The New Bed

9.27.2010

I recently upgraded my bed from a full to a queen.  It's a fabulous bed, but I think Guido may be liking it more than I do.

The very first night I had the new bed, Guido left his hiding spot under the bed and slept in the bed with Daisy and I.  He's slept in the bed with us ever since. (I realize I used the word "bed" a lot in that sentence, but I really couldn't think of another way to write it).

He is quite funny about it, though.  He refuses to sleep anywhere near Daisy.  Being the enthusiastic burrower that she is, she's always under the covers.  She's tiny enough that she sort of blends in; there is no tell-tale lump to see where she might be.  So Guido puts his nose to work.  He sniffs around in the air until he locates her scent, and promptly lays down on the other side of the bed!

Someday they'll be friends, Daisy and Guido.

What Dogs Are For

9.16.2010

It’s been a heckuva week at work.  Not a bad week, just one of those incredibly busy and emotionally exhausting weeks.  First, there was this.  I’ve been at the college all week with coworkers, assisting with the emotional fallout.  Throw in a couple of client crises, and 6 hours today spent sitting in the emergency room for purely red tape purposes, and I am fresh out of coping skills.

I have to admit that I wasn’t the nicest mom to the puppy dogs last night.  I wasn’t mean; I just had very little patience and didn’t give them the attention they wanted.  Tonight I got home 2 hours late from work.  I did my chores.  Took the dogs out for a walk and fed them.  And then I went into my bedroom to collapse on my bed and have my mini-breakdown, or what one might euphemistically call my attempt to “decompress.”

Before I had a chance to really wallow in my self-pity, both puppy dogs came racing through the apartment onto the bed.   I got a few kisses in the face before they raced off again.  They raced back into the bedroom, gave me a few rambunctious kisses, and raced off again.  Rinse and repeat about 6 times.

It’s really kind of hard to maintain a bad mood when the puppies are so excited and happy and energetically demanding that you join in the fun.

And that’s what dogs are for.  Well, one of the reasons, anyway.

Determining the Alpha

9.07.2010

I think Daisy and Guido are still negotiating who will be the alpha dog.  Guido is the more obnoxious one, but Daisy has a way of quietly worming her way in until she gets what she wants.

When it comes to toys, Guido rules the roost.  The bed, however, belongs completely to Daisy.

Guido continues to spend the night underneath my bed, and Daisy continues to spend the night in the bed, burrowed under the covers.

*She gets SO EXCITED when she has an opportunity to burrow under any sort of cover.  It’s quite comical.*

Last night, I discovered Guido curled up in Daisy’s doggie bed, looking quite cozy.  He also loves to burrow under covers (although not with the exuberance that Daisy does), and I’ve felt quite guilty that he has given up his cozy human bed to sleep on the floor.  So I thought it was nice that he was using Daisy’s bed.  I laid a throw over him so he could burrow.

Well, apparently Daisy’s exuberance for burrowing extends to any blanket object anywhere in the room.  She immediately jumped down from the human bed and kicked Guido out of the doggie bed, and took his place under the throw!  Guido didn’t even take the opportunity to claim the human bed while Daisy was out of it.  He went right back underneath the bed.

Poor Guido.

She's Playing!

9.06.2010

Okay, I am no expert on rescue dogs, but anyone who has ever adopted an older rescue dog will understand my joy and excitement about the fact that Daisy has started to play.

Daisy was home a couple of weeks before she and Guido started playing.  At first it would just be bursts of chasing each other that would last a few seconds, but gradually increased from there.

The first time they played, I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom, and didn’t even realize it.  But then I noticed that both dogs had raced by the bathroom door several times, and when I realized they were playing, I almost squealed with delight.  Hard to do with a mouthful of toothpaste.

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to get Daisy to play with me.  She would just look at me like I’d lost my mind.  I started trying different ways to play with her, thinking that perhaps I just had not discovered “how” she plays with humans.  And then I started to think that perhaps she has never played with a human and didn’t know how.  (silly, right?).

About a week ago, she started to respond when I’d play with her feet, or touch her on the nose with my finger.  But barely.  And then, oh my goodness. The other night, Daisy and I were on the bed and she really started playing with me.  Full on feinting, play snapping, bouncing around playing!!!  And if that weren’t enough, Guido joined in!

Guido would be on the floor, ready to be chased.  He’d look at me, I’d tap Daisy on the hindquarters, and she’d take off after him.  They would run through the apartment and then back to the bedroom, Daisy would jump on the bed to play with me, and Guido would wait on the floor for his turn again.  This went on for at least ten minutes.  Guido tired out long before Daisy did.

And that girl can fly!  I wish I could have videotaped her flying off the bed after Guido.

I cannot put into words the joy in my heart to see her playing like that, not just with me but with Guido as well.  I think she may have decided to adopt Guido and I after all.

Who Have I Become?

9.05.2010

Daisy gets her teeth brushed almost every day.

Daisy has also gotten a new hoodie for when the weather turns cold.

I swear, as I would say at work, these things are due to “medical necessity.”

Guido is not jealous at all that he doesn’t get his teeth brushed and that he doesn’t get to wear doggie clothes

Daisy Update

9.04.2010

One of the challenges of bringing a rescue dog home is that it is hard to tell if his or her behaviors are quirks, or if they might be health-related.

Turns out, Daisy was so sensitive about her ears because she had an ear infection.  Well, at least the vet thought it was an ear infection.  Her ear hurt so bad that she wouldn’t let the vet take a good enough look.  The vet prescribed some ear drops that Daisy absolutely hated, but that seem to have helped.  And it turns out she is not sensitive about her ears at all!

She is rather jumpy when you reach down from above to pet her around the head and neck areas.  I don’t know if that is a trust issue or if it is a result of being hurt in some manner in the past.  She is the calmest, sweetest, most well-behaved dog I have ever met, and it makes me very sad to think that she may not have been treated very well in her previous life.

The vet also examined her mouth and the rod on her left lower jaw.  He wasn’t so happy to see that it was exposed, but said that everything looked very healthy.  He even chuckled a bit about her wonky teeth.  (They really do stick out everywhere.)  He recommended a referral to a specialist who might be able to reconstruct things in a way that the rod would no longer be exposed.  However, that would be very expensive, and cause quite a significant amount of stress for Daisy.  We decided that as long as there are no complications, there is no sense in fixing something that is not broken, so to speak.

Daisy got a new boo boo her first week home.  I felt like such a horrible mom.  She got in Guido’s way while he was playing guard dog to a dog across the street, and his toenail took a bit of skin off her hip.  However, I am happy to report that both this boo boo and the boo boo on her back have healed quite nicely.  I’ve also noted numerous other scars on her body, so I’d have to say that Daisy is quite the daredevil!

Daisy's Gotcha Day

7.24.2010

Thursday, July 22, 2010, was Daisy’s Gotcha Day.  In the adoption world (people and pets), Gotcha Day is the day your adoptee comes home.
I had planned out Daisy’s Gotcha Day very carefully.  My IG-Min Pin mix, Guido, is not the most social little dog in the world so we had a visit with the behaviorist and a visit to Daisy’s foster home a few weeks ago.  So you can see that I wanted to be very intentional about how Guido was introduced to his forever sister.  I was going to leave a bit early from work, run to the apartment to get Guido, drop him off at my mom’s apartment, and then drive up to St. Joe for little Daisy.  When I got back into town, I planned to go straight to my mom’s place so Guido could meet Daisy in a somewhat neutral but familiar setting.
I didn’t get a chance to leave work early.  I got to the apartment, switched out the big work bag for a more manageable purse, loaded up Guido, and headed to my mom’s place.  It wasn’t until I pulled into her place that I realized my key to her apartment...was in my work bag!!
My mom was a savior.  I called her at work in a mild panic.  It was a few minutes before she was off the clock, but I knew she had a doctor appointment after work.  I knew I didn’t have the time to wait for her to get home and let me in.  Besides, we are currently in the midst of a heat wave, and my choices would be to wait in the car or to wait outside.  At this point, I was all set to throw my thoughtful plan out the door and take Guido up to St. Joe with me.  However, my mom very generously offered to skip the doctor appointment and come straight home from work.
When she arrived at the apartment, I apologized for her missed appointment.  She said it was okay, she’d just tell the doc she had a “family emergency.”  After all, she said, we were adding a new member to the family tonight!!
All in all, I was only a half hour behind schedule when I arrived at Daisy’s foster home.
Daisy was a little shy, but gave me lots of kisses.  I think she remembered me from my visit a couple of weeks ago.  She also gave her foster mom lots of kisses.  I could tell they would miss each other very much.
Daisy was (and so far, still is) the quietest, calmest dog I’ve ever seen in a car ride!  She cried a little bit on the ride home.  After all, I imagine she was very confused.  But she was quiet overall.  Every once in a while I’d look back and I'd see these huge, dark, iggie eyes peering at me from the crate.   She was so precious I just wanted to pull the car over and give her big hugs!  But at this point, it was already about 8:00 in the evening.  It was time to be home.
We got to my mom’s apartment around 8:30.  Guido came outside, smelled Daisy, and decided he would be okay if she came inside.  My little Guido was so good with Daisy!  It only took about half an hour before I was comfortable letting them both off-leash and wander around the apartment at will.
That first night was a late one.  We got home around 10:00.  By bedtime, Guido had decided he’d had enough of this new dog, and spent the night sleeping on the floor under the bed (in a location that I’ve come to call his “safe spot”).  Poor guy.  Unless he is not feeling well, he always sleeps under the covers at the foot of the bed.  Daisy, however, wasted no time in making herself at home.  She immediately burrowed under the covers and claimed my body pillow for her own.  Guido came to join us a few times in the middle of the night.  However, once he realized Daisy was still there, he’d jump off the bed and go back to his safe spot.  He did join us around 5:00 in the morning, but was careful to sleep far far away from Daisy.

Daisy's first evening at home went by very quickly.  However, I don't think I could have asked for a better transition for her.  I already feel so lucky to be Daisy's mom.  I think that she will have a lot to teach Guido and me.

A New Direction

It's been a while since I last posted.  Okay, it's been a LONG time since I last posted.

Fear not, friends.  I have new inspiration!  I recently (like, two days ago) added a new dog to the family.  A Carefree Mind of My Own will now be a place to share stories, the ups and downs, of adding a rescue dog to the family. 

You can read a little bit about Daisy in the profile at the right.

 
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