Cosmo

I don't know if I've told the whole story of Cosmo on the blog, so here it goes. New Rattitude's Webmaster, Bethany, alerted me to a forum thread over on rat-terrier.com about a dog who was likely going to be surrendered to a shelter in southwest WA or northwest OR. It seems a rat-terrier.com person had read about him on an online Jeep forum and had tried to convince the person to get Cosmo (then called Buddy) into rescue, to no avail.

The people who had Cosmo had adopted him 6 months ago from a shelter and he had been the model dog up until 2 weeks ago when he nipped at their 5 year old. No adults were around and they said it was out of character for him but the decided to return him to the shelter nevertheless.

We learned he had ended up in Warrenton, Oregon at Clatsop County Animal Control so I contacted someone there and asked if they release dogs to rescue organizations. They had Cosmo listed as a corgi-mix (huh?) but it was obvious to people who have been around rat terriers that he had some rattie in him so we started to try to find him a foster spot. I had an open spot since our foster Buzz can't fly to us until his sarcoptic mange is finished being treated so we told the shelter if he was still there in a week we would find a way to transport him up to the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Well, New Rattitude's 'Tude News editor, Susan, had also been reading the thread over on rat-terrier.com and she happened to have an old friend who lived near Warrenton who might be willing to help us out. She was contacted and agreed to pull Cosmo from the shelter. Even better, she happened to be going on a kayaking trip to the San Juan Islands over the weekend and could drive him all the way to Federal Way from Warrenton for us. Talk about luck!

So on Friday, Mr. Cosmo arrived in Federal Way and we took him home. He is such a sweet dog - very quiet and not at all demanding. He gets along great with the other dogs and has the most hilarious habit of "singing" along when music is playing. The shelter papers say he's 7 years old, however, from his teeth, eyes and no gray in his coat, my guess is more like 5 years. He weighs about 18-20 pounds (guessing).

We also discovered that he was having some type of allergic reaction and had red sores all over his belly. The vet at the shelter had sent an antibiotic that he is taking and my guess is that this is a grain allergy. We see this a lot at the pet store where I work. I feed grain-free dog food and supplement with fish oil, so we will see if things clear up. I know that he probably nipped at the little girl because she tried to pick him up and touched one of the sores. He's very protective of his belly which looks to be extremely uncomfortable right now. I'll take him to our vet tomorrow to double check about my guess as to allergies.

I try to keep him in a t-shirt to keep him from licking the hot spots too much. Phoebe, who has a little dermatitis on a spot on her back is also wearing a red tee and since she is also black and white, she looks like Cosmo's mini-me. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/7248979@N08/3540905546/ )

Everyone has settled in well and the pack has been very accepting of Cosmo although for once Frodo has decided that he is the alpha and is bossing Cosmo around a bit. Cosmo takes it in stride though and backs off whenever Frodo throws a fit.