Covid Negative and, hey Worst Week, MEET JUNE CARTER CASH! 😻

Status Update:

Firstly, I’m still COVID negative and now so is my husband! We are both clear!

David never had any symptoms and… I never had COVID so… quarantining in our small little open plan house was kind of surreal.

When he FINALLY received his test result (3.5 days after his PCR test), we had both evolved into isolated figures who occupied their distinct physical space.

I was on the second floor.

David – the Infected One – occupied the first floor and basement.

During our solitary quarantine, I forgot what it was to have physical contact with another. So it took a few minutes (fifteen minutes) after his “I’m negative” text to physically go find him and hug him.

For, in this time, I had evolved. I needed no one.

But I re-animated and went down to the basement to find the state-cleared one and hugged him.

So COVID is hitting Wisconsin super hard. The pastors at my church have it, the radio station DJ has it, everyone has it.

No one looks at you weirdly if you are wearing two insane looking masks when you’re at the store. In fact, now it seems like everyone is wearing a mask or two.

Finally the general population around here seem to be taking it seriously.

It just took… pushing it to the brink.

Speaking of the brink…

Recently, we moved from our crazy former neighborhood to Riverwest, which is an amazing neighborhood – my favorite Milwaukee neighborhood – and packages can be delivered to our front porch and stay there for days.

I have no idea how long this fancy fucking mixer sat outside but it was there when I opened the front door randomly and saw it sitting there.

The former owners of our house forgot they moved or something so it belonged to them and… we told our realtor who told their realtor and they came and we put it back outside and they came to pick it up.

Being good is so boring. But… I don’t have a mixer and I will CONTINUE TO NOT HAVE A MIXER.

In any case, our new neighborhood does not have the thievery problem our old neighborhood did.

I think it’s the change in neighborhood but also because we now live on a hill.

Well, Milwaukee still sounds insane. But… how about… that dog…?

Oh you mean JUNE CARTER CASH????

Context and Facts

June was abandoned in a cemetery with her siblings somewhere in the south and then transported up here to a non-profit dog rescue organization called “Lucky Mutts”.

She is part Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd.

Her brothers were 100+ lbs. heavier than she was when they were rescued.

They clearly did not share the food they had scavenged with June.

She was also the most openly traumatized of her family. But her amazing foster human has convinced her to start eating and drinking and she slowly gained weight so now she is 55 lbs.

June is not food-motivated but her human has piqued her interest in “Cheese Whiz”.

We were also told she doesn’t eat her toys or chew on them… she prefers to snuggle with them.

Her favorites are “Missy Elephant” and “Lambchop”, and she is also a big fan of blankets.

They say June is 11 months but that her birthday was maybe May 1, 2021… either way, she is a young dog going on 900 years old.

Despite her age, she is completely house-trained. She never had an accident inside the house while living with her foster mom.

She also was described as being a “couch potato” who wasn’t a huge fan of being outside (being abandoned in a cemetery probably did that) but who had no problem walking on a leash.

In fact, she sits at traffic intersections when on walks, or so we were told.

It sounded like this dog could lead some training courses for other dogs.

The Pick-Up

We had only met June once. She was clearly petrified but there were very obvious glimpses she was getting better.

And her wonderful foster mom had described the perfect dog to me so… it didn’t really matter how our first meeting went. This was the dog for us.

So we visited her last night after work for our second and final visit. Her foster mom brought her out and she wagged her tail after she sniffed us so that was surprising and wonderful. “June Bug, you remember us?”

In fact, her foster mom said that she’d never wagged her tail like that before so… that was great but then June kept trying to get away from us while inside the shelter.

Miss Mixed Signals.

I felt conflict trying to make a creature who wanted nothing to do with us go with us. After all, she was doing fine with her foster mom who clearly adored her (she had a two-page handwritten “All about June” guide, a big plastic bag full of “stuffies” and another big bag full of more stuff. )

Yet, June had no issue walking with us on leash to the car.

No pulling. No resistance.

When we had rescue-adopted our ridiculous Mastiff Hemingway Monster

she also caused the shelter workers to say “OMG SHE HAS NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE awwwwwww” as, during our visit, she brought a toy and then laid down for a belly rub.

🙄

But after I wrote the check for her and we turned to leave the Humane Society lobby, she fucking laid down on the floor and refused to move.

She didn’t seem stressed or scared… she just was a limp mass of flesh, fur and ridiculousness.

I was embarrassed and didn’t want the shelter workers to see but it’s not like they didn’t know because they had to physically drag her out to meet us earlier.

…we loved her beyond words but she was the worst...

In any case, I was a little nervous to experience the same I AM NOT GOING WITH THESE PEOPLE dramatics but June was relatively easy.

I mean, she sat on my feet outside the car for around five minutes before she got in but… it was pretty smooth.

I then sat in the back seat with her and fed her Kong brand Cheese Whiz. She didn’t whine as she had inside the shelter and, instead, sat up and looked around (or just at my hands which had cheese whiz on them).

I heard she wasn’t food motivated but she gobbled up so much Kong cheese whiz I had to stop feeding her because… well, for starters, it’s blaze orange in color.

Finally, we arrived home and pulled the car into the garage.

She had a little more trouble getting out of our car but, after about fifteen minutes, she genuinely crossed the backseat to exit the vehicle on her own.

Well, she made it to the edge and then David helped her down.

That was pretty huge.

She then sniffed around our little fenced yard.

And she spent the rest of her time on our couch with us until we went to bed and then she… stayed on the couch. We made sure to have her elephant and lamb “stuffy” and it was a good thing. 😂😘

Moreover, shockingly, she also knows what “outside” is and, after asked, jumps right off the couch to go outside to do her business.

Morning and night, #1 and #2.

In some ways, she is doing better than most of us. And, by the end of the night, she stopped ducking when we reached out to pet her and, in contrast, leaned toward the contact which was pretty shocking.

Her foster mom said she hadn’t made eye contact for weeks when she first came to live with her but she would often catch June sneaking a look at her. The shelter workers and her foster mom said we would probably have to start at square one with her but… so far, she seems to be building on the love she has already received.

This morning I have off from work so I asked June if she’d like to take a tour of the house.

To my surprise, after I put on her collar and got her leash out, she replied, “Yes, I do!” and jumped off the couch and we went on a tour.

She sniffed around and even laid down upstairs for a bit as I got dressed.

But then going back down the stairs was a little more challenging than going up them had been.

I left her for a bit as I put a load of laundry in downstairs and then returned to find her laying on a pile of clothes and whining softly and so we tried again.

So she got up when I picked up her leash and walked with me right over to the edge of the stairs.

But… nope. I started to go down the stairs and June was not coming with me. She withdrew back into our bedroom.

But, after she collected herself, on the third try she went downstairs without any hesitation.

😘

So now we are back in the Most Familiar room and she is taking a well-deserved nap.

And this dog snores.

But she woke to again take a tour of the first floor (her idea, this time)… she has some interest for the world beyond the couch.

Her bed arrives today so I’ll see if I can get her up once again to witness its arrival. So I can be all:

Who’satthedoor?????????

(the delivery person will be all… wtf…I’m at the door you crazy person)

Closing

It’s just Day One and we are making progress with our new family member. But I’m not feeling great (it’s not COVID) so June and I are just going to do some laid-back rest and recovery today.

June Carter Cash is the perfect dog for us. In the paperwork, I was to enter the “Original name” and the “New name” and… I mean, she’s a June Bug. There’s no going back now!

FORGET THIS TERRIBLE WEEK! FORGET INSANELY LONG COVID LINES AND NEAR-DEATH CAR ACCIDENTS AND INTENSE UNHAPPINESS WITH WORK AND THE WORLD OUTSIDE

… it is dog time.

Her foster mom listed “Hallmark movies” as an interest of hers but I’ll see if she likes horror. One thing is clear and it’s that this dog has personality.

Next year this time she could be doing cartwheels and on tour with Brittany Spears. Who knows who she will be when she fully emerges from her shell. 😘