Sophie and her new cat brother, Gizmo. Gizmo loves having a dog in the house again!
Dear Gailee,
We continue to make progress. By last night everyone was back to their old routine, except for Pumpkin, and even she was making progress. Yesterday Pumpkin made a few appearances downstairs. And last night we think they had their first face-to-face. There was a big commotion on the stairs, which we did not see, but we heard a lot of hissing. When the dust settled, Pumpkin was upstairs and Sparkles was downstairs on the couch. Today, Pumpkin has been cruising around downstairs a lot, while keeping an eye on Sparkles. And as I watch them tonight, they are actually hanging out in the same room some. So I think Pumpkin has made the transition. I just hope that Sparkles has...she seems a little intimidated by the cats hissing.
Sparkles still is not eating much. But she is really interested when we are in the kitchen preparing a meal. We are guessing that she has consumed a lot of human food in her previous life, but we are holding the line on that. She did eat a couple of doggie treats today and will eat dog food for a while as long as you hand feed it, morsel by morsel. But we figure that she will not let herself starve and will eat when she gets ready and feels comfortable.
She is so very calm and good in the house, but is really into her walks and just walks my feet off. I think she must have really loved running behind your house with her dog brothers in the conservancy land. She will like it when we can get back to our place in South Dakota where she will be able to run more freely. I think she will like it there.
Gizmo absolutely loves Sparkles. Annie and Buttercup are indifferent and pretty much leave her alone as long as she leaves them alone. Today Annie did take over one of Sparkles' favorite beds, one of the blankets you left for her. We went on another ride this morning and Sparkles seemed much more relaxed today. We left her in the car for a while and when we came back she was sleeping. Then this afternoon we gave her a little test. We left the house for about 30 minutes to run some errands and left her in the house with the kitties. When we got back, she was on the couch (that seems to be her favorite place when she is feeling bad). She was really glad to see us and was wagging and babbling and telling us all about it. She did just fine.
I think about Bear and wonder how he is doing. Have you taken in another rescue dog so that Bear has someone to go to work with? Hope all is well with you there. Take care.
Mary