Crunch Berries - The story of how we found and adopted this Sweet, Yellow Dog. (& some Sad News)

Last week was kind of a tough week. We took Crunch Berries back to the vet for her followup appointment for her bladder infection and the vet was finally able to do an ultrasound. She found three tumors. Two are small, but right on her lymph nodes. One is really big, getting bigger, and is in her abdomen. She told us that she wouldn't make it through the year. 

I thought I’d also share the story of how we met Crunch Berries! We adopted her when we lived in Fort Collins, Colorado. 

We went to Animal House like we had been once or twice a week for the last two months. Right after we got engaged, we had decided that we wanted to adopt a dog right away after we got married. Since we both grew up with dogs and have lived with several dogs each, we just knew we wanted a dog. 

We met a cute dog named Coke.  He was new to the shelter, really shy, and just got neutered; he didn’t connect with us.  We asked about a couple of foster dogs, both of whom have behavioral issues that were being worked on (not suitable for a first dog for us or our apartment).

We then went into the doggie area to look around.  We saw Crunch Berries online, but when we visited her the first time we went, she was spooked by the loud dog sharing her (large) kennel space and was really scared of people approaching.  The next time we saw her, she was in a another kennel, wasn’t so shy, and licked our hands. 

We took Crunch Berries out for a stroll and she connected with us.  She looked us in the eye, plus she liked being petted and gave kisses. We seemed to actually WANT to go home with us.

We picked her up the following Tuesday! We absolutely loved her from the very beginning. She was the sweetest girl. She needed some initial work to stop jumping on people and pushing against people with her paws and claws, but otherwise, she was great. 

She had already been trained on how to crate, so she went right in there when we pointed inside it. She already knew how to sit, but “conveniently” forgot from time to time. We worked right away on teaching her to shake. She was a bit unsure of that. 

We decided to crate the pup during mealtimes. She had been crated in the past, and she handled it very well. We also crated her at night to start, but we had to move the crate into our bedroom because she whined otherwise. We also had to try crating her when we left the house. 

Another weird thing about her is that we didn’t heard her bark for a long time. She kinda would silently woof at me when I woke up and went into the living room, but otherwise, all we heard was whine whine whine. It took quite a while to get her to find her voice. She also hated our stairs in the apartment and we had to carry her up and down the stairs for awhile. That was rather inconvenient since we had a garden level apartment and in order to go outside, we had to use these stairs. Poor dog. 

She didn’t really ever settle down until after we moved to Texas. The first time we all entered this house, she knew we were home. It was sweet. She walked around and checked out all the rooms, and while I painted and Honey Graham cleaned/scrubbed/disinfected/etc, she just napped away. She still deals with anxiety and a weird skin rash thing that never seems to quite go away, but she’s great with the kiddos and she’s a good dog. She’s getting old now and it’s harder for her to move around. I miss being able to take her for long walks. She can handle short walks when the weather is good, and sometimes she still brings her toys to me so I’ll throw them for her. I started giving her glucosamine (see post HERE) and that has really helped her! 

She used to go camping with us and she really enjoyed it. She would cuddle up with Honey Graham all night! She even hiked to the top of a mountain with me! 

She’s also the BEST travel dog. She just curls up and falls asleep, at least until we visit a gas station or a Whataburger… 

She is very protective of me and the boys. She is a little wary of Froot Loop since he’s so wild and crazy, and she gets slightly on edge when Cocoa Puff gets a little “handsy” with her, but otherwise, she is so great with them. She puts up with quite a bit of (supervised) play with them. She also gets along with Lucky Charm and my parents dog pretty well, although she was absolutely TERRIFIED of my sister’s cat (but then again, we ALL were terrified of that little demon, rest in peace).

All during my three pregnancies (yes I had three pregnancies… eventually I will write about my miscarriage), she did not ever want to leave my side. When I ended up miscarrying, she weaseled her way into my lap because she just KNEW I was at the lowest point in my life and needed a snuggle. 

Her favorite things to eat are carrots, watermelon, green beans, and of course, bacon! She got smart really fast when the boys started eating in the high chair and learned to clean up after them. I usually give her the empty peanut butter jars so she can lick them clean.

She also loves to clean off ears of corn on the cob! She’s a silly dog. 

She was just a loveable, cuddly, goofball, and still is. She would absolutely be on the couch next to me all day long if I’d let her, but no puppies on the furniture! I'm going to miss her so much. 

How long were you together before you decided to adopt a pet together?