The Dog

Awww! I met her after work today.
Oh my goodness --
What a happy, affectionate, energetic dog she is!
What a great way to spend a Friday afternoon. 

She's between 2 or 3 years old, was a stray in Southern Illinois, and was moments away from being euthanized when she was rescued by a lovely doggy foster-family near Chicago. They fostered her for the past couple of weeks, paid for being spayed, and took a lot of time and care to get her connected with my friends, Jack and Steve.

It was a great connection. 

She's exuberant, ebullient and aims to please. She likes to leap upon you, but is quickly learning the new command of "Off". Once she removes paws from your chest, praise is consistently and duly administered. She already knows "Down" so that really needs to be distinguished from "Off"  --
-- which actually took me a while to learn.

Jack: "No, don't say 'down', say 'off'"
Me: 'Down'! No, sorry, 'Off'' . . . Which is it?
Jack: "It's 'Off'."
Me: "Okay, 'Off, . . no, Down, wait!!  no, Off! . . okay, now, OFF!'"

Lick-lick-lick-lick-lick-lick-lick

As with any Labrador, they are so easy to train and will respond to food or praise.

With Portia, it was carrots. She'd do anything for carrots, as you can see from this video where I taught her to actually play the piano during the course of two weeks.
Many baby carrots were involved.

This dog does not respond to carrots but she does go nuts over a spoonful of peanut butter, though.

I keep saying "this dog" and "the dog" because she really hasn't been named yet. Her foster-family of two weeks assigned the name 'Hannah' simply for i.d. and chip-implementation purposes.

Jack and Steve are considering the names "Chloe" or "Zoey", both of which are awfully cute and suits her perfectly. (I had suggested the name, "Ouiser" after the Shirley MacLaine character in Steel Magnolias --  I'm such a Steel Magnolias fan; I think I would probably adopt any animal or even a child just so I could name it "Ouiser".) 

Here are some photos that I took of this adorable creature:

Such a shiny coat!

Are we about to have a treat?

Still Life: "Large Dog in Repose"

In the meantime, I will begin the adoption process for an orphaned girl or boy that I can name Ouiser.
There are probably thousands of them in Chicago that could benefit from a loving home in a downtown high-rise with a doorman . . .