Introducing...Barkley!

With the bittersweet sadness of Cindy Lou's departure comes an exciting new adventure: our next foster dog, Barkley! We brought him home from DeKalb County Animal Services yesterday as soon as Cindy Lou boarded the FODA transport van. Normally I'd probably want to take a week's break in between fosters, but since we only had Cindy for a week and I'm still on vacation from school we went for it right away.

 

Barkley was picked up as a stray on December 24 near Agnes Scott College in Decatur. He was very skittish and shy in the shelter and unfortunately spent Christmas in intake. He's still a little hand-shy and prefers contact on his own terms, but he seems to be warming up very quickly. Barkley slept in his crate last night in our bedroom. He did very well with that. Today we'll work on name recognition and "sit".

Drew came up with the name Barkley (Barks for short). It's pretty funny since he's a Basenji mix, a "barkless" dog. Basenjis make a sound that's like a yodeling wail instead of a typical bark. Barkley does exactly this. He's very smart, energetic, playful, and alert. I think he might be crossed with some sort of herding dog (border collie?) or maybe a terrier. Barkley's only 17 pounds and although he seems pretty young, the shelter thinks he's full grown. He's a tad on the skinny side, but I wouldn't want to see him weigh more than 20 pounds at most. His teeth are beautiful, he's heartworm negative, and he's neutered. We're working on potty training reinforcement and constructive energy release (e.g.: no inappropriate chewing). He really just wants to play, but our three guys aren't too tremendously interested. Flea hates him, Bunkin says he's too old and crotchety for such youthful energy, and Oliver just wants to hump him to death. So we arranged a playdate for Mr. Barks with our friends' pup, Suzy Q. Suzy is a great match for Barkley in terms of size, age, and energy. They had a blast running around in the yard.

Barkley is available for adoption through DeKalb County Animal Services. If you're interested in him, please email jsmartinez@dekalbcountyga.gov for application information. He's going to make someone a really great dog!