Gosh…I’m not sure what to say about the Congressional Cemetery …except Congress gets peed on a lot there.

Mooch’s foster mom sent the following to prospective adoptors Stew and Karen upon reading their application:

My name is Trish I am Mooch’s foster mom. I looked over your application and I am very interested in talking to you. Let me take this opportunity to tell you a little about Mooch. Mooch has been with my family since August. Mooch is surrounded by people and pups of all ages and does wonderfully. On a regular basis he goes on play dates with up to 17 other dogs and has no issues getting along with anyone he meets, sometimes he will bark to say hello. He has a super soft coat, big brown trusting eyes, and a super sweet disposition.

Mooch came to us and was a very scared puppy he has come so far. Once you gain his trust he will do what ever you ask of him. When he first came to us it took a few days for him to come around us and about another two weeks to trust us completely. We’re not sure of what has happened to Mooch prior to him coming to us but we get a strong feeling that something has happened. He would rather you sit still and he will come and check you out with a sniff, then a little rub, and a nose push. Once he feels that he can trust you he completely gives himself over and wants nothing more than to be with you. He will greet us at the gate happily sitting to be the first to receive our attention. He gets super excited but knows he is suppose to sit to get attention.

Mooch loves to go for walks. Each morning my husband and I start off the day with a walk and he knows this routine quite well. The minute you go to where his leash is kept he becomes very excited and will take hold of your finger or hand and pull you towards the door. I do have to say every once in a while if your not fast enough he will herd you by a gentle bite to your rump (it’s not even hard enough to leave a mark). He is a great car rider. He will look out the window, and likes to stick his nose to the crack to get fresh air.

Mooch is the type of dog that wants nothing more than to please his people. He knows a couple commands: sit, come, paw, off, no, up, crate up, and he is working on other ones. He is smart and catches on fast. He loves to run, chase, and play. He can climb trees especially if there is a brown four legged tailed friend up there (we don’t say the “S” word). He will climb the tree on command if you pat the tree and tell him up. He hasn’t had the opportunity to go swimming yet but he will play in the hose, rain, and snow with out hesitation. He is completely house broken and hasn’t had a single accident since he has been here. The only thing he has chewed up other than his toys is a few socks, but he loves chew toys, balls, antlers, pop bottles, and tug toys. He is completely crate trained, he likes his crate if the other dogs are getting into something that they are not suppose to he will run to his crate to show he’s not involved. We currently have him sleeping in his crate when we go to bed and while we are gone. He is quite in his crate even when your home and he can see you. He knows that he has to be quite and sit for us to let him out and he does this happily. Our older dogs roam the house at night while Mooch and Udaya are crated and this doesn’t create an issue what so ever. We do this so his furever home doesn’t have a problem and they can decide which they like better. We do suggest that he is crated until he is used to his home for comfort reasons. We trust Mooch completely to be left free but until he has proved himself to you and learned your routine I recommend it.

Mooch has lots of strong qualities and is such a sweet boy but I do have to tell you he can climb and jump our fence and he is able to sit on top of the fence to watch the world. Now Mooch is NOT a runner and even if he climbs the fence he only runs the fence line and then climbs back over. He hasn’t ever taken off and has been able to do this since September. Our back yard backs up to two schools and he sees tons of kids, people, and dogs. Mooch will sit perched on the fence to see what is going on and sometimes he jumps to get a better look but if someone approaches him he jumps right back over. Other than this I can’t think of a bad thing to say about Mooch. He shows no signs of aggression towards anyone or anything. Your able to take food out of his mouth, put your hands in his bowl, mess with him while he is eating, take an antler or any other object away from him. He is willing to give any item to another dog, if another dog walks up and wants his food he gladly shares food, toys, and people. He is submissive to other dogs even when backed into a corner we have never seen him react aggressive regardless of situation. We have had him around children as young as 2 and he did very well, they ran all around him and gave him treats. We’re able to rough house with Mooch and when we want to stop he stops right away.Once you have read about Mooch and if he sounds like the match for you Please call me. He is a doll and we love this little guy, if we didn’t have our legal limit we would gladly keep him. 🙂 I hope to hear for you soon, if your intrested please call or email either email address with a good time to call. Thank you both for taking the time to read about this little guy.

Mooch had a great foster home in Michigan where he was being cared for by Trish and Tom and about four hundred thirty seven aussies.  Okay, maybe only four aussies.  But sometimes it felt like there were a lot more of them and they all seemed to enjoy mixing it up with Mooch.   To each of those dogs, we say “thank you!” for keeping Mooch humble and happy.

To Trish, Tom and their two boys, Tyler and Eric, we are very happy to have merged families and look forward to many, many years of membership in the “Mooch Mutual Admiration Society.”  We extend a heartfelt thank you  for sharing such a wonderful beast and allowing us to caretake this national treasure.  We will honor your trust.

With that in mind, we are sharing some photos from our first week with The Amazing Mr. Mooch.  Please add your comments to the photos by clicking on them, or you can add comments to this page.  Any and all thoughts or recollections are super welcome!