Friday, June 26th, I was sitting at my desk working when an email came to my Inbox.  The subject line: “2 Pyrs Need Help.”  I, of course, stared at the email for a second and said “Here we go.”

Needless to say the email had two photos of two lovely Pyrs at the pound.  One male, one female, both surrendered by the owner because they were supposed to guard the goats, but instead opted to chase cars.  My first reaction was, naturally, a sour response of “Has the man heard of the word FENCE?”  I tend to be a bit sarcastic when it comes to people surrendering their animals for reasons such as this.  Regardless, I looked at these two pyrs, and I agonized, knowing that in any pound they are the first to go because there is no “holding period” for an owner to reclaim them. In addition, they are taking space for animals coming in who need this holding period, so by rule of thumb, they are euthanized first to make space.  This is a daily event, of course, but darn it…they had to be PYRS, didn’t they??  To boot…the male had a heart on his head.  Yes, a perfect heart in the middle of his forehead.

You know the rest, so I suppose there’s no real reason to go into detail.  My determination to hold off on intakes abandoned, discipline revoked, and two pyrs in the back of my Scion, snuggled in blankets and drunk from surgery.

The [insert dirty word that describes previous owner] that surrendered these dogs, in my opinion, should have perhaps opted to feed them.  Of course, I could be way out of line and overly sensitive, but I typically encourage the eating routine with animals, as opposed to letting them wither away miserably while internal organs shut down.  I know, I know…I seem a little “crazy” in that sense, but I happen to think it’s a nice way to go.

Instead, [insert dirty word that describes previous owner] took the road less traveled and didn’t provide much food, if any, for these two sweeties.  So, I told them their past was now deleted and we were starting fresh…and by golly, this included food.  As a result, I gave them exciting new names and lo-n-behold…FOOD!!!

Casanova, the young male, is a year and a half old, and somewhere around 80lbs of skin and bones.  I’ll find out his exact weight at our vet appointment, but he is extremely emaciated and his skin is in need of care.  He is also a big, long legged dork with a big goofy head. 😀 He’s starving for attention, although a bit shy for the first few seconds, but then all over you the next with hugs and kisses!  He bops around and dances, sort of resembling a playful calf with no coordination.  You have to be a tad solidified into the ground so he doesn’t trample you with smoochies, but he is quickly learning that a gentle kiss is just as good as a “land on top of you with all fours and sop up your face” kind of kiss.  He also loves to roll on his back and paw you, then do a bit of a back dance, and paw you again.  He is such a big GOOFball and makes me cackle with laughter.  You can’t help but love the big, funny lug…and if that’s not enough he has that huge HEART smack in the middle of his forehead.  I’ve never seen anything like it!  It’s the most original and specific design of God’s work I think I’ve ever seen.  See for yourself!

As a result, I really didn’t think there was a more suitable name than Casanova.  So, after a few lessons on hugging and a lot of food, he will turn out to be quite the … Casanova!

Toffee is his buddy, a beautiful girl with soft eyes and beautiful face.  One might ask why in the world I’d name a white Pyrenees “Toffee” when it describes a brown color.  Well, her ears have a golden brown badger marking, and it looks like she has melted toffee running off of her head and onto her ears.  It’s quite lovely and adds a glow to her face.  Hence the name Toffee!  It was also easy for her to understand due to the similarity of it to her previous name, and due to her being a little stressed out and afraid, I thought it would be an easy transition.  She’s responding to it well, so I think we did okay. 🙂

As mentioned, she’s a lovely girl, and she likes to give kisses, as well.  It’s a little harder for her to settle in, and she’s got some things to work through, but we visited the doc today, and she really came out of her shell.  She’ll probably need someone a little more sensitive and experienced, but I think she’ll make a fine companion for someone.  She became quite the social butterfly at the clinic, and although sticking to me like glue in the begining, and telling a few other dogs that she would not allow them near me, she finally relaxed and threw herself into the lap of the technician and smothered both doc and the tech in kisses.  She rolled on her back and gave a big sloppy grin, and found herself at home with legs stretched out, grin on her face and receiving belly rubs.  She was in total heaven.  Isn’t she lovely (albeit a tad drunk in these photos…will get better ones later)?

When we returned to the homestead, I have to say it was the sweetest thing when I saw Casanova’s eyes light up, his feet start to dance, and him surge over to Toffee and smother her with kisses.  He was estatic to see her, grateful for her return…you see, he cried a bit when I took her to the clinic without him, and I’m sure was tormented while we were gone. He lit up, however, as soon as he saw her, and couldn’t get enough of her.  It was so precious…I felt badly for the both of them.  In the previous neglect and disregard, they obviously counted on each other, thriving on the love they had between them.  A true love story.

So, here we are, yet again, working our way past the inattention so that the real beauties inside these boney, ragged bodies can come out and enjoy their lives.  As for me, I want to egg that [insert dirty word that describes previous owner]’s house and steal all of his food so he can’t eat for the next year and a half.

Okay, okay…so I can’t do that…but I can sure make these sweeties feel good and work with them through the weeks or months ahead so that they will feel confident and loved.

I think I’ll do just that. 🙂