| MATTIE MAE'S STORY |
| Suzanne and I adopted Mattie Mae from our own Westie Rescue program. Her story is a good example of how difficult it can be to judge a Westie’s true temperament when considering a dog in an Animal Control shelter environment. Last August, I got a call from Pat Grecco, on the front desk at Dallas Animal Control, Oak Cliff shelter, telling me they had a stray dog they thought was a Westie. I drove down, looked at the dog, and found she was probably a Westie but was so dirty and matted that it was impossible to be sure. She also appeared to be very scared, shy, and inactive. I told Pat we would take the dog if she wasn’t reclaimed. When I rescued her a couple of days later, to take her to A&B Animal Clinic for a checkup and quarantine, she was so fearful of the other dogs in the shelter that she would not walk past them on a lead. I picked her up, and carried her out to the car. At A&B Clinic, she also refused to walk on a lead – just “dug in her heels” until I picked her up. She showed minimal interest in the clinic’s resident cats, and wanted to stay away from a large dog being brought into the clinic. I was worried that we had taken in a dog with some sort of serious problem, as she wasn’t acting at all like most Westies I had encountered – she definitely appeared to be ”lacking in self-esteem”. Suzanne and I had been considering adopting another Westie since we had lost “Fergus” in the spring, and our “Mandy” was so sick that she was spending nearly all of her time just sleeping in her crate. Our “Ian Angus” looked lost, and had no dog to play with. But Mandy was still the alpha dog, and I had been concerned that she was too sick to defend her alpha status, so I didn’t want to bring in another dog who might compete for alpha status. The dog I had rescued from Oak Cliff proved to be a reasonably healthy Westie, who appeared to have been sleeping in a muddy culvert! She was de-fleaed, some mats were removed and her skin treated, she had all her shots, and was spayed. The vet techs told me she had come out of her shell, and had been friendly with the people at A&B. Our Westie Rescue program was in a transition period, with no good foster care options, so we considered the possibility of fostering her ourselves. I expected that she would be shy, would not cause conflict with Mandy, and might play with Ian Angus after getting acclimated. I took her out of A&B for a short meeting with Ian and Mandy to confirm this – sure enough, she met them with her tail between her legs, and would move on the leash only when they weren’t right next to her. I brought her home the next day into our own foster care. Sure enough, she deferred to both Mandy and Ian when challenged, and initially accepted the position of “omega dog” in the pack. Then, the world changed. Only four days later, Mandy took a serious and unexpected turn for the worst, confirming our worst fears that she was in pain from a brain tumor, and we made the hard decision to let her go. The decision to adopt Mattie Mae ourselves became pretty obvious as she licked the tears from Suzanne’s cheek after we returned from the vet. During the next few weeks, Mattie began to play with Ian Angus, and we found that she really loved to play with tennis balls and other toys. During the past month, Mattie Mae has made it increasingly clear that she is no longer willing to cede alpha status to Ian Angus. Ian has lived with a succession of three female Westies. It has always appeared to me that he aspired to an alpha status which was denied to him, first by Cailee, then by Mandy. As Mattie Mae showed more feistiness, Ian Angus began attacking her, apparently trying again for alpha position. We figured that as long as there was no actual damage done, they needed to resolve the dominance issues themselves. In short order, Mattie Mae made it clear she didn’t appreciate, and wouldn’t tolerate, these attacks – Ian would go after Mattie Mae, and would quickly be chased into his “timeout corner” behind the couch, while Mattie Mae stood and barked at him, really “telling him off”! On walks, Mattie Mae barks at all the big dogs now, while Ian Angus stays close to me. Instead of a shy, fearful dog, we now have a Westie who it appears will be the alpha in our home. Instead of an inactive, inattentive, dog, we have a Westie who constantly amuses us with her antics, pouncing on tennis balls and throwing them around the room so she can chase them. And, instead of a potential “placement problem”, we have a very valued addition to our family. Marvin Katz |
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| Marvin's Biography |
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