5/15/08 - Melly Belly is doing great. The shelter actually named her that and it really seems to fit her. She is a big girl and it should be interesting to see how much she weighs. I will be taking her on Monday for her Wellness Exam.
We have been taking two small daily walks with Melly and while she started off super slow she is picking up the pace. She is great on the leash but she does start panting quickly. We decided to see how she would do being left alone downstairs at night and she is doing great. She sleeps either on her dog bed or the couch and we think she is more content there. She is crated when we are out of the house though. Yesterday, Melly showed off her voice. We are getting a new back door and someone came to measure it. Well, Melly made sure I knew he was here. She also finally played with a toy last evening so I think that she is finally coming out of her shell!!
We are still having a hard time getting her to eat more than just beef but we are trying and hopefully we will find the right combination of foods for her.
We hope to introduce her to our two boxers this weekend and I will update on how she does with them. 

5/10/08 - Yesterday we picked up Melly in Binghamton. Thanks to everyone that helped get her there. Right away she just wanted to be petted and loved. We have family there so we took her to stretch her legs before she had to get back in the car. Melly currently has a very running nose and a cough but was sent with antibiotics so we hope to see improvements in the coming days. Also from the stress of the day she was shedding quite a bit. We spent some time brushing her and she really seemed to enjoy it. On the ride home I sat with her and she laid down next to me the whole way.

Once home my husband walked her around the neighborhood and she was wonderful on the leash. She doesn't walk very fast though and was moving stiffly. She didn't want to eat for us last night but she was drinking water so we decided to try again in the morning.

This morning we found out Melly doesn't like to go down the stairs. My husband finally had to carry her as she wasn't moving. So, we have moved her crate downstairs until we can work on the stairs with her. She isn't very playful yet but she does have a cold so as she feels better I'm sure we'll see more boxer wiggles and a little playfulness. She finally ate some food this morning. We went and got some beef for her and she ate it right away. Seeing she is crated downstairs our two boxers have seen her and everyone is curious but we are going wait until she is better to really introduce them.

Melly is a sweetheart and we look forward to seeing her come out of her shell and really show us her boxer personality. Right now we just want to make her healthy.

5/5/08 - We are working on quite a few owner surrender intakes, but we always give priority to the shelter dogs. They are the ones that really have a time limit and then are put to sleep in high kill shelters. The owner surrenders don't usually have any such limit.
So, Melly, and her brother Roscoe, were turned into the shelter. I am finding out about them today, as much detail as I can, which is not usually much.
Any offers to help will be greatly appreciated, and save a life too.