Boating with Esteban

 

How cool is this guy?  We've had Esteban for less than a week. We adopted him from Richmond Animal League.  They were wonderful to work with, and they did a remarkable job with this guy who had been in their care for a year.  Nanny Nanny Boo Boo is all I have to say for all the folks who overlooked this extraordinary pup!

We will keep his name as he clearly knows and responds to it.  However, we find ourselves defaulting to "Bub" our affection name for Dexter.  Maybe he becomes Estebub and Bub for short!

Mark was cleaning up the boat for the this season.  We have a 21ft Century 1987ish 3500 LX.  We bought it used many years ago, and it is a great boat to take friends out on.  He fished out a dog life vest that I had totally forgotten about.  It has not seen much use, and it fit Esteban perfectly.  

We thought we would try an inaugural voyage with Estebub!

First, this dog rides calmly in the truck.  Yes, that is him snoozing and snoring down the road.  Second, he did same in boat.  Our boat has a place under the bow for gear, not people.  But it is a perfect place for a pup to get out of the sun.  That pink nose can get sunburned.  So we ensured that he stayed both shaded and hydrated.

We put in at a friend's place on the Chickahominy, next to where my FIL lives and long time friends of ours.  We also park our boat down there (and we do no freeload!).  Parking the boat helps our friend and helps us not having to tow a heavy boat.

We boated to the Route 5  bridge at the mouth of the where the Chickahominy and James River (you can see Jamestown from there) meet.  We traversed the width of the James River to go to the beaches on the other side.

I put Esteban's doggie vest on.  He went easily down to the ski platform and into the water.  He had total trust in me.  He started dog paddling.  You have to be careful with dogs in the water.  They are strong swimmers and their claws can get you.  He had a grand time.  He got to the beach and had to number 1.  He then went back into the water and was ready to swim to the boat.  

I call that a win!  He was so tired. He's not in very good shape; no fault to any but shelter dog's cannot get the exercise they need.  

It is so nice to have a dog that we can do anything with and take anywhere.  He is a real joy.  I'm glad that he trusts us so well.  He's basically says, "If you want me to do this; I will".

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Esteban

 

Today at 11:00 a.m. we have a chance to meet Esteban.  He is a almost 2ish pit bull at the Richmond Animal League--an animal shelter that we have supported in the past.  (Really good friends of ours have a Holiday part and RAL has been an receiving charity for donations). 

He is currently in foster care.  He has been receiving training to curb his overexuberance.  The foster was very forthcoming about his behavior--none of which was disturbing to us.  He is not dog aggressive, but he has some impulse control issue with humans--but not through aggression but through excitement.  We spent about 4 months working with Dexter on his exuberance issues.  Once we got him to control his excitement, we never had any troubles.  

If I were going to pick up a pot of gold, I could be no less excited.  We are unable to bring him home because the adoption coordinator is out of town.  I guess, too, it is possible that something untoward may happen.  Apparently Esteban has been returned after being adopted at least twice.  I trust the foster/dog trainer's assessment that his behavior though inappropriate, not aggressively-rooted.  I'm confident that if we survived Dexter's first months we can deal with anything.

I remember that Daisey had been adopted and returned to the shelter because she dug in the yard.  To the day that she died, she was a digger...but only by the house and only for a cool place to lay. She was the type of dog that would run so hard that her giant tongue hung out the side of her mouth.  It was not a behavior that I would ever consider return-worthy.  

One of the questions on the questionnaire was under what circumstances would you rehome a dog.  My answer was if something catastrophic happened to us that would cause us to be unable to care for an animal.

So I'm not sure what 11 a.m. will bring, but I'm really excited to meet this fella and I hope that he will feel the same for us.

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