Well, Butch had been with us for the better part of 3 months.  He was happy with the crew he was with but he needed to move on.  It was June and the interest in Butch seemed to be fading away.  While I was completely open with anyone who inquired, I don’t think the result of the last two placements were the reason, but who knows?

Anyway, I got an e-mail via another rescue group.  Someone had picked up on Butch and put the word out  via the Internet.  I have a rather standard questionnaire I ask those who are interested fill out.  But this time the e-mail included a much longer questionnaire, and a lot more information.  Just reading the information, it seemed to me that this was not a “Father Knows Best” family.  The wife had 10 years on the husband,  who was fairly young, there was a teenage boy, 3 dogs, 1 or 2 cats, and a parrot.

Recall the details about Butch.  He needed a stable family unit so he would get consistent commands.  He had an issue with large dogs, especially black dogs.  He may have had an issue with any dogs that weren’t Cairns.  He had fetish about birds.  He, most likely, would consider a cat as suitable prey.  Almost all of the details ran counter to what I understand about Butch.  Still, I called the husband.  The husband had filled out the paper work but I was largely in contact with the wife.  We had several detailed talks about Butch and his history.   Nothing put her off, she was more than happy to deal with him and told me she had trained dogs.  She understood them.  She had raised a Cairn and was always in love with their special nature.

One more thing, they were over 4 hours away in Southern California.  As luck would have it, we had a scheduled trip to So Cal for a long weekend of dog events at Great Western Terrier late in June.    I agreed to leave him with certain conditions, 1) we would leave Butch , 2) he would stay the weekend, 3) we would check in over the weekend and if there were any issues, 4)  we would pick him up 4 days later as we drove back home.  Since we were going down and would take our dogs anyway, it seemed like a plausible plan.

The stop for the weekend sleepover was very interesting, the husband was there but we dealt with the wife.  The house, quite small,  was more like a throwback to the 60′s rather than your typical suburban home, beads and curtains and the like. The dogs were large, two Black Labs, 5 & 14, and a Border Collie, 5.  No idea how old the parrot was.  The cats were adult and not tiny and largely out of  the picture while we were there.  As we walked up, Butch looked at the two Big Black Dogs but being on my leash, he only glanced sideways.  The Border Collie just wanted to be a friend.  When we were inside, as we talked to the wife, Butch sidled up towards the parrot.  The wife gave one, no nonsense command, and he sat back.  Now, she didn’t do that for my benefit, it was to let the dog know the rules.  I was impressed.  So was Butch.  After that, Butch would look at the parrot but only with furtive glances.  We went for a walk so the wife could experience his behavior on a leash.  It was a short walk but there were no problems, no issues.  Other than the household which seemed to embody all the things that were issues for Butch, I couldn’t see any reason to not leave him.  We did.

I called back later that evening, I called each day, no issues.  Then on Tuesday, on the way back, we drove over.  Butch had settled in.  He was part of a new pack, he was a happy camper.  Oh, he was glad to see us but it was clear that he was at home.  I asked if there were any issues that came up.  There was only one, they forgot to pickup a clothes basket and Butch had used it to jump on the washing machine and to inhale a whole bag of cat food.  It didn’t hurt him but his diet was smaller for a few days.

I asked how he was doing on walks, seems he was fine for the most part but should he insist on confronting any other dog, he was put in a Sit and made to stay there for 5 minutes as dogs walked by before being released.  His behavior on a leash was changing for the better and would soon be a non-issue.   The cats checked him out and knew how to stay out of his way in the early days but soon became , not friends, but  just acquaintances.  He got along famously with the younger dogs and just obeyed the older dog.  He was in a good place.

We drove off feeling very confident in this final placement.

The big guy finally found the right home.

Later calls confirmed that this time Butch had a great home, where he fit right in, in spite of our efforts to define the kind of  home he needed.
We had taken our best shots, knowing as much as we thought we did, found two different homes that fit our picture of a perfect home and had him come back both times.  Then we find a home which is the antithesis of what we would think would be perfect,  but leave it to  Butch and his new family and they make it work out.  It just takes the right dog and the right person.

( …and yes, that is Butch in blue Miata that shows up occasionally in the header photos.)