4th January

Our 9th Dog Of Christmas is Angel.

Angel came from a home where she was rarely walked just being allowed to run in the garden with the male dog. She had a litter on her first season. Her main problem when she came in was chasing her tail, to the point where it was damaged and bleeding.

She went to a young couple, initially as a foster and her tail chasing stopped overnight.
However they were finding her increasingly difficult when meeting other dogs on a walk, this was probably due to lack of socialisation as a puppy.
They eventually adopted her but after the arrival of their son and wanting to take family camping holidays and finding it impossible to walk her beside a buggy they reached the conclusion she would be better off in another home, so Angel was returned.

She has now been back with us for 18 months and sadly her tail chasing has resumed but not to the extent where she damages it. We have worked on her dog aggression, she is much better but still requires an experienced home.

Angel is highly intelligent and well trained. She would be best with a job to do as demonstrated recently when she 'holed' up the rat in our kitchen. That focused intensity meaning the rat could not have twitched a whisker without her being on it, was exactly what was needed, but the same thing was not as welcome when  directed towards another dog.
She has an off lead run each day on private land and normally comes with me wherever I go, we still hope she may one day find a home of her own but we are happy to keep her until the right home comes along.

She has developed a lump on her side. This was checked by the vet who thought it was a sebaceous cyst but on further examination decided it wasn't. It has continued to grow. The vet said it would need removing at 'some point'. We now feel that time has come. I will book her in for it to be removed sometime in the next week or two.We still have some money in our Reuben Fund left over from Saffy's Appeal which we will use to pay for the operation.