Names: Dusty (7 -ish y/o) & Cayenne (2-ish y/o)
Family Members: Brooke, Mighan (Brooke's Mom) and her hounds, Tiff & Meaux ("cousin dogs")
How long have Dusty & Cayenne been in the family? Dusty was adopted March 2010 and Cayenne was adopted November 2015
Profession: Disabled
Location: Snellville, GA
Nicknames: Dusty: Dust Bunny, Boo-boo, Boo, 'Lil Man
Cayenne: DQ (Drama Queen), Velcro, Silly Girl, Snugglebug
5 of the best words/phrases that describe Dusty & Cayenne:
Dusty:
- Loving
- Silly
- Entertaining
- Friendly
- “Stealth snuggler” (he very slowly leans toward me until he's practically in my lap, thinking I don't notice)
Cayenne:
- Loyal
- Loving
- Goofy
- Eager to please
- Super smart/quick learner
What makes Dusty & Cayenne unique? Dusty's mother was a small pittie and his dad was a Chihuahua. He has a lot of the typical Chihuahua personality traits. I joke that he’s a giant Chihuahua. He’s not too bright (tiny Chi brain in a 70 pound body), but he definitely makes up for it with the love he shares. My favorite puppy memory of him was when I woke up in the recliner one morning and he had crawled into my lap during the night. He couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 pounds at the time,very tiny…and when he noticed that I was awake, he started wiggling all over, and I could see his eyes smiling.
Cayenne is excellent at reading (human) facial expressions. I assume that it came from growing up on the streets. She knows happy, sad, angry, disappointed, without a word… all from an expression. When she's done something she shouldn't, I can often just give a look of disappointment and she understands that she messed up. She will slink away, looking back at me with an apologetic look and puts herself into a time-out.
Dusty showing his silly side!
High fives all around!
Sibs!
Rescue Stories: I had recently lost my 5 yr old male Am Bully/pittie to lymphoma
and my other dog (Kyah) was lonely. I stumbled across a picture of Dusty on Petfinder and it was love at first sight! I emailed the rescue and went to meet Dusty the following day...yep, definitely love at first sight. He wiggled his tiny butt and tail for probably 30 minutes nonstop! The rescue told me that the mother’s owner surrendered
him and his sister and said that his father was a Chihuahua. It was definitely visible at the time (8 weeks old). Here I was, expecting him to be maybe 40 pounds full grown (he's 70). I’ve always said that he wished himself as big as Kyah. She instantly took over as “mother” to him and was thrilled to have him join the family!
When I had to help my first pittie, Kyah, to The Bridge - she was 13 and in renal failure with severe dementia. (She was my furry soulmate and Dusty’s adopted fur-mom.) Dusty was distraught over the loss, so I went looking on the Fulton County Animal Services website. I kept coming back to a beautiful tiny pittie and asked if she could be
brought to an adoption event that was coming up, so we could do a meet and greet with Dusty. We arranged to meet the dog I was drawn to and the meeting went horribly. The tiny girl wanted nothing to do with Dusty! We met several other dogs as they came out of the transport van. There was no spark with any until the lastone…”Miss Cayenne Pepper”, who was on the shelter’s urgent list. She had been in the shelter for 10 weeks. My mother saw her first and waved the volunteer over to us. (My mother - who was actually against having another pittie, because my brother and his wife were about to have a baby. As sweet as Kyah was, she loved everyone too much. She could never be broken from jumping up on everyone she met, to smother them with kisses!) Cayenne came right over to us and sat beside me on the sidewalk as if she knew who we were. We went for a walk, she and Dusty did the obligatory sniff, then walked side by side, as if they had known each other forever. That was it. She chose us and Dusty was happy with the choice! I believe that somehow Kyah led her to us and she knew she'd be safe and loved unconditionally…even if she ate a couch (or two!), multiple dog beds, took a year to completely housebreak, etc…
A couple of months after adopting her, I reached out to the shelter to find out about her behavior there, since she was so terrified of strangers whenever we went shopping. The only real information I managed to get was that she had been picked up as a stray and had been running with another dog, who they were unable to catch. I did see a video of her on the shelter’s FB page, where one of the male employees was holding her like a baby and she had the biggest smile on her face - so she did trust at least one person before finding us. I have no doubt that she was abused at some point and she may never get past that. It takes her at least 5-6 meetings to get to where she’ll trust anyone.
Dusty in his new home.
Cayenne helping to sign her adoption papers.
What is your favorite pastime as a family? For Dusty, spending time in the backyard on a pretty day...chasing squirrels, leaves, anything moving in the yard.
For Cayenne, it's car rides! Since she has an intense fear of strangers, she doesn’t get to go shopping or to dog parks, etc., but she loves to ride in the car and is the best car dog I’ve ever had. She jumps right in the back seat and waits for me to clip her harness in, then sits down facing the window. She doesn't move around at all. Doesn't even make a sound. When we get back home, she patiently waits to be un-clipped from her seat belt and the leash re-attached.
What is life like since you rescued Dusty & Cayenne? Dusty can almost always make me laugh, whether it’s intentional or not. He’s one of the silliest dogs I’ve ever known, making Cayenne the perfect sister for him. Nine months after I got him, my life changed forever, due to a back surgery that failed and left me worse off than I was before. He and Cayenne now take turns on “nurse dog duty” when I’m in too much pain to really get out of bed for any extended period of time. He’s not often allowed to sleep with me because his bed manners are severely lacking - he wants the entire bed, of course. But, when he’s on nurse duty, he’ll just settle in beside me and snuggle. It’s funny how they just “know” when you need them like that. Of course, he was trained by Kyah, who was the best nurse dog ever.
Cayenne, HA! A lot more stress at times (she has severe separation anxiety), but she’s an absolute love bug to her humans. She even adopted the young boy next door as part of her pack and is very protective of him. I’ve had to research a lot about rescued street dog behavior in order to understand her. When I’m at home, she’s never more than a few feet from me. She’s my Velcro dog. I sometimes feel guilty that I’m unable to do as much with her as someone else might, but she chose me and she’s perfectly happy to entertain herself and play with Dusty in the backyard to run off energy. Give her a Jolly Ball and she'll keep herself occupied indefinitely! She also likes to play with her “cousins”, though Tiff is not too wild about her enthusiasm. I wish I was able to do agility with her. I think she'd be perfect for it and would learn it in no time. She has learned a handful of tricks and commands in a matter of minutes.
Photographers note: Brooke had mentioned to me that Cayenne was a little timid with strangers, so I didn't push to hard to win her over initially! She didn't bark at me or anything, would just run away if our proximity got a little to close for her liking. She did take some treats from me gently and by the end of the photo shoot, she would come pretty close while I was sitting on the ground. She even licked my fingers (residual treat goodness) and let me give her a couple scratches before darting away. She actually did really well with me and you could see it in her eyes she wanted to get closer but was still just not sure about this person in her yard. Now Dusty, well I don't think he has ever met a stranger. He was doling out the kisses liberally from the get go!
When I had initially asked Brooke if her Mom and her pups were going to be in the family shot, she wasn't so sure if it was going to work out. When I arrived they had decided to give it a try, which I so appreciated. It was quite an event with some very uncooperative pups, except for Cayenne; look at the perfect pose! Dusty decided he wanted to face his Mom and only show me his backside, Tiff and Meaux were just having none of it. They weren't going to cooperate even if I was holding the best treat on the planet. Brooke and I joked, I would pick the best of the worst of the photos! Needless to say, there was a lot of laughter and probably some frustration from the dog wranglers but sometimes the best photos are the ones less posed!