I volunteer for New Rattitude Rat Terrier Rescue
Helping to find rescued Ratties in need their second chance at life in good fit forever homes.




Friday, April 10, 2015

Tessi Hits All The Best Pet Care-Redmond!

Tessi is just a young pup and she has no doubt missed some crucial socialization with her long stint in a shelter in Central CA. She was in the shelter for 6 weeks before she got sprung by our angel Lynn who works with our PNW team to pull ratties when their time is up. Tessi had been on her radar a while and Lynn was so kind to stop in on a weekly basis to visit little Tessi so she would know that she was loved and cared about. She would bring treats and a blanket for snuggling and Tessi learned to trust Lynn. Makes my heart soar with gratitude that Lynn took the time to do that for Tessi. A million thank you's to Lynn B!

To try and help to make up for some lost time with socializing we have been going real slow with introducing Tessi to new places, environments, and people as she has a lot to take in moving to a new state to be in our home with our 5 house dogs.

Today we did some short, small things with her. A local public park, we took a 20 minute walk and she did really well. Some respectful kids rode their bikes by her, there were a few small dogs that were also taking a walk and she was fine with all of them except the high strung Jack Russell who was barky and scared her.  A trail in Redmond where we walked on another public trail for another 10 minutes and she did real well here too! And we also went into the Redmond All The Best Pet Care, which I highly recommend for all your high quality pet food and other cool products for dogs and cats. The other great thing about these stores is they are a wonderful place to do a little socializing with your dog, even shy or unsure dogs like Tessi is. The staff are very gentle and always have yummy treats to offer. After a 10-15 minute warm up period Tessi ventured out to walk around the whole store with Dave, and then we ended on a good note and a yummy high value chew for the ride home.


When we walked in we were greeted by one of the employees' adorable 6 month old Boston Terrier, Addie.

The girls got right to getting to know each other and Tessi wanted to stay with foster dad for the first few minutes.

Then she was ready to be on her own to get to know little Addie a bit more.


Addie loved to have her rump scratched and kept coming back for more.


Then we ventured to the play area of the store, this red rug where they have some toys for dogs to sniff and try out.

Tessi decided this area was safe and she didn't want to leave the red rug for at least 5 minutes while she made sure all was ok in the new place. Smart girl!

She started to look around and get curious, looks left...

...looks right...

Oh hi foster mom, I am still a little worried but I am getting comforted by foster dad.

Addie's mom came over to let Tessi have a sniff and she stayed on the red rug and took a sniff.

The treats came out and after a little time of not being too sure, she did take the treat and eat it!

Oh yeah this lady is real nice, I think I can come off the rug for some more lamb lung.

Dave steps off the rug to see if she would follow. Nope not ready.

He just stood there and waited to see if she would choose to move forward and she did get brave.

But she quickly went back to the rug to sniff out some more toys and be on her safe island.


Then she decided to check some things out on the shelf. She is on a 10' line so she went pretty far out on her own!

Now she is 10' feet out and even a little behind and out of sight of the red rug. Time is all she needs to get her bearings.

Well this stuff smells good, I will take one of everything.

Then Tessi and Dave walked together around the whole store! Here she is checking out Addie's bed by the window.

What a good experience she had and then we made sure to get her to the car and into her crate with her yummy chew. Yay Tessi! So proud of this little sweetie.

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