Two’s Company, Three’s a… Pack?
As if two rescue dogs from Romanian shelters weren’t enough, we went for a third. Here’s her introduction!
If you’ve read my blogs before, you’ll know we have two Romanian rescue dogs, Cassi and Delphi. They’ve been with us since May 2021 and February 2022, respectively. And they are lovely with an XL side serving of annoying.
Well, it turns out that overeating isn’t enough of a dopamine rush for me these days, so I needed to add another dog to the pack.
Introducing Lacey! Here’s a rare photo of her snoozing.
Caroline (the lovely lady at Rocky Road Rescue who organised the other two adoptions) dropped me a message saying how she’d just taken in a dog that looked like a mix of Cassi and Delphi. I saw the photo, and she wasn’t wrong! Of course, this meant I immediately had to have her. Obviously.
I got the okay from my other half, and Lacey was a done deal within about half an hour. I don’t think Caroline anticipated such a fast adoption, but what can I say? I’m an impulse buye— adopter. And Caroline knows her market well 🤣
She found Lacey with a pack of dogs alongside railway tracks. We don’t know if she was dumped there by someone or anything about her history. (Her reactions to passersby and our neighbour at the gate tell me that someone might have used her as a guard dog, which is common in Romania.)
But Caroline did know that Lacey was fighting with bigger dogs to get food. She’s got a few scars from the experience, too. Needless to say, she was pretty skinny when Caroline took her in, and I’m still trying to fatten her up a little.
So, I ended 2022 with the excitement of knowing a new dog was arriving in January/February. We were prepared for some arsehole behaviour from the girls as they’re both reactive (in different ways). With that in mind, we decided to foster to adopt in case shit went down.
She eventually turned up on February 13, just one day after Delphi’s gotcha day. Cute! She got off the happy bus and refused to come inside. She would only pee and poop in the undergrowth, so the slip lead got tangled constantly, which obviously stressed her more. And I was stressed about whether these two would welcome her.
Finally, we managed to coax her in and popped her behind the baby gate in a room just for her. Cass and Delph were going insane as they’d been cooped up in the bedroom with only a snuffle mat and each other for entertainment. The horror!
I anticipated Delphi being the biggest issue as she’s terrified of dogs, especially bigger or overexcited ones. The whole year we’ve had her, I’ve kept an eye out for dog #3 with the stipulation that they have to be smaller than her, otherwise, shit will happen. Well, surprise surprise, shit has
actually not happened even though Lacey is a rambunctious little shithead.
They were all dicks to start with, randomly screaming at each other and snarling even though a baby gate separated them.
I had several serious “what the fuck have I done?” moments throughout the first week. At one point, I considered telling Caroline that we’d just foster, but I loved the silly fathead Lacey already. Damnit.
(Yes, I call her fathead because her head is absolutely massive and about 1.5–2x bigger than Cassi and Delphi’s. Her paws are also massive, and I love them.)
One of the things that really complicated matters was how Lacey had never lived in a house before. Everything was frightening her.
Glass doors: terrifying.
An oven: terrifying.
A floorboard creaking because of the heating: terrifying.
A television: terrifying.
A weird noise on the TV: MURDER.
A sliding door: “like fuck I’m going through that!”
Thankfully, she’s adapted well to all the random noises that come with a house, and the TV is allowed to be on when she’s in the room now. Yay! Oh, and I’m also allowed to cook and do laundry. Thanks, Lace!
As expected, Lacey is a major resource guarder, so she eats her dinner alone in her room. She snarled at Delphi through a tiny gap in the door even though she was safe with her food behind a baby gate on day two or three. That was a “whoaaa what?!” moment for me!
She’s definitely chilled on that front now. Delphi and Cass are allowed to look at her from the other side of the baby gate; phew!
Delphi is also a resource guarder, so this is a constant management thing. Delphi has snarled at me several times over a high-value treat, and my fingertips thank my fast reflexes every day.
Generally, they’re doing pretty well with having treats around each other, but there’s the occasional air snap where I have to tell Delphi to come to me instead of being a bit thick.
Interestingly, Lacey only guards her food from me if it’s something I haven’t given her. A key example that springs to mind is the bag of prawn crackers she nabbed on day three that I decided were simply not worth the risk of an eight-hour A&E wait and career destruction. She was very pleased with herself as she snaffled away.
Cassi and Delphi have welcomed her into the pack. Surprisingly, her bond with Delphi is the best. They regularly play like crazy wild dogs. It’s beautiful seeing two dogs with bad dog experiences loving each other and playing together: they even play tug! 💖
Lacey also sounds like a noisy walrus when she plays. Bonus!
On the other paw, Cassi regularly gets snappy and guards me during Lacey’s zoomie times, worried that she’ll hurt me. She sits on my lap or very close to me to make sure I don’t get a dog butt to the face. Incredibly wholesome but unnecessary, Cassi; I can throw a dog if I need to 😂
Another challenge is one we’ve seen before: escape artistry. Yep, we have another! Luckily, Delphi has chilled on that front and hasn’t felt the need to climb a tree for a while now.
Unfortunately, Lacey can jump fences a little too easily, so we’ll have to heavily reinforce the garden once the weather gets better. I cannot wait. Thanks, Lace.
Luckily, she’s only got out once, but it’s not an experience I want to repeat, as she was an absolute pain in the arse to grab even when I threw cheese at her face.
She’s also a whiny little sod like Cassi, so that’s another ughhh from me.
On the positive side, her ability to make eye contact is amazing! She holds eye contact the way I had to train Cassi and Delphi to. Gorgeous! I found this helped with training the girls a lot, so I’m hoping the same will apply with Lacey. She’s also great at having her claws clipped — woohoo!
Unlike these two, she’s not a cuddly girl. She doesn’t mind sitting close to me, and I even get to rest my head on her when she’s relaxed. It’s quite nice not to have a dog climbing all over me and my laptop when I’m trying to work! Cassi wasn’t super cuddly to start with, so we’ll see how she gets on.
Another surprising positive is how she reacts to dogs when we’re out on a walk. She looks at them inquisitively and doesn’t actually react to them. I honestly expected her to be a lot like Delphi and growl at them, but nope! It’s nice to have one dog that I don’t have to constantly worry about on walks 😅
She’s got a deformed front right leg, and we don’t know whether it’s from birth or trauma. The Romanian vet said she’s not in any pain. So that’s something we’re keeping an eye on, and we’ll see what the local vet says.
Hopefully, they’ll leave her be for now, as she’s incredibly mobile (note the jumping of fences) and can run faster than these two. I’ll also need time to save for any surgery 😅 She doesn’t do paw, though!
She has so much energy, so I’m guessing she’s only just out of her puppy stage. It reminds me of Cassi when we first got her. Hopefully, she’ll mellow just like Cass has 🤣
So, that’s the Lacey update! She’s settled in so well, and I can’t wait to see how she progresses over the next few months.
Our Instagram name has changed now, so you’ll have to head here to follow their journey if you’re not already! If you’ve not seen my previous blogs, check out my profile to learn more about these cheeky pups 😍
As always, if you’d like to donate to Rocky Road Rescue, please follow this link. They do incredible work, and my three wouldn’t be here (or possibly even alive) without them.
Thanks for reading! Here’s a bonus derp for getting this far:
