Project RePaw: Foxtrot - The overlooked dog with a loyal heart
My name is Yana Petiet, and I own 3 dogs that have their origin story at Bearhill Husky. I met them there when I worked for Bearhill, and as I have moved on to new endeavours they have moved with me. I would love to share with you our story, here is part two out of three.
Honestly, I don’t remember the first time when I met Foxtrot but it must have been when I came to Bearhill for the first time during my internship. She had a few brothers that looked just like her, and I learned pretty quickly that everyone just called her Foxy for short. She was a very easy dog overall. She eats, runs, and is healthy. Doesn’t make any trouble. The thing about those dogs is that they are great, but they also blend in so well that they get overlooked sometimes. As I got more seasons under my belt, I started to appreciate these types of dogs more and more. Foxy was also a good lead dog, very reliable. Her only flaw was that she doesn’t love kids, but that made me like her even more since I don’t either so I think we had a mutual understanding there. She would also give a bit of mixed signals on if she liked petting or not. She can flinch if you come too quickly to her head, but she does know how to turn her butt towards you asking for some butt scratches. She seemed to like attention sometimes, but she was not desperate for it.
At some point I was discussing with Valentijn which dogs were going for retirement after the season and Foxy came up. I felt immediately very sad to see her go and had already considered If I wanted to take a second dog. I let Valentijn know that when it was time for her to go, he should ask me first. That winter I took her home a few times to test how it would go. Nooa was confused at first as he was used to being an only child and suddenly had to share attention. Foxy did great in my small apartment and adapted well to city life. I did notice that she was really reactive towards bikes, scooters and other fast moving things and I was particularly careful around kids.
At the end of the winter season, she went home with me fulltime. She was 7 at this point. I took her for sterilization pretty quickly as she had developed some weird lumps in a few nipples and I wanted to avoid heats and infections.
But like when she was living at the kennel, with me and Nooa she just blended in. The troublemaker is Nooa, and Foxy follows. So if I keep my eyes on him I know she will be good too. We have been on trips together, also to the Netherlands, where she has had the opportunity to work on her relationship with bikes. There it gets better after a while because of the constant exposure to them, but now we have moved from our tiny apartment to a house in the forest so we don’t get the opportunity to work on this so much anymore. Also with kids she is doing much better, as long as they behave.
Since we are now working at Pinewoods Huskies, she is enjoying the free running in the yard with Nooa and chasing squirrels. She did still do a few runs in front of a sled last season with some pups, but I had to put a permanent stop to this because her back does not like it anymore. She will go stand in front of my bike waiting to get harnessed and go, but I have to tell her no. She is 10 years old by now, so I don’t blame her. We are now looking into methods on how she could join me and Nooa on runs, even when she gets older, with a small cart behind the bike for example. People who meet my dogs tend to gravitate more towards Nooa since he is so outgoing and Foxy seems really reserved. But her friends know that with a little time and some butt scratches, you can win her favor. It has been an honor to be her preferred human and I’m happy to see her enjoying her retirement, although I’m also a little sad that time is going by so, so fast.
A note from the author:
Just after writing this article, I found out that foxy has a quite agressive tumor in her jaw that cannot be treated. I don’t know how long I get to keep her with me, but we’re making sure every day counts.
If you are interested in how the RePaw project started and would like to read more stories about dogs that have found new homes, you can visit the links below:
