Kirsten and Florian's Anxious Dog Sanctuary

It's been a delight having Marshal around. Just watching him have fun with Dahlia and be comfortable with Fozzie, and watching how sweet and loving he is, is so rewarding. I love seeing that in this house, he feels safe and happy. 

In his previous home, he was sleeping in the living room to be with the other dog, who he loved. But he was destroying the carpet overnight, so he must not have felt at ease. 

Here, he sleeps in the living room too--and he just sleeps. Not a peep out of him all night, he just rolls up happily in his crate or on the couch and snoozes til morning. 










Not sure what the difference is! Maybe he feels safe here because we leave our bedroom door open and he knows he can come in anytime, and he can hear us talking to Dahlia and Fozzie.

Whatever it is, we seem to have a situation here that is good for anxious dogs.


So when my sister went away for the weekend, and our friend Francine, who was staying at her house, called to let me know that Sky Princess didn't seem to be that happy and was throwing up everything she ate, 


I went over there just as soon as I was done bringing Uncle Johnny to early vote for Bernie Sanders. 











Francine was busy cleaning up copious amounts of bloody vomit. We decided I would take Sky Princess home and see if she got better, and if not Francine would take her to the emergency vet. 

As soon as I got her home, she literally hit the ground running with Marshal. 

They spent the entire weekend zooming around together, 












with short time-outs for Dahlia to hump Princess like in old times. 

And Princess Sky began eating and stopped vomiting. 

What was most wonderful was how everyone just seemed to get along. 

They all seemed pretty happy to be around each other. I've often thought that since I tend to end up with "difficult" or "unadoptable" dogs, who are with me because they couldn't find a home anywhere else, I'd never be able to have a whole bunch of them around because they'd be too aggressive and unstable. 

So it was just so rewarding and delightful to have a house full of these dogs and watch them just play, hang out, and relax together. I had to remind myself that two of them, Fozzie and Marshal, were actually officially labeled "unadoptable" and were hours away from euthanasia when I picked them up. 

Why?

Because the world is a messed up place, that's why. 

Gotta just keep creating little pockets of sanity, where dogs and people can run around, be themselves, make dinosaur noises and hump and dig and zoom and relax without fear of persecution for being different. 

So that's what I tried to do this weekend. And far from feeling overwhelmed by having 4 dogs, I felt fulfilled. Surrounded by love, happy, and grateful. 

How many dogs is just right for YOU?