I got Tutored!

At least that's what I think happened... thanks to the good folks at Foothill School of Veterinary Technology for being so nice during my tutoring. Look at how much attention I got!











And this is the girl who hooked up BAD RAP with the free tutoring. Thank you, Katie, for making my tutoring day such a good one!

the world is a big place!

It's safe to assume that I didn't see much of the world before I came to the California. After a few weeks of decompressing up at the barn, it was time for me to go out and learn about "out there". This nice girl named Ana offered to take me home to foster.

I was all excited as she put on the leash and we prepared to leave the barn and go off on a new adventure but then we got outside the gate and I saw the scariest thing ever! I hit the ground in fear, but then my curiosity kicked in (I am still a puppy, after all) and I sniffed the world's-scariest-object. Ana tried to reassure me, "don't worry, Catfish Jones, it's just a parked truck," while in her head she was thinking, "Oh boy, this is going to be a loooong journey."

It's true, I did miss a lot of milestones growing up, and I have a naturally demure personality. This means we have to play catch-up now, but there are a few things going in my favor: 1) I'm young (about 5 months when I got to the barn) 2) I'm curious, so even when I'm scared I still want to investigate, I don't shut down 3) I really dig people and it's possible to talk me through just about anything 4) I am a total food-hog and easily bribed.

The great news is that I've made a *ton* of progress in just a few weeks. I went from being frightened by the sight of a parked truck to being able to cruise down a busy, construction-filled street with barely a sideways glance. I've been going to work with Ana every day and meeting all sorts of new people.



I have a friend now named Xdog and she's been introducing me to her dog friends so I learn to play with dogs of all shapes and sizes. It's hard to make a serious face when you're playing so we look kinda stupid but boy are we having fun!


I've also learned to watch TV. It's fascinating!


Yep, slowly but surely I'm becoming a regular dog!

How I got here...

It's hard to say exactly what my life was like before I made my way into rescue, but let's just say I'm pretty lucky to be alive. I'm from a cruelty case in rural Louisiana and, even though the local parish didn't even have a shelter, some die-hard volunteers fought to keep us alive despite a policy that suggested that victims of dog fighting cases (like me) should be put down. They managed to have the courts agree and my life was saved! The only problem was that there was nowhere to go...

That's when I got even luckier, and some really cool people drove me all the way across country in one 36 hour stretch. Look at how little I was!

(that other dog there is my sister, Gris-Gris)

That whole journey was pretty tough for me. I'm not used to new things and everything was so new and... scary! I refused to get out of the crate the whole car ride, not even for a potty break, and the first thing I did when I got to the BAD RAP barn was pee for several minutes. That felt sooooooo good (and almost earned me the name "Austin Powers").

We got to explore the yard and then settle into our kennels. That's when I met Ana. She thought I was a little stinky (okay, I was *a lot* stinky) so she gave me a sponge bath and fed me treats. This is when I first showed off how well I can do the head tilt... check me out!



Everyone kept saying we were 3 months old because we were so small, but once they checked our teeth they got a surprise... we were more like 5 months old when we arrived, just really nutritionally and emotionally underdeveloped.

Fortunately, there are a whole slew of awesome barn volunteers who helped me learn that this new place was full of food, love, warmth, and learning. Pretty soon, I was learning to be a real dog and it felt great!