Asali’s forever home: joy in the year of covid

Today (March 26, 2021) marks the day: one year ago, I drove down to the Second Chance for Homeless Pets in Salt Lake to pick up Asali, the “dog that knows nothing,” and bring her to her forever home.

Asali, you ask? Yep, it’s Swahili for “honey.” She not only looks sweet as honey, but her coat has that honey color. We came up with the name on the way down to our first visit with her, because we thought the little honey-colored puppy from the video was so cute. Even though we promised to sleep on it before bringing a new addition home, we still worked out a name and were committed to her by the drive home. Good thing, too, as we found out that evening Park City & Salt Lake were going into lockdown the next night. 

You can read more about her early days at home with us in the blog posts: Asali’s first days and 2 months in. They are the crazy fun-packed adventures of a little scared-at-everything puppy, growing into what her Uncle Mike describes as a “Kramer” from Seinfeld because of the way she enters the doggie door into their kitchen. When she enters a room, everyone knows it: from her excited personality to warm smile followed by kisses. If you are down low enough, she may also slip the tongue in if you’re not quick enough to tell her “off” or dodge her.

So how did this shy little puppy who ran up to me, touched me with her nose, then ran away on our first meeting, become this happy go lucky, always smiling, Kramer big personality in 2020, the year that shut the ski season down early, made everyone stay at home, and buy 10yrs of toilet paper?

She always had it in her. You could see it in her inquisitive curiosity when meeting us. She wanted to say hi, she just wasn’t sure how to. We needed to be patient, and slowly let her bring it out as she started to trust us. After the first few days of learning how to get into the house, navigate stairs, etc., we gradually started to see her little personality show as she started to explore her new home and surroundings. 

Snow was a huge amusement to her, bounding thru the backyard, rolling in it and climbing up piles of snow just to roll down (eating some on the way, of course). This really helped her get used to us touching her, as the leash would always get tangled around her. And there was no way were we going to let her off leash, as we weren’t sure what would happen. A Whistle on her collar, a GPS tracker, and we felt more comfortable letting her in the backyard by herself to get some of her crazy out.

As we started to get used to each other, like most dogs, she discovered the pure joy of belly rubs. Even still today, she won’t go outside in the morning till she’s had a good belly rub session – peeing can wait.

Developing that fun factor helped to start expanding our walks, and as everyone was at home, walks were the best and sometimes only way to escape the kids or work. All the dogs in the neighborhood were going on multiple walks a day. To their pleasure, I’m sure. If she wanted to say hi to another dog, then, with the human’s permission, we were happy to watch her learn her doggie introduction skills. Of course, later on, this was a harder habit to break, as she thinks she has to meet and greet everyone, especially her close buddies. This often leads to longer than planned walks these days. 

If Asali seemed interested in the owner, we would toss them a treat to see if she would take it and maybe a pat from them. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It was her choice as we wanted her to have good experiences from which she could grow. She was still skiddish with some humans, but really not every human likes all humans either, right?

People are interesting. They see a puppy or pretty looking dog and immediately want to pat them, so we had to slow that process down.  Coronavirus actually helped with that. We explained that she was nervous of people, and asked if they minded giving her a treat first, then pat her from the side rather than over her head, which helped. It was also interesting how some neighbors would just happen to be out to say hi to her as we were going for a walk or when we came back. We don’t know how many people and pats she got on the Indian reservation where she was born, but she sure does like them now. 

Asali is flourishing. She’s hit her teenage years (1 – 2 yrs in dog time) and is learning some boundaries thru training with Aunty Tonya from Diamonds in the Ruff to have some common courtesies (not everyone likes dogs going crazy around them).

She discovered a passion for chewing on leashes if we stopped to chat too long, or if we were making her practice heeling(walking beside us), but her favorite was when we went for outside socially distanced drinks with friends. If they didn’t have a closed in yard or another dog to play with, she would quickly lose interest, chew thru the leash, and look for something interesting to sniff, chew, or just go for a walkabout. There are most probably some ducks by our pond that need therapy from some of her strolls. Thankfully, the leash chewing habit has passed, but before it did, Tonya recommended a company Lupine pet that will replace any destroyed, leash chewed thru or not. 

The duck habit continues, as does Asali’s chewing, destroying a toy in under 5 minutes. We keep a good stock of bones, chew toys and bully sticks (way harder to eat than a normal treat) around. We also have lots of old toys now missing squeakers and some of their stuffing in a handy pile, hoping they will be interesting to play with and chew on instead of the couch.

Saying that, if she wants attention, she will happily go get clothes, towels, toilet paper, shoes, socks, … anything really of interest that she can reach when standing on her back legs with that long body. If we don’t catch her in time, she’ll chew a hole in them. Guess we still have a little more of the teenage years left…most probably a few more years, maybe 6.

Training is an ongoing thing for all of us. She is awesome on and off leash and we are looking forward to a fun filled summer of hiking all over our beautiful area. She has earned (loose word) the privilege to be on the couch but loves it and enjoys snuggle time. She still sleeps in her bungalow (crate) most of the night. We were introduced to the idea of coffee in bed on a Kenyan safari, and have continued the tradition to our weekend days when we have nothing on. Asali took it on herself to also join in on snuggle time, but is too young for coffee, so she enjoys looking out the window or having a little nap between us. These coffee times gave her the idea for a 4 or 5am tap on the bungalow door where one of us lets her out to stretch, jump on the bed, then snuggles up falling asleep again before the one who let her out can get back into bed.

A crazy, fun, exciting year: we couldn’t imagine not having her around to watch her grow and learn about life, helping us through the hard times of the year along the way.

What of next year and years to come? Who knows?  Lots more laughs, that’s for sure. Playing with her buddies Piper, Greta, Elvis, Rosie, Parker & Auggie, just to name a few, will be high on her list. She also wants to try Lure course racing, and Agility, or maybe she’ll become a service dog. She’s a little love, and comes running when Ang has a cry (or even when Ang is on with a client who is crying or sad). The choice is hers, but only if those damn squirrels will stop taunting her….