Electrolicious

It was one year ago today that I drove with Dawn over the Cascade mountains to go meet Sassafras. We looked like a pink-haired lesbian couple, and my first encounter with Sassafras was watching her hop out of her foster-family’s pick up, and immediately skulk away with her tail tucked.

Dawn, who’s worked with service dogs and knows dog behavior better than I do, immediately identified her as a submissive and therefore good dog — her first impression has proven to be absolutely right. I asked the foster family a couple cursory questions (Q: “What’s her big flaw?” A: “She’s needy and just wants to be on your lap 24/7″) but I was pretty much immediately smitten.

And so a year ago I drove home with Sassafras, nervous about the responsibility of taking care of her and nervous about Dre not liking her. He wanted a husky or a newfie or something equally enormous and hairy, and Sassafras is small and almost hairless.

The last year with my Little D has been awesome. She’s a seductress of non-dog people, a quiet and sweet dog who barks only as a doorbell (Wak! Wak! Warooooo!), almost never tugs on her leash, is only a spaz for the first 5 minutes after you get home, and who will let you hold her pretty much any way you want, because hey: it’s all attention. And Sassafras likes attention.

It hasn’t all been wine and greenies, though. We had some initial “submissive urination” issues to get over, and we’re still working on the whole “grinchy with other dogs” thing. This weekend a family friend finally captured Sassafras doing what she does pretty much every time she meets other dogs. For anyone who thought she was always cute and submissive, I give you … The Grinchy Face.

If other dogs don’t respect The Grinch, she will indeed turn and snap at them, snarling and making small, frightening noises. It’s not especially attractive behavior, and we’re working on it.

My favorite times with Sassafras are always mornings in bed. The first night we had her, we made her sleep in a crate because we weren’t sure how housebroken she was. She proved to be completely house trained (other than the submissive dribbling thing) and so every night since then, she’s slept with us, burrowed between the comforter and the sheets, usually behind someone’s knees or butt or in my arms. In the mornings when she wakes up, she burrows her way up to the top and cozies up for the AM snugs. Yummy puppy smells and a sweet wiggler in your arms is a great way to start every day.

I love my little dog! Happy Gotcha Day, Sassafras!