Hickory
Adopted by his foster family!
People think that they choose a dog, but we all know that is not true, a dog chooses us. After our beautiful white German Shepherd Sedona had passed away this past spring we decided that we really weren't ready for another dog full-time but that we would continue to help out with Garden State German Shepherd Rescue and foster dogs for a while. Every few weeks I would go to the Newark, NJ shelter to see what dogs were there and do temperament testing and every time I went there was this wonderful happy dog, Hickory who with his rambunctious style would jump up on the fence and greet me as I tried to walk by him.
Of course I couldn't turn him down, so every time I went I would take him out for a walk and ask the workers if anyone was interested in him. With there constantly being over 80 dogs at Newark Shelter, it is pure luck to get adopted out of there. We had previously adopted an older Husky, who loved to chase birds, run in the snow, was mischievous and an escape artists, in other words a typical Husky, so we knew what we could be in for. Still, we weren't ready to adopt a dog yet so we joined TOTTSR and agreed to foster Hickory , convinced we would be successful foster parents.
The first thing Hickory did when he got to his new "temporary" home was run around like a nut case happy to be free and then come in front of us go in a circle and give us a beautiful perfect sit pose with a tail wag and a happy smile. He began the charm offensive. Still being a Husky he had his pride, he wouldn't lay down, give paw, roll over, but ask him to sit and he gives the most perfect sit you will ever see.
He took to his home right away, continuing the charm, when we got home from a walk he wouldn't try to run across the lawn, but would stay on sidewalk, right up the walkway to the stairs and sit at the front door like he lived here all his life. It was inevitable that we would fail fostering, Hickory had chosen us the first day he saw me at Newark Shelter.
He has been doing wonderfully since "he adopted us", his favorite activity is to go for long walks and runs, and when he is nutty whip a sock ball around. He was hooked up to a sled at the TOTTSR annual event and took to it immediately. We did succeed in fostering another dog for two weeks and after a day of making sure everyone knew who was boss, Hickory , he had a blast with a playmate, and one day I am sure he will have a permanent one.
