********Rio Update from his Foster Mummy Rose *************
All Rise for King Rio !
Well, it’s been almost 7 weeks since King Rio joined us so I think it’s time for another brief update.
He’s still as good as gold in the house; he remains 100% clean and destruction free. He still insists on stealing most of the bed and when Joe goes to the loo, Rio is sprawled out across his pillow on his return. He also likes to snuggle up in Kayla’s dressing gown so in the end she gave him it. Good job she has two! Jaimee has a cabin bed so although Rio can’t climb in with him, he stands on the bottom rung of the ladder when he goes in to say goodnight.
We gave him his first bath, which he wasn’t really keen on so I doubt it’s something he has experienced much of in his past. He did let me wash him though so he smells lovely and fresh! Next time, I’ll arm myself with treats to keep him calm.
He experienced his first trip to the McDonalds drive thru and the kind man serving gave him a beef patty, which he loved. He said he was such a good boy sat in the car! Rio loves going out in the car, he sits really well in the front foot well; especially if I put the foot heaters on for him!
Uncle Dean still takes him out a couple of times a week and we pay him with haribo and wine gums for his services (his favourite). He loves his uncle Dean!
Rio still loves a good old scrat along the fence, so much so that the grass is looking rather sparse from the amount of times he does it! We had a man come and stain the fence the other day. Rio kept indicating that he wanted to go out, so I thought he needed a wee. Silly me, he just wanted to go say hello and have a stroke. I had to laugh at Joe, who had to follow Rio around the garden to make sure he didn’t cock his leg on the wet bits!
He helped me and Grandad sort the garden out today. We cleared out the old bike shed ready to take to the skip. Rio thought it was great running in and out of it! As we were clearing all the old bike bits, Grandad tried to take a bike wheel to the tip pile. Rio had other ideas and pinched it off him, the little tinker! I told grandad he could have it to play with (it was just the rubber tyre, no metal bits lol) and Rio had great fun playing tug with it and throwing it around the garden. He kept flipping it over his head but it was the same length as him so all he managed to do was continually trip himself over, daft sausage! We kept that tyre to one side since Rio liked it so much. Who needs expensive toys when there’s so much fun to be had with bike parts!
Rio is so much better on the lead now. The only time he pulls is when he sees something of interest, such as a leaf, a bush or a discarded crisp packet. He does pull at first, but that’s the same with most dogs so it would be unfair to judge him on that. He gets himself in such a tizz when he knows he is going out as it’s all very exciting to him. He will sometimes bark when I get his harness but stops again when we leave the house. All he is doing is telling me he’s looking forward to his walk! He does still bark at other dogs when he sees them, but then again the other dogs bark at him too. I’m sure they’re just saying hello in a rather noisy manner. I have three teenagers so I’m used to noisy!
I often think that Rio should have been called Shadow since he follows me everywhere; even to the toilet! I have to lock the door when I get in the shower or he head butts the door and barges in. He doesn’t do privacy! He just likes to be close to you to make sure you’re still there.
Another new pet name Rio has adopted thanks to Michelle is Mr Mango Man! I’ve always been keen to add a good mix of (safe) fruit and veg into my dog’s diets but Rio is a bit of a faddy eater when it comes to anything other than meat. I discovered he will only eat carrots if they are cooked. He has a new found love of blueberries too, which is great as they are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fibres. The most comical (and VERY diva-ish) taste test was mango. I usually buy fresh but they were a bit unripe so I bought the pre-packed ones. Again, Rio had a sniff and looked at me as if I was trying to poison him. That was another one ticked off the list. A few days later I was making a fruit salad and he was watching me as he usually does as I potter about in the kitchen. I said to him ‘you don’t even like mango’. He cocked his head as if I was speaking in double Dutch, so to prove my point; I gave him a piece of fresh mango. Can you guess what happened next? Yup, he blooming loved it! How stupid of me to even attempt to give him pre-packed rubbish when fresh is far better!
I had to call the plumber out tonight as my boiler is leaking through my ceiling. The poor bloke only managed two steps through the door before Rio was there to greet him. That boy is like Usain Bol down the stairs! The plumber spent more time fussing over Rio than he did fixing the boiler! He has a Staffie himself and also used to foster so it was lovely to chat to a like-minded Staffie lover. He said he couldn’t believe how well behaved Rio was, which was lovely to hear.
As a lot of you may know, my children and I recently took over the Moorview Instagram account and it is doing really well. In the space of a couple of days we’ve had over 100 new followers! The posts are generating a lot of likes and we’ve had some lovely comments with one chap saying how nice the page was. How can it not look nice with such gorgeous doggies to share?! I do a ‘Dog of the Day’ feature and one of Riley’s collages I did made the ‘top posts’ section out of over 260,000 Lurcher posts! How amazing is that?! If you’d like to follow the account, the name is moorviewrescue.
I did say this was going to be brief (lol) but Rio has been having so much fun, trying new experiences and just being Rio that I had to share them with you. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as we do sharing them with him xxx
Rose Yi York
Rose Yi
Hands up if you love FRESH mango!