Odds and Ends… Mostly Ends

Zoe graduated from obedience class on Monday. In a way, I’m relieved that classes are over. The instructor was great, but I was hoping that there would be larger dogs Zoe could interact with. She had also developed this habit of burying her face in my crotch mid-class to try to rid herself of her Gentle Leader. That was slightly awkward.

Laurie, I’m sure this is the last thing you want to read about today, but I had to share: I was cleaning up the back yard, and Zoe squatted. I use a 2-piece contraption with a rake and a pan, and I placed the pan under Zoe’s butt as she was doing her business. She kept on going, and I was spared from clawing at a soft, gooey mess in the grass. Good work and good timing, Zoe!

Two of the lab pups are available for adoption at the Humane Society today. I’m sad not to cuddle with them, but happy that they’re going to be adopted soon and that they’ll be in a more relaxed environment. The Humane Society is going to screen adopters pretty carefully, to ensure that they end up in the right homes after getting such a rough start. Pictures don’t do them justice, and these pages probably won’t be up for long, but here are Molly and Sally. Molly’s the one who likes to cuddle, and Sally is the more playful one, although they seemed to switch personalities when I was there on Sunday.

Things and Stuff

I decided to run a few errands yesterday before going to volunteer at the Humane Society. Because I had put on no makeup, hadn’t washed my hair, and wasn’t wearing the most attractive clothing combination, I inevitably ran into someone I knew, right? As I was walking out of Kohl’s, cursing under my breath at the woman who had tried to walk into my dressing room as I was pantsless, I saw one of my former supervisors and his son. They were getting some last-minute supplies for a week at the lake. Despite my qualms about my appearance and initial demeanor, it was great to see him and catch up briefly. Our visit made me realize that I’ve really started to miss a lot of things about working at that company, especially the people.

So, on to the reason I was wearing grungy clothes: The Humane Society has some puppies that need socialization, and I was on my way to play with them. There are four yellow Labrador puppies around six months old, and they had spent their entire lives in a barn with little human contact. And they’re absolutely adorable, so it’s painful to see how shy some of them are. They’ve made great progress in the few weeks that staff and volunteers have been working with them, and they should be available for adoption soon. Because we’re working up to the amount of contact and petting we do, they haven’t exactly been bathed yet.

One of the female puppies is a complete cuddle hound. She’ll crawl into your lap and demand head rubs (much like some Boxers I know). Another is really active and just wants to play all the time. She’ll do well with a more active household. The third female puppy is just starting to warm up to people. At first, she was happiest going on short walks around the shelter, but she’s beginning to crave human contact and she even licked my face yesterday. The male puppy has the farthest to go. He wasn’t included in the socialization program initially, and it’s been a huge sign of progress for him to take treats out of our hands. I’m hoping that he’s young enough to overcome his fear of people, and if we continue to make our sessions a positive experience, he’ll come around. The girls all get excited to see us when we enter the kennel area, and someday I hope the male dog will do the same.

When I walk in the door, I am greeted with curious sniffing from Zoe. I’m still a little paranoid about disease even though she’s had her vaccinations, so I’m careful to wash my hands before leaving the shelter, and stepping in the bleach solution they have outside the kennel area to sanitize the soles of my shoes. I always throw my clothes in the laundry and take a quick shower. Then I give Zoe lots of attention so she doesn’t feel like I’m cheating on her with other puppies.

We’re still on the lookout for New Dog #2, but it will probably have to wait for a month or so. Tim has some out-of-town business, and we’d both want to be there for the initial bonding. We have another vacation planned in August, and we don’t want to send New Dog #2 to the kennel without having him in our home for several weeks first. #2 does not indicate his dog status in the house (or an affinity for leaving presents for us in the yard, I hope).

We have a few requirements: 1. Must get along with Zoe. (She’s pretty affable and I don’t think she’ll be too picky, but I want this to be fun for her.) 2. Must be crate trained. 3. Must not be a fan of marking furniture, walls, etc. (We haven’t had boy dogs before, and we’re already feeling a little awkward about belly rubs.) 4. We need to like the dog on its own merits, not just as a companion for our current dog.

I’m feeling a lot less anxious about the search, but I do want to acquire New Dog #2 soon, before we all become complacent with the one-dog status of our family. I think Zoe will ultimately be happier with another friend around, and as a result, so will we.

Lazy Summer

We watched the first episode of Greatest American Dog. I set up a season pass on TiVo, although I’m not sure I’ll be able to stick with it for the entire season. Honestly,  it’s for Zoe more than for me. If she’s paying attention, she knows when dogs are on TV and she’ll stop and watch. But with her short attention span, this lasted for about 5 minutes. It was still extremely cute, though.

Speaking of cute, obviously, we’re rooting for the Boxer (Presley) and his owner. (It also helps that they’re not fans of dogs in costumes.) Their bio notes that Presley’s strength is visual commands, so I’ll have to remember that as I’m working with Zoe. She does know visual commands for sit, down, and stay. I’m not sure if this is a dog-specific thing or a breed-specific thing, though.

Zoe has decided that she’s a lap dog lately. This works out well if she’s not interested in bathing her nether regions, and if she’s not gassy (which happened to me on Saturday when she decided to play butt trumpet on my lap on the bed– at least Tim was amused).

We’re still trying to take her for walks whenever the weather allows. There have been a couple days when it’s been too hot, and a couple others when it’s been raining, but for the most part it’s been decent. We’ve been going around the neighborhood rather than into the woods. It’s a flatter route, but that way she gets to see her human and canine friends more often. There’s a woman who lives in the townhouses close by, and if she’s sitting on her porch she’ll wave and say “hi, Zoe!” It’s one of the highlights of our walk.

Who Are the Boxers in your Neighborhood?

On Monday, my car decided to save fuel by turning off during traffic stops, except that it’s not a hybrid, so it was more scary than helpful. Luckily, it happened when I was close to home so I was able to drive it to our neighborhood garage and then walk home. I had my laptop with me, so I worked from home while Zoe slept on the couch in the office, looking adorable.

When Tim got home, we took a stroll around the neighborhood. There are two boxers living near us. One is white with brown ears, and even though he’s tethered in the front yard a lot of the time, we see him on walks (usually at 6 a.m.) so we know he’s getting some attention.

We also met Colby, a flashy brindle male about a year old. Colby’s owner let the two of them sniff each other and play a little. I was hoping that would calm Zoe down before obedience, but she shifted into play mode, wanting to sniff every dog she saw. She did get a little interaction with the shepherd mix puppy, so that was good.

When she got home, she went into comedy/instigator mode. First she chewed the side of the laundry basket we use to hold her toys. Then she decided to see what was in the garbage can. Finally, when it was time for bed, she jumped up on my side and plopped down in my spot just as I was getting ready to crawl into bed. She must have found a note from our previous dog.

Catching Up

Remember that time when I said I’d try to at least check in once a week? I seem to have jinxed myself. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Two weeks ago, we stopped by Chuck and Don’s Pet Food Outlet in Mahtomedi, where MN Boxer Rescue was having a meet and greet. We met Maya and Uno, two of the female dogs that were currently available for adoption (Maya has since been spoken for, hooray!). Zoe was really excited when we got out of the car. I thought I’d try it without the Gentle Leader for a while, but that turned out to be a bad idea because she was pulling so much on her regular collar that she was choking. But once we put the Leader on, she was fine, and she even mellowed out enough to lay down for a few minutes.

Everyone was surprised to see how good Zoe looked. Many people had seen her at the height of her mange, so people were pleased to see how shiny her coat was and how much she’d filled out, due to her foster family’s excellent care.

We learned something odd about her previous owners. In addition to not wanting to treat her mange properly, they were so cheap that they didn’t even want to surrender her with a collar or leash. They had planned on breeding her, but couldn’t because of the mange. Unfortunately, they probably went out and got another female dog right after they gave her up.

I’ll forever be grateful that they made the decision to surrender Zoe, because otherwise she wouldn’t be with us now. However, she was not treated very well while she was in their care. They didn’t give her a lot of attention, and all she really wants is to be loved. We’re trying to make up for that lost time.

We’ve started going to obedience class, which has been a good experience for both of us. The first night she was extremely distracted and found it very hard to focus with four other dogs in the room. When we practiced commands at home, she picked them up very quickly.

I felt like a delinquent the first week when I realized that I forgot to practice one of the commands, and I worried that my dog was going to fall behind in class, but she’s doing well when she’s able to focus.

The second week, she was able to pay attention for about a half hour, and things went downhill for the last half of the class when she decided she was more interested in a staredown with the Bichon mix a few feet away. She’s the largest dog in her class by about 40 pounds. She gets some sniffing in, but I was hoping there would be a few bigger dogs there so she could get some more play and socialization. Despite the size difference, it’s still good for her to be around other dogs.

We’d like to start looking for some canine companionship for her. We have a couple vacations coming up, so we want to make sure New Dog #2 is settled first.

Walk on the Ocean

We had a great time in Atlantic City. I loved how most of the casinos were right on the ocean, so if I had a bad gambling loss (for me, anything around $50 for the day), I could go outside with the fresh salty air and sunshine on my face, and immediately feel better.

I got a minor sunburn, due to not finding a small enough sunscreen bottle to fit into my carry-on luggage, and not being focused enough to buy a new bottle upon arriving. But after this long winter and cool spring, it was wonderful to feel truly warm again.

I thought about Zoe every day and missed her terribly. Abby had been so used to being boarded at the vet that it was part of our routine, but with Zoe I felt like a parent leaving her small child for the first time. I was also nervous that Zoe would think she was being abandoned again.

But Zoe was in great hands, and there was no need to worry. When we picked her up, she was happy to see us. She hasn’t learned to give us the guilt trip yet (I wonder if she will in time… she has such a different personality). The vet techs had placed some Bil-Jac treats (her favorite) and some of her food in the hollow spaces in her red bone. That small detail made me really happy.

We spent the next few days laying around the house while Tim returned to work. And tomorrow it’s time for me to go back as well. I keep telling myself that it will be good for Zoe to get back into a routine and catch up on her sleep. She had two walks yesterday and a long walk today, plus lots of fetch, so she hasn’t been getting her usual naps.

Time Heals

Zoe still doesn’t like her Gentle Leader, and her new thing is to rub her face along the ground in the grass when we take her for walks. This was cute the first day, but not as much the second day when she rubbed so hard that a couple places on her jowls were raw. We washed her face thoroughly and applied Bacitracin, but she keeps trying to paw at her face, reopening the wounds.

To give her jowls more time to heal, we used a harness instead of the Gentle Leader for a couple days, and she did pretty well with that, although it’s a little harder to steer her where we want her to go. The harness rubs against her chest, so that creates its own set of problems. I might try to attach moleskin or some other adhesive to keep it from rubbing.

Zoe shares Abby’s trait of standing exactly where I want to be. If I need to open a cabinet in the kitchen, she’s in front of it. If I want to walk into the other room, she walks slowly in front of me. Those Boxers, always at the center of everything.

Friday would have been Abby’s eleventh birthday. It was the kind of day she would have loved, perfect for a walk in the woods. We gave Zoe enough hugs and attention for two dogs. It’s still difficult, but having Zoe around definitely makes things easier.

Blech

It must be the week for dog sickness. We all know that they’re going to get into stuff and it’s going to come out one end or the other.

On Thursday, as I was getting ready for a meeting at 7:30 (in the morning, mandatory, and definitely not scheduled by me, but at least there was bacon), I heard what I thought was Zoe coughing in the living room. She’s done that occasionally, and not regularly enough to be of major concern, so I thought she just had something stuck in her throat. “Something” was her entire breakfast, a bowl’s worth of partially digested kibble.

She’s only thrown up a couple times since we’ve had her (unlike Abby, who had a technicolor yawn about once a week until she started chemo, and then she rarely vomited after that– go figure). And until Thursday, she did it outside, which was quite helpful to me. I mean, if she’s got to do it somewhere… we still clean it up, but I can be less meticulous about cleaning the grass than the living room carpet.

Nature

Weird… I thought I’d already published that last post, but here it was sitting in the draft folder. My goal is to try to post around once a week. I feel guilty spending too much time on the computer. I’ve been updating my resume and my portfolio. There have been some recent events at work that made me realize it wouldn’t hurt to explore other opportunities. Even though I’ll always appreciate their flexibility with Abby’s situation, I no longer report to the same person who allowed that to happen. But enough of that.

We were on a walk in Reservoir Woods a few days ago, and as we were walking up the steep hill near Dale Street, I wondered aloud when Zoe was going to see her first deer. Sure enough, just before we left the woods near Victoria Street, we saw a deer crossing the path ahead of us. Zoe’s ears and tail perked up, and she stopped and raised one of her front paws. The deer trotted into the woods, and Zoe trotted right after it until she reached the end of her leash. She kept pulling in that direction, wanting the chase to be on. I’m not sure if she thought it was a really large puppy to play with, or a really large furry creature to hunt

We saw an osprey yesterday. Luckily, it was far out of Zoe’s sight. She likes to think she can chase the small birds in our yard. I don’t think she realizes she can’t fly yet.

On a different walk, we were on a path next to an open clearing, and she started doing her own reenactment of the opening credits of Little House on the Prairie, bounding through the tall grass. Her foster family described her as part deer, part Shetland pony, and that’s pretty accurate.

I’ve Grown Accustomed to your Face

It’s hard to believe she’s been with us a month already.

For a while, there was part of me that would look at her face and expect to see Abby, because that’s what my brain was used to processing when I would see a dog in the house. But their faces and temperaments are so different. Both adorable, but individual personalities. I’m really happy she’s here though.

We gave Zoe a heartworm prevention pill for the first time. She took the pill out of her food dish, spit it out a couple times, and then chewed on it for a while. I was so excited that she ate the whole thing without us deceiving or prodding her… until I found the fully intact pill under the chair in the living room. I offered it to her again, and she proceeded to suck all the liver-flavored coating off, leaving a bare white pill. I gave up and wrapped it in some sliced turkey.

Her favorite toy is a red squeaky ball with a rubber rope attached. The squeaker is extremely loud, so naturally she would gravitate to the most obnoxious toy in the house. We’ve learned to put it away at night so she doesn’t surprise us with a loud noise. She’s chatty with the toy, too. She’ll make the toy squeak, and then she’ll answer with a loud howl.

Zoe found a frisbee in the back yard, and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. She pawed at it several times until she flipped it over, then she carried her new treasure back to me. I threw it and she chased after it, but this only lasted a few minutes. Our dog has one of the shortest attention spans I’ve seen.

She also found a frisbee in the dog toy box in the house, and decided to use it as a chew toy.

We opened a new bag of food today, but Zoe wasn’t terribly interested in it. She ate it as usual, but she wasn’t too excited. Abby used to go nuts when we’d bring a new bag of food home, often boycotting the last few cups in the old bag so she could get a dish full of fresh food.