May 3rd, 2014 - Rosie's Introduction Plan To Emmett

After 25 days, Rosie is finally eating again after missing Emma. 

Rosie had turned down everything, hotdogs, cookies, ice cream, scrambled eggs, toast, canned dog food, canned cat food, all doggy treats, cake, chicken, Wendy's, Arby's and all table scraps.  She is such a pig when it comes to food it broke my heart seeing her miss Emma as much as I did.

 

Rosie was a feral puppy that adopted us when she was about 4 months old.  The first time I saw Rosie, she was running with a pack of much larger dogs.  At the time we had two very large male dogs, Parker (135 pounds) and Gunther (110 pounds and losing weight after being diagnosed with cancer ). 

 

 

 

 

Rosie started hanging out at our house, came into the backyard and hung out with the "boys" as I affectionately called them.  She then started showing up every night at 5 PM to be fed and for a short while was known as the 5 PM Puppy. 

 

Before long she started hanging out inside and eventually just stayed. 

 

The picture below was a month or so after Gunther passed away and Rosie was roughly 6 months old.

 

 

 

Mark and I knew that Gunther didn't have much time left and decided to keep Rosie as a companion for Parker.  They became the best of friends.

 

 



Then I rescued a very neglected Emma from horrid living conditions.  She was about 10 weeks old and in pretty rough shape.  My heart went out to her and apparently Rosie did not share in my joy.  It took a couple of weeks to get Rosie to accept Emma and then for the rest of Emma's life they were the best of friends.

 

 

Mark and I were a little concerned about how to introduce Rosie to Emmett.  

 

We're eleven days away from bringing Emmett home and have done everything possible to make his home coming as smooth as possible. 

I've given great thought to this and have spent hours rationalizing the best approach.  A couple of nights ago, I prayed and asked God to show me the best way to make their introduction and my prayer was answered. 

After we pick up Emmett, we will drive home and pick up Rosie and go for a nice long car ride with me sitting in the back seat holding Emmett and letting Rosie smell him all over in a controlled situation.

We will stop and Mark will take Rosie out for a short walk in a few new places while I hold Emmett in the car and watch. When Rosie gets back in the car, I will have hot dog pieces waiting for her.

Once home we will go into the back yard for a little while, leave the back door open and let Rosie go back and forth.  Before I enter the house with Emmett, all toys and bowls will be picked up. 

Both dogs will be separated at all times when fed.  I will gradually give Rosie and Emmett snacks, side by side and I will be in between the two of them at all times when I'm doing so.

For the time being, Rosie will never be alone with Emmett and she will go with us when we take Emmett for his puppy shots so she doesn't feel left out. 

My husband has Wednesdays and Thursdays off, so we will be picking Emmett up on May 14th which is a Wednesday so the two of us, Emmett and Rosie can have quality time together from the moment Emmett becomes a much loved member of our family.