Meet Moses!
“A big happy polar bear that doesn’t know a gosh darn thing.”
I’m pretty certain that is how the shelter should have described this boy in his bio. So, I’ll do it for them here.
We are creeping up on the end of the year now (thank goodness. Buh bye 2020) and it has me reflecting on the past year. All in all, this year was pretty heartbreaking, to be honest. It brought a lot of sadness, a lot of disappointment and a lot of tears. But nestled in between those tears, were some major milestones.
Like the day that Moses came into our family, which just happened to also be my 28th birthday. Happy birthday to me!
After our sweet Forrest died in June, we noticed a marked change in Tucker’s behavior. He was mourning the loss of his best friend, like we were, but he was also gravitating toward some troubling behaviors. He began showing fear-based behaviors when presented with any novel situation or animal. He also became timid around children! I know that correlation does not equal causation, but losing your best friend suddenly is a pretty solid basis for developing these behaviors.
Anyway, all this to say that we decided to casually keep an eye out for a new friend for Tucker. We were in no way looking to replace Forrest – an impossible task – we just wanted to essentially give our dog a pet dog. Ha!
I have a pal that works at our local branch of the humane society, so I reached out to him and let him know what we were looking for. Our checklist included: a large breed dog, preferably young (less than middle-aged), dog friendly. That’s it; any other baggage we could work with.
A few young dogs and puppies came and went through the shelter that could have fit the bill, but it wasn’t until my birthday afternoon that I stumbled across a story on my friend’s personal Instagram of him walking with this huge, goofy white dog. I reached out asking if this guy was adoptable, and turns out he was just a few hours away from being listed on the website. I quickly gathered information about him, and learned he fit the bill. He was surrendered by his previous owners for peeing in the house. Not ideal, but easy enough to train.
Young dogs move through the shelter very quickly, especially young cute nice dogs like this one. The fact that I was getting a heads up on him prior to him being listed was a perk of knowing people! The plan was to get to the shelter and sign up to meet this dog the very moment he was put up for adoption on their website.
The only catch to adopting a dog on that day was that I needed to go out of town that afternoon through the evening. So it would be entirely up to my husband and his visiting mother to go visit this dog and decide if he felt like a good fit for our family. I trusted them, and told them “You’ll know when you meet him. We have no attachment to the idea of bringing him home, so don’t feel pressured to say yes if it doesn’t feel right.”
So. Off I went on my out of town excursion. I was driving into the mountains for a bachelorette party, and had planned on having zero cell phone service the entire time. A few hours into the party, I get a text saying “He likes car rides. Happy birthday, Becca!” from my husband. There was no picture to accompany it, but I was giddy with the thought that he was bringing home a new dog!
I get home really late, and upon stepping in the front door, I am greeted by this huge, fluffy, sweet polar bear of a dog.
My first thought: “You are SO SWEET!” My husband and mother in law then spent the next half hour filling me in on their afternoon, how it was to meet him, how much he loved the car ride home, and how he instantaneously fell in love with Tucker. So so good.
So that was early September, and we’re approaching mid December now, so we’re going on 3 months with this big guy. Here’s what I think you should know about sweeet Moses:
He is a blank slate.
He is only 1 1/2 to 2 years old, and we are his third (and final) owners. Between the beginning of his years and now, it is obvious that not a lot of training has occurred. He was listed in the shelter system with the name “Bruno”. We felt that it didn’t fit him, and after adopting him and attempting to call him by his name, it was apparent that he had never needed to come by that name ever before. Ha! So we felt okay with changing his name to whatever we wanted. We went back and forth between a few names, but ‘Sweet Moses’ just felt right.
So far, his training regime has looked pretty basic, but very consistent. I immediately crate trained him to help curb the indoor accidents. He is learning to take food from my hands (he has an aversion to being reached towards that he’s getting better about), and he knows how to sit, lay down, come when called, and go out and go to the bathroom. We’re now working on desensitizing touching the legs and paws so that we can trim his nails.
He has SUCH a funny personality.
I’ve always said that Tucker is Mr. Personality. And that remains true. But Moses brings it to a whole new level. He is so incredibly goofy. He flops and tumbles and plays and every once in a while, smiles when he gets really excited. After getting to know you, he likes to perch his big paws right on your chest or shoulder. It always looks like he’s having a heart-to-heart talk with you when he does that.
We joke that he is like the character Derek from the NBC show “The Good Place”. Totally goofy, dumb, but a heck of a friend.
He is a Great Pyrenees Mix
Yes, like Forrest. Forrest totally sold us on the breed. While we do not know for certain, I have a feeling that Moses is a Pyrador – a Great Pyrenees mixed with a Labrador Retriever. Outwardly, he looks mostly Pyrenees (he has the double back dew claws) but every once in a while, I get a glimpse of lab in his face…
One more fun fact about Moses before I go: he is an expert gooser.
You know, like when you get poked on the butt? Yeah, he and his big head ram full force into us OFTEN!
I’m looking forward to bringing you more of Moses for years to come. For now, help me give him a (belated) welcome into our family!
