Gracie

We lost our 17 yr old Cosmo early in November, and our remaining dog, Rascal became so depressed he was doing nothing but sleeping most of the day. We knew he would deteriorate rapidly if he didn't perk up soon. He has always been around at least one other dog and would sit and howl if he found himself alone for even a minute. We were very sad to lose Cosmo, but it made us even sadder to see Rascal so disheartened. We had resisted the idea of getting another dog so soon, but both of us kept bringing up the subject over and over. I began searching online through dogs available for adoption. We did not want one who would be too rambunctious because Rascal is an oldster at age 15, and we're not so young ourselves. We also wanted one who would be friendly and small enough to not overwhelm Rascal or our 2-yr-old grandson when he visits. The AAR volunteer who took adorable pictures of "Amelia" (her shelter name) and posted online gets a lot of credit for catching our
heartstrings. The pictures perfectly captured her charm, especially the ones with her head cocked sideways. Many years ago we had a much loved dog who would frequently do that.

She earned the name Gracie because of her talent for comedy, as in Gracie Allen, and because it was near Thanksgiving when we brought her home. She had terrible diarrhea for a couple of days without acting sick or even losing her appetite. I had heard that some dogs have food allergies, especially to beef, and so tried chicken dog food instead and she's been fine ever since (maybe coincidence). Other than that she has made absolutely no house-training mistakes and she has also never barked at all, which is peculiar. She is friendly to everyone and smart as a whip. She observed what Rascal does when we say "sit", and a treat is involved. From then on she has sat respectfully every time we go where the treats are stored. We're going to have to work some more on "down" and "stay", but she's definitely eager to please. She comes when called and best of all she has brought the puppy out in Rascal once more. The two of them romp around the yard. Gracie loves to pick up pine cones and scoot around at 90 mph. The two together are endlessly entertaining for us. At night they snuggle together as if they've been lifelong pals. We will always be grateful to the volunteers at AAR for rescuing and caring for this precious pooch and all the others.