Staff writer Maggie Monsrud volunteers at the Orange County Animal Shelter. Each week, she will write about a dog at the shelter who's up for adoption. You can visit the shelter's website here and see last week's post here.
This week, I have the honor of presenting you with the one, the only, Carissa.
Breed: Brown and White Hound
Gender: Female
Age: 5 years old
Carissa was a ball of energy. The second I put the leash on her she was ready and rearing to go. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but Carissa is a pretty big dog—probably the biggest dog I’ve written about so far.
But here’s the glorious thing about that: she actually knows she’s large and in charge and compensates for her size. When I played with her, she stayed low to the ground and never jumped too high, which makes me think she’d be perfect with children of all sizes.
I also had the opportunity to bathe her and it was an absolute dream. I don’t know if it was the hound in her or some other magic, but she loved the water. For such a large dog, I was worried it would be difficult to bathe her, but actually it was the exact opposite. She stood still the entire time, loving the attention and the warm water.
She also had this interesting habit of setting her head in my hands. When I’d proceed to scratch her ears, she’d make this grunting noise which sounded like an old grandpa going, “Mhmm.”
Needless to say, I loved getting to know Carissa. If you’re at all interested in adopting her, please visit her Orange County Animal Shelter link here.
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