Happy Beginnings and Follow up: 

COCO - Happy Ending

Coco came to “visit” us on February 22, 2003, just a week after her first birthday, and she never left. You can probably tell from the pictures how easily she settled into our household. It’s amazing that such a big dog can be so goofy! And boy can she jump.

From the first day she came to us she fit right in. She immediately established our daughter’s bed and bedtime as her own. We have to wake her for her last pee of the night! There was no adjustment on Coco’s part, but Shira is still getting used to sleeping with a 55-pound weight practically on top of her (you know how boxers cuddle). Once in a while Coco sleeps with me – I mean, ON me. When I described the feeling of having such a weight pressing against me my daughter replied, “Welcome to my world, Mom!”

We had 2 or 3 weeks of almost daily accidents in the house until Coco got me trained. We’re still hoping she’ll develop a way to tell us when she needs to go, but it’s been quite a while since the last dose of Nature’s Miracle hit my dining room floor so we must be paying attention.

Coco has never shown any behavior toward people that makes us question her gentle nature. She gets her back up, literally, when she sees a new dog, but we think it’s really just for show. She frequently romps with our next-door neighbor, a 9 month old golden retriever mix. The fact that Coco constantly outruns him leaves poor Stuart whimpering as he attempts to catch up with her. Quite a sight, those two. We paid our first visit to the local doggie park this week and Coco did beautifully with the other dogs. Being off the leash seems to make her less aggressive toward other dogs.

Coco just graduated from basic training class. She lost a sudden-death overtime round of “down/stay” by mere seconds. Now if she’d just pay as much attention to us at home as she did in class, we’d really be making progress!

This is our family’s first experience with a boxer and I doubt it will be our last. We tell everyone who will listen about Northeastern Boxer Rescue!