amount of food. And keep him quiet, at which everyone had a good laugh, and walk only on leash for ten days. WELL!!! He came charging out, all twenty pounds of him, with a big gawky young kennel assistant in tow and made straight for the van. He complained all the way home that he couldn't see us and he was starving.

When we got in the door, he continued to gripe about not getting fed. I put some ice cubes in his water bowl in his crate and took him out to pee, but after about ten minutes of the howling and grumbling, it became clear to the dullest of us that the excitement wasn't GOING to settle down until he got some food. So I gave him a half cup of rice and hamburger with some warm water. He proceeded to gobble that and then he shut up for a while.

Finally he complained so much that I gave him a light serving of the
current mix of kibble, rice and hamburger, yogurt and canned pumpkin. He settled down after that for a while and then started squeaking again. "It's been a long and dull day and I need some ACTION!" So I got him out of the crate and we did a little training on "sit". A couple of times he actually did it before he realized he was doing what I wanted him to do. <G> By then he was tired enough to go back into his crate on his own and lie down. So now he appears to be falling asleep at last.

I think the boy will soon be ready to be available to the right home. OTOH, I wouldn't mind having a little more time to work on some skills and that fear of the outside. If I could just get him to wanting walks, I would then feel that he was ready for a more normal doggie life

Wednesday July 30th, 2003

I finally got Willie to meet our neighbors' granddaughter this afternoon and he was fine with her, all waggy tails and happy sniffs, even walked on leash out the front door with me as she left. So I think we can say on the available page that he was very friendly with one fourth-grade girl. She is a very nice and sweet little girl, so I can't vouch for him with rowdy little boys. I strongly suspect they would just egg him on to more crazy running. So maybe we should just say that he is "probably good with kids, based on one meeting."

Willie did even better today on the excursion out to the front of the house and beyond. I still couldn't coax him to cross the street on the outward part, and had to carry him, but he really did seem to enjoy the vacant field once we got there. He smelled bushes and pulled me in a direction that didn't lead toward the house at times. When we started back, he put his ears down and wanted to pull, but we worked on "easy" a bit on the way back and I think he knows now that the house will be there. We'll make a normal Siberian puppy out of this guy yet.

As with any Siberian pup, he is having trouble staying quiet. He is apparently feeling pretty foxy now that he's getting more to eat and he keeps giving Tula or Kemo play invitations. I won't say he's getting enough to eat in his opinion, because he nearly licks through the bowl down to the floor of the crate after every meal, but I don't want to feed him more than a total of two cups. I've had to start taking the bowl out of the crate when he finishes lest he use the bowl as a chew toy.

This boy is garrulous. He tells me off every time I fix a meal because I'm so slow at it. He coos at the toys in his crate while he chews on them and gets so excited over moving one out of the toy box that he actually cries.

There are three in particular that I'm going to have to send with him wherever he ends up---the stuff quail, the stuffed goose and one of the hedgehogs. He's had a busy time moving stuffed toys around since seeing his new conquest out the door. Right now he's trying to solve the problem of a big club-shaped dental nylabone that is too heavy for him to lift out of the toy box. At least that should keep him out of mischief for a little while.

Friday August 1st, 2003

First the good news: Willie actually asked to go out the front door this evening and went on his own little exploratory tour of the block, with me in tow of course. We found out that new neighbors down the block are acquainted with the breed because his mom used to have a Siberian Husky. And more than that, I think he asked to go out because he needed to do potty chores, although he got distracted by all that interesting stuff such as bushes, grass, people, etc., and only did them as we came back toward the house.

Now the bad news: The diarrhea is back. I don't know why, unless it is stress from being lured into going out of the yard or some such thing; or it could be that I introduced hot dogs and cheese as training treats too early. The other possibility is that we might not have got rid of the worms completely, although so far I see nothing in the stool itself. So I guess we'll go back on the rice and hamburger with yogurt and canned pumpkin and see where that leads us. I may have given other treats too soon. Who knows? Anyway, he seems to be asking to go out to do his duties, and we've been allowing him a little more freedom and time outside the crate, which he spends frantically playing with stuffed toys or sleeping under the desk.

I did make an attempt to weigh him today and he seems to be up to about 22 or 23 pounds. That seems pretty good to me, so I may cut down on both the amount and the frequency of feeding. He looks a lot sturdier if no taller. He probably will not get much bigger, actually.

And he is getting more reliable on "sit", although he didn't do too well with the prospect of new people to meet distracting him. I think he is moving in...he is starting to get into more mischief, but he's such a good little guy! I love watching him doing a flip into his crate when the food bowl is coming.

Saturday August 2nd, 2003

Galway/Willie actually went on a walk with us this morning and it was his idea; he set up a howl while I hitched up the other three and made it clear he did not want to be left. He did very well until we got too close to a yard where a couple of golden retrievers were making too much noise and then he had to hightail it for home. But it was so muggy and nasty this morning, it was probably just as well for all concerned that we cut it short.

We haven't had a Willie accident in the house for almost a week now. I think that the combination of crating, Paige's techniques and being vigilant about not letting him run leashless in the house unless he has both peed and pooped within the last half hour are paying off. We've been letting him race about a bit more, as it has now been almost a week since his neutering also, and the incision was so small, it looks pretty well healed to me. He is rather determined to eat grass or nose into my plant pots on the patio, so we've had to keep an eye on him for that reason.

He has now begun to play with the gang, especially Tula. She and he have decided they could indeed have a good time together. (Uh-oh...be afraid...very afraid...Galway/Willie and Tula could make a terrifying
team!) The most recent game is to see if he can squirt from under one chair over underneath the matching chair before either Tula or Kemo catches up with him and rolls him. The little rascal is fast and audacious, not to mention agile. Tula is meeting her match here. There IS justice! The Siberian games were renewed this evening outside after we came back from a birthday party, with a new participant, but fully as noisy as the Tula-Kemo games.

In general, I have to say he is really quite well-behaved for an 8-month-old Siberian Husky. Yes, you have to watch him as he searches for mischief, and if he deliberately tips over the kitchen water bowl one more time, I'm mopping it up with him on the end of the mop. But he also respects a sharp "Ah-ah!" well, even if he does then go and try something else to see if it is also a "no-no". But this is normal husky puppy behavior and in this case, I'm delighted to see it, even if I am correcting it constantly. To contrast this with the scared little 18 pound pup that scooted into the safety of a puppy crate when I brought him in the door two weeks ago tonight is just wonderful. I continue to marvel at what a resilient breed this is.

Monday August 4th, 2003

Willie has had quite a day today. He's been with us on both walks, had a lot more freedom and not abused it (much <G>) and got a new toy, a soft mouse with a long tail with squeakers in body and in a pouf at the end of the tail. He has had more fun throwing this around the living room and chasing it. Then he decided that he lusted after Cocoa's bed in the bedroom. I think this little rascal is planning to move in and stay. He plopped himself down on one end of Cocoa's pad and left her the other end. (She often misses the center of the pad anyway when she lies down because she has to back up so far to do so.) Then he brought his toy into the bedroom onto the pad. Cocoa is about at her wit's end with this audacious little Siber-kid. She knows he needs a grandmother, but he is so presumptuous!

Wednesday August 13th, 2003

Willie is working his fuzzy little butt off to ingratiate himself here and move in with the pack. Every time I turn around, he is trying to usurp Cocoa's pad. He really, really wants to sleep in the bedroom with the rest of the pack. He and Tula are becoming better and better buds; I open the door and the two of them take off for the back of the yard and the groundhog vigil, little Willie galloping bravely beside "big sis" and looking up admiringly, which Tula just eats up. However, Cocoa is no longer wanting to grandmother him. He annoys her. And Kemo would just as soon he went away and stopped bothering her. Old grouches.

We gotta find this guy his own home. He is such a sweet and smart little guy and has so much love to give someone. He is rapidly becoming one of my all time favorite fosters.

Saturday August 16th, 2003

Willie Galway and I met up with the gang at the Dog Days of Summer in Ambler this morning. He nearly drove me nutso on the way up. He squeaked, howled, yowled and sobbed all the way from York to Morgantown, at which point every time he tuned up, I cranked the radio up to max volume. He would shut up, I would turn it down, he would tune up, I would crank it up. Finally he gave up.

He seems to have had a ball. For a little pup that was hunkering in my arms and against the back of the crate four weeks ago, he has certainly come out of his shell at this point. He was rather a social butterfly today. <G> I love it. A couple of times Yoohoo came over and put her mouth around the back of his neck. Far from being cowed, Willie just scooted out from under it and went on about his investigations. He sniffed his way up to a trio of Rottweilers as if they were stuffed dogs and courted everybody within reach. He also let quite a few fairly little kids pet him with no problem at all. Again, however, all of them were quiet and gentle in their approach. None of them were rowdy.

On the way home, the heavens opened and dumped rain so hard I turned off the radio because I couldn't hear it anyway. The thunder was booming overhead and at times there were three or so bolts of lightening coming down from the clouds at once. Willie slept through it all. Not one peep did I hear out of him. I looked back a couple of times to see a totally recumbent and relaxed Willie. Thank you, everyone, for helping me wear him out enough to sleep!

Speaking of sleeping, at one point we looked over to see Yoohoo actually lying completely prone on the grass with her tongue hanging out. I said "Omigosh, I have to get a picture of this. Yoohoo actually lying down!!" But alas, by the time I got my camera lens cover off and the thing turned on, she had bounced back up again. So you'll just have to take my word for it...Yoohoo was actually lying down!

Good to see everyone...even if it wasn't a huge event, it was good for Willie to have the exposure and the experience.

Thursday August 21st, 2003

Willie has finally inveigled Kemo Sabe into playing with him. He worked on her for days and finally she said "Oh, all right. You may chew on me. In return, however, I get to chew on you."

Wednesday September 10th, 2003

Willie is spending this week visiting with Seven of Nine. His foster mom is out of town.

Willie is quite a talker. He woowoo's quite a bit. He tells me how hungry he is every morning. He tells me how sometimes all the dogs try to play with him at the same time, and how annoying that is. Chinook and Willie have extensive conversations with one another several times of day. Willie also likes to Woowoo at our cat. Which by the way, I think he would do fine in a home with a cat. Yeah he likes to bark at the cat too, but all in all he is not aggressive with our cat. Keep in mind he is a curious little puppy, and the cat is very intriguing.

Seven and Willie spend a lot of time together. I almost feel sorry for Mishka, as they ignore her to play with each other. As I write Seven and Willie are upstairs playing and it sounds like a herd of elephants upstairs. :-)

Willie is a cute little guy, and seems to gravitate to the males in my home. Oh yeah, he likes me to as I am the giver of food, but all in all he prefers the guys.

One thing I noticed first off was that how much he has grown since we first met on the day of his rescue. He is as tall as Seven now, but not quite as long. Good work Cheryl for taking such good care of him.

I know that he misses his foster mom and his foster siblings. But soon he will be back to torment Kemo Sabe and the other two.