Izzy came to me in March of 2008, she was named Dizzy on the G.R.I.N. website, but she was too sweet of a girl to call her Dizzy so she became Izzy.

  Izzy was somewhere between 6 months to a year old when I got her my vet thought. She came to me following my dear sweet Brandi girl crossing the rainbow bridge in October of 2007, Brandi was 14 ½ years old and was a Collie and Husky mix who I had since she was 7 weeks old and was my best buddy for all that time. It was tough after Brandi, I felt I would never get or could get another dog, as time passed and I found the G.R.I.N. website and decided to look into adopting as I knew I could give one of the G.R.I.N. dogs a wonderful loving home and needed what only a dog can give in return. I miss still Brandi on a daily basis, but thank god for Izzy everyday as well, as she is the sweetest dog and helped ease the pain of Brandi passing.

I live in Pittsburgh so I made the trip from Pittsburgh to Cleveland to meet Izzy on a Saturday in late February 2008 and found out how wonderful she was instantly from the moment I met her. I spent about 3 hours or so at Chris's house (Izzy's foster mom) and visited with Izzy and Chris's own dog Asia. I played with Izzy and took her for a walk and found her to be such a loveable and sweet girl. I so want to thank G.R.I.N. and especially Chris, Izzy's foster mom, who was simply wonderful during the adoption process. I do not know if I could ever foster a dog, I think it takes a special kind of person to do that, I do not think I would ever be able to give a foster up if I did it. After spending the afternoon meeting and playing with Izzy I took the journey home and had time to think about Izzy on the return trip and by the time my 2 hour ride home ended I knew I wanted to adopt her.

I got Izzy a few weeks later on March 11, when I got her home she was very shy and leery of most things. G.R.I.N. had no history on Izzy other than she was dumped at an overnight drop off for dogs at shelter somewhere in Ohio from what I was told and also that when she was spayed the vet found that Izzy was in the early stages of pregnancy. Both things are so sad and might explain why she was so shy and afraid when I got her home, she would not attempt to get in the car, which Chris told me about and learned when I tried to get her in the car when I adopted her, you kind of had to corral her and pick her up and plop her in the car as she would sort of just go limp when you tried to get her in the car. When I got home I found she would not walk up or down steps nor jump up on the bed. She also would not bark or growl even when playing, she never made a sound; I thought she had no ability to bark or growl when I first got her. I also found that she did not like loud talking or loud people, I found this out when I had some friends over to watch a hockey game and the fans got a little loud, Izzy just got this sad look on her face and left the room going to lay in the corner of the room farthest away from us, must be something from her past I guess.

I would really like to know what happened in her life prior to me and wish she could tell me. I wonder if she was abused either verbally or physically. As time progressed she gained confidence and came out of her shell and after a month or so I started taking her to a basic obedience class to get her socialized and help her gain confidence, she really didn't need the obedience part. She slowly started to change, I would say it took 2 to 3 weeks before she would even start to go up and down the steps, I had to carry her prior to that. And it was several months before she attempted to jump in the car, she also went I would say 2 or so months before she barked, one day she was sitting looking out my back door and there was a deer out there, which she had seen before and she just barked; I was so surprised, her bark sounded nothing like what I pictured in my mind much deeper. Today a little over a year later she is completely different, if I say "tell me" to her she will bark on command, she flies up and down the steps and is now eager to go for a ride and is all about giving and receiving love. Sometimes we call her wiggle butt as she wags her tail in a way that her head almost ends up touching her but she is wagging so hard, she most bends in half. She loves the snow and runs around pushing the snow with her head trying to bury her head I think. She loves the outdoors and is best friends with my buddy's Lab/Chesapeake Bay retriever Morgan now. My buddy has quite a bit of land and the dogs play and run and run and run together. One funny behavior she has is that if there are animals on TV she will watch TV, the show on animal planet "Meerkat Manor" she will watch the whole show sometime, it is so funny. The only remnants of her shy type behavior today is that she still will leave the room for a quieter place when I have people over to watch a game and we get a little loud, especially Steeler games, sorry Cleveland fans, this girl is a Steeler fan 100 percent! This dog is truly a gift from god for me, which I am certain every owner feels about their own golden in the same way. I am so glad I found G.R.I.N. and Izzy and I know Izzy feels the same way as she has settled in and is always so happy.

 

 

Thanks so much G.R.I.N. and Izzy's foster mom Chris

 

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