Yesterday I got a puppy. She is a lady face who is 9 weeks old. She is believed to be a black lab/boxer mix with maybe a little border collie thrown in. She mostly is black with a little white down her forehead, on her chest, and on a few toes.
Her mama lived with a homeless man in his car. When she was a year old, he took her in to be spayed, to find out that she was pregnant. He knew that she had been around an un neutered boxer and a border collie. He gave mama to a rescue so that she and the pups could get the care they needed. The puppies never had to live in a shelter, and were raised in two lovely people's homes. The litter had 9 puppies. Three had wavy hair, similar to a border collie and the other 6 had short hair, like a boxer. 8 of them were black (with a touch or two of white) and 1 was cream.
On Sunday B and I went to a woman's house to look at the wavy haired puppies. One was very sweet and one didn't care about us much. Our little lady completely took to B, ignoring her mama and siblings so that she could play with him. She eventually curled up on his lap and slept for an hour. We also really liked the cream girl, who we were told was usually very shy but was interested in us from the beginning.
On Monday our three favorite puppies came to visit us with the foster. They jumped and ran around, but lady face again was the most engaged with us. All three of them went back home and we had the night to sleep on it.
Tuesday morning I was called and asked if I we wanted to adopt and who was our choice. I told her lady face! I got to pick her up that afternoon. We had a traumatic ride home. Our crate is too big for her and we hadn't made it smaller. She pooped all over the place and then slid around in it while going around corners. She howled, barked, and whined. It made me feel terrible but there was nothing I could do about it. Classical music and soothing words did nothing.
When we got home things got a little worse before they got better. I had to bring the whole crate in, complete with puppy, and had to get her out. I used a towel to swaddle her in and put her in the bathtub to try to clean her up a bit. It turns out that she hates water falling on her and will only agree to it being poured over her. We first tried the bathtub but it gave her too much space to run around, so we moved to the sink, which was a little too small but a better fit. I luckily had changed because she wouldn't agree to going under the faucet. I had to fill a glass with water and the pour it over both of us. She didn't mind being sudzed too much. I wrapped her in a towel and rubbed her off. She dried pretty quickly. I pulled out the hair drier just to get her extra dry and she seemed to like it. I think she'll be a swimmer when she grows up.
I penned lady face in the kitchen so that I could change into dry clothing. When I got back she was shaking from cold. I sat down and she climbed into my robe and proceeded to fall asleep. A half hour later B got home and started to play with her, so that I was able to clean out her icky crate. B then used rope and the kitchen rug to make the crate smaller and more cozy for her. We boiled water and put it in two nalgenes, so that it was like she had her litter mates to snuggle with.
She at a little bit of food but not too much. She really liked taking a few pieces of kibble and hiding in a corner with them. We think it's because her mama and litter mates probably stole a lot of the food. Lady face is pretty tiny, less tha lbs n 5 I think, and needs some fattening up. We aren't really sure how we're going to break her of this habit but we'll work on it. We don't want to find dog food around the house nor do we want the aggression that comes from food hoarding.
She happily went into her crate at bedtime. She woke us up at 1:30 needing to be taken out. She went pee but it was too cold for her to finish the rest of her business. After some warming up and re-warming the nalgenes, she went back into her crate and quickly fell asleep. She snores a tiny bit and its pretty cute. It might not be when she's a big girl but for now :) At 5 she woke up again. B braved the rain and took her out but she would have none of it. She came back in and made a mess, but she hasn't been at all house trained, so what can you expect? She then had to have a lot of cuddles to warm back up and go to sleep.
This morning she ate a lot more food and went potty outside. She was crated in the kitchen while I drove B to work and was such a good girl when I got back. She didn't bark or whine at all. She just sat in her cage smiling until I let her out. She brought a toy and we played together for a while. We moved into the living room, where we are now. She continued to chew on her kong. We discovered that she loves peanut butter. After a while she looked at me with her eyes and I picked her up and put her on my lap. She's currently sleeping, tucked into my robe.
We still have to name her. I've been told I can't name her skunk. It's so fitting with the stripe down her nose, but it has the negative stigma of being a dirty, gross creature, and I don't want my lady face to go through that.
No comments:
Post a Comment