All About Razzie
Meet Razzie!
If there’s anything you need to know about Stef & Ethan it’s that for years now they’ve wanted to adopt a dog…
Ever since we moved in together 5-ish years ago we knew one day we’d get a dog. We’re both big big big dog people. Stef has had dogs in her family since before she was born, including her currently slow moving but still kicking it, 14yo SharPei mix, Ty. Ethan didn’t have any family pets until recently— about a year ago his parents got Goldendoodle puppy named Sasha— but Ethan’s always been around shop dogs and/or had friends with pets (interestingly, Ethan is Ty’s favourite person!). As much as we wanted a dog through all of this time, and despite the number of times we stopped into the Toronto Humane Society and casually looked through rescue sites, we knew it wasn’t the right time. Fast forward to now and we’ve gone from living in a house with friends to our own apartment, our work/life balance is much better, we have a great and trustworthy relationship with our landlords, so we realized: all of the stars have aligned, we’re ready!
Funny enough we got the go ahead from our landlords for this right as the COVID outbreak started so we were thrilled to finally take this plunge but then had to put everything on hold because everyone and all of life was on hold. We still looked through rescue sites every night and diligently followed Instagram and FB pages to see when rescues were back up and running again. We drafted up applications so that when the time came we could easily and quickly submit. We had a pretty specific idea of the kind of dog we were looking for, both physically and the type of personality so despite having a bookmark folder with 20+ rescues it was easy for us to say yes and no to who we wanted to apply for, and to not feel overwhelmed with options.
Fast forward to mid-May and we just happened to be doing our nightly browse on Redemption Paws and we noticed that that very night they were reopening their applications and there were 2 dogs that we were really interested in. We quickly submitted the application and a couple of weeks later we set up a phone interview for next steps. We were so anxious and nervous for it (what if I say the wrong thing, what if we’re denied) but everything was very easy going and the questions were pretty straight forward (there were no trick questions to purposely make you stumble or feel confused) which made us feel confident and like things were really happening.
Interestingly Razzie wasn’t our first choice dog (sorry Raz!!!) and we spent most of our interview chatting about another dog. After finding out that our top choice dog was on hold for another family that had interviewed before us (you can read about them in a Toronto Life feature actually- the first dog, Dublin!) Redemption Paws guided us towards Razzie with a detailed description about her, more photos, and even a FaceTime with her foster. As soon as we saw her on the FaceTime we were sold (well Ethan was sold either way and every so often let’s out an “I told you she was the one”). After we committed to her 110% we had about a week to gather all of our necessities then one Sunday evening we went for an IRL meet and greet. Due to COVID/wanting to limit everyone’s interactions and travel, we said “I do” on the spot, signed all the paperwork, paid her fee, and then brought her home all that same night!
Unpopular opinion but we have never been interested in getting a puppy
We were/still are very firm on adopting/rescuing a dog— for the obvious reasons of there being so many strays in the world, not wanting to support breeders/being anti-puppy mill, etc. but we also don’t have the patience or interest in going through all of the puppy training— we always looked for dogs that were minimum 1 year old, but ideally we were looking for a 2yo. You can create as much of a connection with an rescued dog, if not more, because you’re giving them another chance at life and providing them with some much needed love, affection, and other good things (a home, food, toys, maybe even clean water!) that they never had before, and for that they’re thankful for you! We also loved the idea of adopting because you have an opportunity to pretty much select what kind of dog you want— someone else learns all about them (their temperament, their likes and dislikes, etc.) and you select from there (again, looping back into us not wanting to train a puppy or deal with puppy energy lol, it’s too much for us and we know that). We knew we wanted a medium energy dog— someone who can be chill at home but someone who can play, and who loves being outside and can go for long walks or a hike and keep up— and that’s exactly how Razzie was described and is still like now! She fits so perfectly not only into our lives but into our lifestyle which we were very mindful to look for.
One day Ethan found Razzie’s Petfinder listing, which allowed us to find her original shelter in Texas…
And from there we found a volunteer run Facebook page for the shelter where there were many posts about Razzie (previously named Jazzie). It turns out that she was surrendered by her previous adopters and spent 8 months (!!) in the shelter going to adoption event after adoption event with no luck of finding her people. Her adoption fee was $50, then $25, and then was later sponsored so you didn’t even have to pay to adopt her, but she still had no luck in connecting with anyone which is really hard for us to wrap our heads around- we connected with her immediately, we were actually surprised at how easily she warmed up to us on the night we met her/brought her home! From the older photos they posted of her (see below) she didn’t look happy and was incredibly skinny, in some photos she looks like such a different dog than the one who is sitting beside me peacefully sleeping right now. Since we found their FB page we sent them a message update about how we had adopted her and even sent some photos which the group resposted. It warms our hearts so incredibly much to know how well she’s impacted our life and how much we’ve changed her life! The shelter responded expressing their happiness and thanks, and even said “she was with us for a while so she’s gathered quite the following” which was very evident in all of the lovely comments the post received! (Names removed from the FB comments for privacy).
Some Razzie Facts:
What breed is she?
We don’t know, but we are 99.999999% certain she’s part American Bully! The shelter in Texas guessed Pitbull/Lab, Pitbull/Shepherd mix (I spotted both guesses on different posts on their FB page), and even listed her as a Cur Mix on her transportation records when she was leaving Texas. The rescue here guessed Dutch Shepherd/Lab Mix (which we feel less inclined to believe). Both places take an educated guess about what she is and neither of them know for certain! Maybe one day we’ll get a DNA test…
How old is she?
We’re also not sure about this! In one of the FB posts from her shelter they say approx. 4 years old, but Redemption Paw’s vet guessed 15 months on her final check up before we adopted her! She’s definitely young.
What are her likes and dislikes?
Foooooooood, all the food all the time! I accidentally ordered her food from Wooftown and set the subscription to renew every 1 day, they emailed to cancel the order because obviously it was a mistake, but our first thought was “Raz wouldn’t mind this”. She also loves toys and sticks— she’s a power chewer and can destroy things (only her toys and her food so far which is great) in minutes! She very much loves us as after only a couple of months of having her she already has some separation anxiety that we’re working on. It’s great for her recall though, for example if she sees a chipmunk up at Ethan’s cottage she’ll only chase it until we’re out of sight then she’ll run right back because she just wants to be with us all the time haha.
So far we haven’t really discovered things she doesn’t like! She’s quite resilient and reminds me of Ty in a lot of ways insomuch that you can do anything to her and she simply tolerates it. Based on her history with her shelter in Texas and rescue here she doesn’t love other dogs, but we’re working on getting her to tolerate/co-exist around them. She’s made a lot of progress in the time we’ve had her, and while she may not necessarily playfully engage another dog it’s in no means a make or break for us.
What happened to her foot?
L o l about 1.5 weeks after having her she got loose in Dufferin Grove, did a zoomie, and came back limping— we don’t know what happened or how it happened but somehow she broke her toe. Luckily it was her back pinky toe which is already non-weight bearing so after having a splint on her foot for a few weeks then a soft bandage for a couple more weeks to keep her off of it, she finally is back to having a free foot! With getting a dog we absolutely anticipated extra costs and even emergency funds, we just didn’t expect this to happen as soon as it did haha. We’re excited to finally get her in the water at Ethan’s cottage now and let her fully run around!
Where else did you apply for dogs?
Loooots of places! Here are some of our favourites in no particular order:
Save Our Scruff - out of everyone we follow they seem to have puppies the most! We’ve followed them for years now and Stef once shot their Scruff Social!
Bullies In Need - A bully specific rescue who was number 1 on our watch list because we were looking for a bully breed; they clarify which dogs are “Ontario Safe” and which are not! Their application is the longest that we submitted as they want to ensure you are aware and to some extent knowledgeable on bully breeds, and the BSL law. I won’t lie, it was a tough application but it’s quite worth it and we appreciate them wanting to be thorough. Bullys are great in so many ways but aren’t as easy as a Golden Retriever for example, and they also carry a huuuuge stigma!
Dog Tales - This place is like the real version of “I wish I could just get a farm and adopt a bunch of dogs”. They’re great and mainly have larger dogs!
Petfinder - A great general resource that’s like a directory for various rescues and humane societies, so you can find a lot in one place!