I always got a kick out of seeing pets suited up while displaying a stressful look on their faces. Paulie was no different. Since we live in the midwest and the winters are brutal, I searched around and purchased the most expensive outerwear I could find to keep him warm. Some were heroes and others were zeros. One sweater was made out of wool and very pricey. It's the striped one at the bottom of the page. The very first rain coat was the school bus yellow with reflectors. The hood was a bust because Paulie couldn't see where he was going and the draw string was a pain to deal with. It did keep him dry, yet, when he went and due to his size, the undercarriage would always get soiled. The best sweaters were from Chewy.com and were basic cable knit style that he wore all the time in the house since he was always cold. We called the red one the Mr. Roger's one and for his Santa pictures, I bought a red, plaid bowtie with this sweater. Paulie was adorable!

Over the course after a few weeks, we saw Paulie's true personality come through. Some good, some bad. Since we didn't know about his past life, we were actually training an old dog new tricks. It was very clear that Paulie was seriously a reactive dog. Taking him on walks was very stressful. He would bark at everything that moved. When he saw other dogs, and especially when I was walking him, he would get all fired up, trying to break loose of his collar to run towards the dog. A few times it was a coyote! We figured that his past owner was an older lady for which he was very protective. I was at my wits end every time we walked. Immediately, we contacted a trainer at our vets office for help. She came for a few hours to teach us the basic skills and left. Well, that did nothing. We were then told of a 5 week dog training class which was an hour away. On our initial meeting, Paulie was very excited and the staff told us their class would fix him. After shelling out more money, My family and I went to the orientation with other dog owners. This didn't tell us anything new. The following Saturday, my husband drove as I sat in the back of the SUV with Paulie, enroute to attend our first class. Upon arrival, I saw a major issue as we entered the training room. The other dogs and their owners were all in the same room, separated with a partition. The dogs knew there were other dogs there so the barking started for 90 minutes. By the time we left, we were frazzled and was now dealing with a dog who was a hot mess. I guess we liked punishment because we went back the next week. Things weren't getting better, however, we figured let's keep on going. During the second from the last class, clicker training was introduced. That sealed the deal. Paulie didn't like this method at all and again, we were presuming he associated the clicker with something bad.  After that, we never went back.

A few days after Paulie passed, I started hearing sounds throughout the house. I remember when Killer, our cat, passed, the same thing happened. Those sounds didn't start until much later. My husband would have deemed me crazy so I didn't say anything to him at first. I shook it off and went about my business. In the middle of the night, I heard something. It was a low toned snore, not a human snore. Paulie's bed was in our bedroom by our tall dresser on my side of the bed. When Paulie was really tired, he would bark in his sleep and feet would be flying. Then the snoring erupted. My husband was out of town so I knew it wasn't him. Not knowing what to do, I sat quietly upright in bed and waiting for it to happen again. Maybe Paulie knew I was waiting as it was so eerily quiet.  I was starting to get upset because my husband wasn't there and I didn't know what to do. Then all of a sudden, it felt like the bed frame was being bumped against gently by something or someone.

Rich always wanted a dog to take on road trips and vacations. When you are living with all men, it's a lot of work. A month after we adopted Paulie, we pretty much figured out that taking him on vacations were out of the question. Stopping for walks and potty breaks weren't the issue, it was taking him to a pet approved hotel and being around other dogs that was the deal breaker. We talked about trying it once, however, we chickened out. Driving hours away to relax then have to turn around because of dog issues was out of the questioned. It wasn't Paulie's fault. He was the product of bad, previous owners. All we could do was make the best of it and move on and enjoy this little dog.

We were waiting for the magic moment to happen. When Paulie settled in and started being a senior dog in retirement. Right when we thought that was happening, Paulie changed course and we were starting all over again. It takes a lot of patience to handle a reactive dog and be quick on your feet to respond. Since I was home, (pre-pandemic) most of the time and taking online college courses, the only time Paulie would be calm is when he was in his crate, (door open) with me in the office. As soon as I got up to walk across the room, he would leave the crate and follow me. This went on all day and I don't know about him, however, I was exhausted watching him. From time to time, I would sit on the floor by the crate and sing my "puppy dog", song that I made up. During this time, he still had his hearing and eyesight and sense of smell was 100% intact. Also, he was very fast and slick when he would run to the front door. He was always on edge, afraid something would happen to me. Much later, I heard the term, "velcro dog," and by all means, he was exactly that.

First thing on Sunday, November 2, 2014, my family and I set out to the local pet store to buy doggie provisions. A gentleman greeted us at the door asking if we needed help. "Yes", I proclaimed as we explained to him we needed all doggie stuff for our new addition. Many of the items were difficult to figure out like collars, harness, bed and especially dog food because we didn't know what Paulie was being fed. We knew he was around 14 pounds for the collar and harness, however, I wanted to make sure. We figured the shelter would supply a collar and leash when we picked him up. A piece of advice on dog food, if you ever adopt a cat or a dog, ask if they can give you a bag or enough food for a few days so you can buy more later. Mixing foods can cause nasty things if the pet isn't weaned off one when being given a new one. No one told us this and the outcome wasn't good.

 The afternoon after we brought Paulie home from the shelter is when I got to work on social media. I had this idea to journal Paulie's day to day activities to help others better understand what it was like to adopt a senior pet. Needless to day, I had no idea either so we were all going to learn together. My first group of people were the friends already on my Facebook page. After most of them like his page, I needed to figure out how to reach many more. Now, back in 2014, Facebook allowed you to create a community page that was attached to your main account. In order to advertise your page, you paid a daily amount to boost it. So, I started boosting his page going the cheapest route like a few dollars a day for a week. I was able to get a few people to like his page within that week so I upped the boosted amount and waiting to see what happened. What helped was setting up the filters to target a certain age group, etc. and that's when things were starting to happen. Within a year or so, we had over 1,000 followers. Many of the original followers stayed the entire eight years we had Paulie. 

A few years after Paulie's Journey was created on Facebook,  I decided to write a poem that would take the reader through his adoption journey. While standing in my kitchen, I took out my phone and on the Notes app, started punching it out. From start to finish, 10 minutes. Not too shabby for a novice, if I do say so myself. I had my husband read it and I got the thumbs up. From time to time, I would make minor changes to it and then consider it done. I wasn't sure about posting this on Paulie's Facebook page because I didn't know how it would be received. A week later, I did post it and was well received. Many of his followers told me they cried after reading it. I wasn't expecting that response and wasn't sure if that was the reaction I had striving for. A few months later, I was invited to recite the poem on Facebook live to the followers for the shelter. We were promoting an upcoming fundraiser for the shelter and since Paulie had a large following, many in which followed the shelters Facebook page, putting a face to his page was suggested. By the time I was finished reading the poem, the manager of the shelter had tears in her eyes. I tried very hard to keep my emotions in check while I read the final verses.