Seth’s Journey from Rescue to Forever Home
Seth came into foster care already a senior dog, underweight and easily startled. He’s now providing his family with unbridled love and enthusiasm.
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Seth’s Story
There’s one question we get asked all the time about Seth: “How could anyone give him up?”
We got word that there was a lovely gold lab looking for a home and I went to meet him at his foster carer’s house. I was immediately struck by his gentle nature and calm face. I knew I couldn’t leave it too long to say “yes” as his first time foster carer was keen on keeping him! After taking my husband to meet him as well, we both agreed to give him a go.
He is the total opposite of our Jess, a Labradog Rescue chocolate lab. She’s a cuddles bulldozer. He just sits in front of you with his big dark eyes and raises a paw until you relent. He came into care underweight while Jess was almost 50kgs when she came to us! He tried immediately to remedy this by stealing a kilo of butter from the kitchen. This of course didn’t go well!
When we first brought him home he was hand shy, movement shy and loud voices startled him. Gradually he learned that humans were fun and he was safe and took us into his heart. He also didn’t like water. His first trip to the river was met with trepidation. While Jess did her best to coax him in for a swim, he never really got the hang of it. To this day, clam shells are not his favourite.
We learned fairly quickly that he is ecstatic about other dogs. He acts like a two year old on off leash walks as he gallops around exploring the world (and rolling in disgusting things) and look out if there’s another dog that likes to run! For and older boy, he can certainly put on some speed. While technically a senior dog, he’s constantly met with disbelief when people ask his age. Most think he’s five or six – not ten!
A couple of years after he came to our household, we moved to Canberra and our summers are spent visiting the lake and the river at Uriarra Crossing. He’s finally realised that water is fun – mostly because he watched all the other dogs running in and out of the water and if he didn’t join in, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. Gradually he’s learned how to swim without hesitation and while never one for fetch, his favourite game is bobbing for tennis balls (he sticks his whole head under the water) and throwing them in the air.
He never barks unless he’s super excited – if you ask if he’s hungry or if he wants to go for a walk, he will bark and dance on his back feet and twirl around in circles! Such a clown! He has a hilarious habit of chasing rabbits in his sleep – a most alarming thing when you hear it for the first time – growling and barking and running, all while he dreams!
Possibly my most favourite thing about him is his love of being close by your side. On a Sunday morning, while Jess prefers to sleep at the bottom of the bed, Seth will plonk himself down at the top and stare longingly into your eyes until he gets a hug.
So, when people ask, “How could you give up such a lovely dog?” I respond: “No idea. But we won’t ever give him up so don’t worry about it.” He has provided us with so much joy and love over the last few years and we look forward to quite a few more. Our baby boy joined our household this year and we did a little pre baby training of “Don’t go in the baby room”. Both Seth and Jess are great at respecting boundaries and continue to be happy inside and outside dogs at their choice, co-existing peacefully with a noisy baby.
Our family would not be complete without Seth’s beautiful face and it wouldn’t have been possible to adopt without the hard work and dedication of the Labrador Rescue team. Thank you to everyone! You’ve made our family very, very happy.
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