Max is gone, No more Max

Max left on Friday. Secret is sad.

Okay, I lie. She doesn't seem to give a rip or even notice that he's not around. She did investigate his kennel in the bedroom Friday night and seemed a little puzzled for a moment, but it was brief. Oddly, she is no longer completely fascinated by the kennel in the bedroom and doesn't race to beat anyone to it at bedtime. I think that's proof that she was just being a bitch to Max about the whole thing. Who wants to go sleep in a kennel when there is no competition for it? Not Secret!
We had a little incident with Max on Wednesday that was basically a flashing neon sign that said it was time for him to move on to another home. He was getting so worked up over walk time and was so unable to control his impulses at that time that he peed from one end of the office to the other. It was not cool. Things had just been continuing to get worse instead of better and he just didn't seem happy with us anymore. No doubt that Kaiser's daily attacks were the main cause, but ultimately the poor guy just never really fit in and was always on the outside of the group. His nervous energy turned everyone away from him. Even Secret was starting to play with Kaiser more and basically ignored Max unless I turned the two of them outside alone together.

I e-mailed the folks at "Little House Rescue" (who had been courtesy listing Max on PetFinder for me) and asked if they might have a foster home available for him. Thank heavens they were able to help me out. I also owe a HUGE thank you to a fine group of friends that worked together to transport Max to his new home. I had to work at the Humane Society Thursday through Sunday and wasn't able to take him, so Bethany, Denise, Greg & Cynthia all joined forces to make it happen on Friday. It sounds like Max is doing well in his new foster home. Hopefully he finds his forever home soon.

The change in the house when I got home on Friday was amazing. Just simply amazing. Everything was so CALM and RELAXED. Secret was still her crazy, goony self, but the general feeling and energy in the house was just completely zen. It was pretty obvious that I made the right choice. Things have been very happy & settled in the house since then, despite me being gone for four days. Poor dogs. They were real troopers about my hectic work schedule over the holiday!

We actually had a couple of days of decent weather that would have been super for training, but alas, it was dark & gloomy when I arrived home each day. :o( I am crossing my fingers that we can fit in a training session after work tonight -- Because after that, I think the equipment has to come in this week. It looks like s*** in the forecast. Darn, I really thought that having a snow blower in my garage now meant that it wouldn't snow this year.

And just to prove that Secret actually can sleep somewhat lady-like with her legs crossed and all....