Second Chances

by Barbara
(Clementon, NJ)

Hi, my name is Chance. I'm a Rottweiler/Retriever mix, I’m 1 ½ years old and I was rescued from a kill shelter this past Valentine's Day in Maryland...all my new friends were disappearing after 5 days - and I was getting a little worried because I'd been there for 4 already.

That very day some really nice people came and took me out of there. After a long ride in a van I was at another shelter in New Jersey where they took really good care of me but I was very scared and shy. I was there for about 2 weeks when my new mommy & daddy came by and saw me and before I knew it I had a shiny tag on my collar that said I belonged to somebody! Only thing was I was so skinny they told my new mommy that I was a Gordon Setter mix…she never would have taken me home if she knew who I really was (she just didn’t understand and would have been afraid of me because she thought Rotties were mean). As soon as I got to the vet the cat was out of the bag! But mommy learned all about me and loves this site and all the emails she gets from Jen!!

I even go to school on Saturday mornings now – mommy says I need a little work on my manners…and she wants to play games with me there called Agility and Flyball when I’m ready!

My new dad put up a fence just for me so I could run and play in the yard - I dug holes so deep mommy could only see my tail one day. I was really super good the first couple of weeks, you know, until I got all comfortable and all. That's when I started eating mommy's shoes and even made her a really nice pair of open toed leather boots. I was so pleased with myself, but mom wasn't very happy and started hiding her shoes on me. But she'd forget once in a while and I’d nab a flip flop every so often tee-hee!

I guess I just like mommy's things because I thoroughly enjoyed the new book she was reading - the pages made a really cool sound when I pulled them out! Then I wanted to see what kind of plans we had coming up so I took her day-planner out of this bag thing...even I don't know how I managed to get the binder rings open but it was so much fun pulling all the pages out and I only shredded a couple! I think she thought I was some other dog because she called me "no no bad dog". I don't really bother mommy's stuff anymore, except for her bra's...maybe it's the pretty colors but after she found her yellow one in the yard by my digging hole & daddy found me wearing one when he came home from work once – they still scratch their heads over that one - but I can't seem to get in the hamper anymore.

I sneak up on the bed but have a hard time getting settled - so I get booted off the island. But when morning comes and dad goes downstairs I jump up putting my head on his pillow and take a snooze with mommy until the alarm goes off and she has to get up - then I help her down the stairs by bumping her legs. Until she found out I was just herding her a bit she thought I was trying to kill her by throwing her down the stairs.

I'm sweet and playful, goofy as all get out and gentle when I need to be (like when mommy's noisy bird Lilly flew off her cage and onto my head - I picked her up and wanted to run and play with her but mommy wouldn't let me. I was very gentle and didn’t hurt her at all. My vet says I'm "a really nice guy!" on all my report cards and mommy loves me to tears...she lost her Sheltie "Shadow" last year in a tragic accident and swore she'd never get another dog...so I had some pretty big paws to fill. We're all taking a chance here - hence my name. But I have a wonderful family who loves me so much and this has been the best 7 months ever! For all of us.