While out walking Celia and Alice this afternoon, we spoke to a neighbour who also recently took in an 8 year old Irish Setter.

We mentioned that Celia was a rescue and shortly after arrival ate the couch, curtains, bedsheets etc.  The lovely neighbour just shrugged and said her new boy has eaten numerous shoes since he arrived with them, at around the same time we got Celia.

This is unfortunately a potential issue with rescue pets, but its also an issue if you take on a puppy.  Either are likely to cause some type of damage.

Luckily Celia is mostly over her furniture modification stage, and while we have the occasional minor issue, its certainly nowhere near the same extent that it was when we first got her.  We have recently found two tiny holes on the mink blankets on the couch, we lamented that it appears it must have got caught on something… (Celia’s teeth perhaps?)

But putting all this aside, is the joy of seeing a rescued pet blossom.  For us, its seeing her start to get expression in her face.  For so long, she was a blank stare and looked very sad.

About a month after we got her, she started to wag her tail when we got home for a walk – we assumed it was a “yay I’ve come back” response.  Then shortly after this she started to give us some affectionate kisses where previously, if you put your face near her, she’d look away.

Increasingly she now shows emotion in her face, her tail wags and she wiggles with excitement. She yelps with joy when we head out for  a walk.  She whimpers quietly with excitement when we get home from work or go to visit grandma.  She greats us all excitedly when we get up in the morning – including the cats.  She insists on sitting on grandad’s knee when he visits.  In the middle of the night she bounds excitedly down the hallway out of sheer fun.  She loves to play with us, and increasingly our other dog Alice.

To see her really feel like this is her forever home and that we are her pack is wonderful.  Watching her have fun and get her puppy back after an incredibly difficult time prior to us is true reward.

We love her and she loves us.  We can always get a new couch, but she is irreplaceable.