Hi Carol -

Wanted to take a minute to thank you again for our absolutely wonderful boy!!! He is an angel. He got in the car yesterday and was quiet as a mouse. Poor guy did get car sick and upchucked all he had eaten earlier on the first leg of the trip.

Also want to thank you for your pictures. It made me cry to see what horrible shape he was in last Summer. Believe me, he will NEVER experience anything like that again. As our friends said today when we took him over to meet them, "Well, Dreyf may not have figured it out yet but he just got to heaven withOUT having to die to do it!'

I decided right after leaving the shelter that I wanted to get him cleaned up on the way home so I called information and got the name of one of the PetsMart stores in Ft. Worth right next to I35. We stopped in and got him a new collar and leash and had him all groomed, trimmed, teeth brushed, ears, nails everything done. He was absolutely PERFECT thru the entire ordeal! And is he gorgeous or WHAT, now that he is all cleaned up!!!

Two of the grooms said they wanted him if we decided we didn't (fat chance!!) and simply could not believe how wonderfully docile and behaved he was! Half the people in the store couldn't decide which of our two boys was more scrumptious! Then a potty break and back in the car for the rest of the ride home. Introduced him to our other four (plus all the cats who paid not one WHIT of attention to him). Everyone has been very well behaved with Dreyf -- and of course he has been absolutely PERFECT!! We simply cannot get over how good he is. He has been curious about the cats but not very. A couple of sniffs was about it.

Anyway, the entire time has gone swimmingly. He ate well last night and this morning and drank tons of water (did have to quickly figure out some new things for the water bowl area now), then explored inside and out. He stays very close to where I happen to be (aw, shucks) so, when we went to bed, we put the four dogs in their crates then just got into our bed. Sugar Bear is never crated (nor was our Bouvier) so we decided to try Dreyf just out in the house. He promptly followed us into the bedroom and laid down and slept on our floor the entire night. Not one whimper or pacing or anything but sleeping!! What a boy!

Elliot and I are both absolutely amazed at how delightfully well behaved, quiet and social our boy is. I'm calling the vet in the morning for his 'get acquainted' visit and rabies shot. And I'll take pictures of him all spruced up and send some to you.

I did quickly figure out that he is NOT comfortable out in the outside world! Both when we were going into then out of PetsMart yesterday, then again today when we walked over to our friends with him, Dreyf was exTREMEly nervous -- looked exactly like the strays you see running around, pacing, smelling, ducking, trying to get between my legs. So I'm convinced that that brings back very bad memories for the poor baby right now.

I have already started working with him on leash to heel, sit and stay so that he learns the world actually is not a frightening place given the right circumstances -- and that he never needs to worry about fending for himself again! We'll get to the 'down' command once he is okay with the others, since, as you know, that is the toughest/most submissive for dogs to do. Even when we get dogs as new babies none of them are too keen at first on 'down'. I figure Dreyf will need a couple extra weeks of the first three basics first and he can begin to get comfortable that we are okay and he is safe before doing 'down'.

Did we ever thank you????? What joy you've brought into our lives!

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And with that to build on, we can only say that we'll continue to post updates & new pictures as they come to us.