Fur Kids: Clyde — He is growing up and slowly growing out of puppy hood

Photo by Eugene Zaycev on Unsplash

But there are those times I think not fast enough.
 
There are still those moments when he acts like a puppy, few but some.
 
Clyde Is A Whole Different Kind Of Animal

Clyde differs from our other fur kids, he’s a foster fur kid. That means he is on loan for a short period. We are Clyde’s guardians” while his human parents are in the midst of getting their lives together. Clyde’s human parents separated six months after they became his guardians. They separated and because his mom was living with her parents, Clyde needed a foster home, and so began our time with Clyde.

Clyde’s mom was six months pregnant at the time he arrived with us.
 
Fostering was an entirely different experience for us.

All the other fur kids before him were adopted rescues, which meant we were the permanent human parents of those fur kids.
 
Clyde arrived after a friend asked my wife if we could foster a 75 pound Doberman. She knew that we had a history of Doberman rescuing fur kids.

Clyde arrived at our front door on April 16, 2019, he was born June 24, 2018, so 10 months old. Today, he is 15 months old and a different life-loving dog. He has learned so much, less jumping up, obeying commands. As do most Dobermans he is into a routine for everything. Eating at regular times. Napping, going to bed, up at some time in the morning. I have arranged to go to bed on his schedule, and am reminded if I’m late. Up and ready to go at 5:50 am, that’s my new schedule.
 
Today, Clyde weighs 95 pounds. He loves life and adores people, especially my wife and me. 
 
 
Clyde Keeps My Wife And Me On Our Toes

Clyde’s reality is not my reality. When it is time to play ball, he brings it to me no matter what I’m in the midst of doing. Placing the ball on me while I’m typing, or whatever else I’m doing. The ball most likely has dirt crumbs. He continues to rub the ball on me and the dirt crumbs transfer to my clothing. That only stops when I agree to throw the ball. Rinse and repeat several too many times.
 
He is a 7×24 responsibility. We get 90 minutes of quiet time after the first 2–3 hours, rest and reload. I have had to make adjustments to my retired schedule to accommodate his activities schedule.

Before Clyde arrived I was just starting to get momentum to pushing my way to writing, I have more free time and wanted to get my writing career off the ground. I had just started reducing commitments to provide additional time to just write.

Clyde was just one of several distractions that came at the same time causing me to put writing on a temporary hold. I plainly ran out of time.

Most of our other adopted rescues dogs were Dobermans and older, most of their backgrounds were unknown to us. My wife and me) loved them and they were excited to allow us to be their caretakers for the remaining duration they had left on this earth. Clyde is the first one that we have had firsthand knowledge of his background.
 
Clyde as a puppy requires consistent supervision and will likely until he outgrows his puppy years. Puppy years usually last for two years. We think that Clyde is at his best when he’s worn out, which does not happen enough times in the day. 
 
Clyde has added to our memories what it can be like raising a puppy when you are yourself older. Looking back I have great memories of Clyde spending 6 months under our care.

An Update On Clyde’s Human Parents- Return to this point

Clyde would usually get Sunday and the mom mentioned that she and the dad were having regular conversations and it sounded like they were headed to getting their lives together and going to be a couple again.

After the baby was born the schedule seemed back on track for regular consistency.

After some time it was announced that they were back together. Then the parents seem to be spending more time together to visit 
 
 
They both began arriving on a regular schedule. take the time for the visits both parents would arrive for the normal visits. Both parents were excited and Clyde seemed both excited and connected to them. During the visits Clyde seems excited and obeyed their commands from both of them like down, stay, go get the ball.
 
There are those times when we wonder what Clyde’s perception is of him staying with us and having those other people come weekly for a 30–45-minute visit. We will never know, that the way these things work out. That said we can look into his eyes when he’s excited chasing the ball that I throw and he gladly brings it back to me, knowing that I’ll throw it again until he’s tired.

In the middle of August, we get the news that Clyde will be going home soon. Maybe 5–6 weeks and that date was pushed out again and again until finally, he was going home the first week of November.

The couple purchased a piece of land and was having a Manufactured Home placed on the land. Delays in the home construction and permits cause the date to be moved to November.

Clyde goes home

We were both excited and tearful on the day Clyde left our home and returned to his home.

Of course, he arrived with many toys and left with many more. He had a new favorite bed that was backed.
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Originally published at http://rs2021.eightysixhundred.com/blog.

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