The Hat Thief

The hat thief is tenacious, insistent, and unsympathetic. She’s motivated, resilient, and determined. When she sees a hat, and it’s within reach, there is nothing that will stop her from getting it. She is the best hat thief I have ever seen (okay, the only one too), and she makes me smile every time I see her succeed.

The Adoption

A year ago last October we adopted a 5-6 month old black and white puppy from a nearby rescue. We named her Ayla after the heroine in my favorite book series – The Earth’s Children by Jean M. Auel (I dare you to read the first book in the series, Clan of the Cave Bear, and not get hooked).
We didn’t know much about Ayla, only that she had been rescued from a high-kill shelter in Missouri, she had recovered from Parvo as a young puppy, and that she seemed to get a little excited when she went outside with her foster parents. This last admission turned out to be a huge understatement.

We took Ayla out on her first walk the day after we adopted her. Five minutes into the walk, she saw a dog walking a quarter mile down the road, and immediately put her buck up, started barking, snarling, and foaming at the mouth. My favorite was when she jumped like a fish out of water – trying to shake the collar around her neck. She wasn’t excited, she was crazy! In the next few weeks, we found that Ayla had panic attacks when we would put her in her kennel at bed time, she got very territorial around food and treats, and when she was tired, and someone walked too close to her, she would snap and growl at them. But, the strangest revelation I had was that I never saw this puppy play. She never seemed happy or loving. Did she even know how to play?

I was angry. My anger was not only for this little 40lb. furball of crazy, I was angry at the rescue for adopting out a dog with so many problems – especially to a family with children. I was so close to returning Ayla to the rescue, but something kept us from doing so. My family and I took Ayla to puppy training, we had an animal behaviorist come and work with Ayla at our home, and we continued to work with Ayla on a daily basis. Then, about nine months after we adopted her, something happened.

Ayla stole her first hat.

The Hat Thief

Ayla is part border collie and part Australian cattle dog, so her nature is to round up every moving thing that invades her sight. Last summer, my family was up at the cabin enjoying a warm afternoon on the hammock when Ayla began chasing the under side of the hammock, trying to nip at the kids and round them up. The kids were giggling as they tried to dodge Ayla’s quick movements. At one point, the hammock became unbalanced as both kids tried to pile up on the left side to avoid Ayla, and the whole hammock flipped.

Legs, arms, and bodies were flying everywhere before the kids landed in a heap on the ground. Before we knew it, a black blur ran by and sniped my son’s lucky fishing hat. This move was so unexpected that I immediately started laughing, and both of the kids took off after the hat thief. Ayla sprinted, dodged, and teased the kids in an intense game of keep away. Her tail was up, her ears were alert, and she seemed to have a spring in her step as she played.

Ayla was playing! For the first time since we had adopted her, Ayla was playing. She finally looked like a puppy – a happy puppy.

Happiness

It’s been another eight months since Ayla found happiness. Her behavior isn’t perfect yet, but she has improved by leaps and bounds. I like to say that we’ve learned just as much as Ayla has. The family has had to learn a patience we have never had to utilize before, we had to learn signals that Ayla was giving us when she didn’t know how to handle certain situations, and we had to learn different ways of training this smart and determined pup. Even though we’ve all been learning a lot, I’m happy to say that Ayla has held onto her puppy playfulness.

Ayla enjoys playing with her older sister, Brook, whenever our 14-yr. old dog is up for playing. Ayla has also found joy in playing with dog toys. She loves to catch her squeaky soccer balls, retrieve her tennis balls, and play tug-of-war. And, she has found that winter is her best friend. Why? Because everyone wears hats whenever they go outside!

When my family watches the hat thief in action, it makes us smile and laugh. Seeing the happiness, playfulness, and joy that has emerged in a puppy once devoid of all of this brings us happiness, playfulness, and joy.

What brings a smile to your face? I’d love to read about your stories of happiness?

*Update – Today Ayla managed something quite impressive. She was able to get my son’s hat out from under his bike helmet. She was sure proud of herself when that hat slipped off of his head.