Day 7: Welcome Home

I took this video of what Princess does when I come home from work.

I know it's sort of dizzying.  I'm sorry about that.  She runs in circles around me, that's hard to avoid.

It's nice to see her so excited and happy.  Now we just need the right family to want her to greet them when they get home from work!

This post completes my week-long blog of Princess.  I may post occasional updates, but I think daily posts are not really needed at this point.  She has made great progress from shy and scared to  happy and excited. My work here is almost done.

Thanks for reading!

Day 6: The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis

As many of my fellow fosters of shy dogs will attest, the greatest part of the process is watching them come out of their shells (or cocoons  to continue the analogy).  For various reasons, we have many shy, scared dogs come through the rescue.  In Princess (and Lady)'s case, that is mostly likely caused by having come from a hoarding environment where there was insufficient socialization with people.  So when you first bring the dog home, she hides in a corner (or a book case) and doesn't want you to touch her or even look at her.

But over time, most shy dogs will learn and adapt.  They learn that humans are not all bad; we provide food and water.  They learn about petting and chasing toys, treats and kind words.  They learn that leashes don't have to be scary -- they can lead to fun walks.  I wish that these were things that she had learned earlier in life, but Princess seems to be getting the idea.

When I'm on the couch, Princess is happy to jump onto my lap and lick my face (and especially my nose).  She likes to snuggle at bedtime.  She follows me absolutely everywhere I go -- even more than my own dogs do.

And when I get home from work, she gets so excited she can't stand still.  She runs around me in circles and happily lets me put the leash on her so we can go for a walk.  It's quite a contrast from the girl who was afraid to even see a leash in my hand on the first day.

Just think, a week ago, she didn't even know I existed, and now she's thrilled to greet me.  Saturday, we will be off to the adoption event to try to find her a new home.  And when she finds one, she will need some time to adjust to the new people, new house, new schedule.  But within a week, she will be just as thrilled to see them.  She will follow them everywhere, lick their noses, and gaze at them adoringly.  

That's why I foster shy dogs. Because just spending a little time teaching them about love will give them a foundation to join a forever home and live happily ever after. 

Day 5: Can I look at a menu?

The dogs at my house eat Blue Buffalo. Gryphon gets grain free; Zorro gets the normal kind.  So Princess was also served Blue Buffalo kibble when she came here to stay.  On the first night, she declined to eat anything.  You may recall, she and the food just hung out in the bookcase.

That didn't worry me, because dogs a new environment will often not eat on the first night.  The next day, I left her with the bowl of food on the floor and took Gryphon and Zorro out of her way so she could eat in peace.  When I came back, the bowl was empty, so I was happy that she ate her breakfast.  However, subsequent evidence has come to light suggesting that the food that morning was actually eaten by Duncan the cat.

She didn't want to eat again on Saturday night.  By then I was starting to worry that she hadn't eaten anything, so I mixed some wet cat food in with the kibble and left her with the food in a closed room to prevent theft.  She ate all of the food!  The next morning, I offered her a bowl of kibble, but she turned up her nose at it and tried to figure out how to get up on the table where the cats' food was being served. 

Since I don't actually want the dogs eating wet cat food on a regular basis, I then set out to convince her that she should eat just the kibble. That took some doing.  Today, she actually ate both of her meals with no wet food.  Although I do have to keep offering her food. She'll eat a little and then wander off again.  Since Zorro is always on the prowl to eat her food, I keep having to move the food bowl towards Princess and away from Zorro.  

Unrelatedly, I am reminded today of what a great dog my Gryphon is.  Twice today he had a stuffed animal under his paw, for him to chew on.  Princess walked over, took the other side of the toy in her teeth, and pulled it carefully out from under his paw.  She then lay down about a foot away from him and proceeded to chew on each toy and pull out all the stuffing.  And Gryphon didn't do anything about it. He just looked at me with gentle confusion and accepted it.

Day 4: Making Friends

One thing that's important for a new foster dog is to form good relationships with the resident pets.  Yesterday I posted a few pictures of Princess bonding with Zorro.  She's also making good progress on becoming buddies with Gryphon.

They have a similar interest in stuffed animals.  Today, I saw them taking turns chewing on that blue stuffed animal toy, even though there are a dozen other toys either of them could have chosen from.  It's funny to me how much she likes stuffed animals, since that was such a big activity for Lady too.
I took a couple of short videos of Princess with stuffed animals.

Meet the Dog Walker

Due to my work schedule, I have a dog walker that comes in at lunchtime and walks all the dogs.  So when he came today, he met Princess.  Since I happened to be home sick for the day, I was there to introduce them, which hopefully makes the transition a little easier on her.  She was definitely shy and scared, but she went with him pretty well.  He reported a successful walk  After that, she was ready for a nap.

She also spent some time in the backyard today.  She really seems to like the patio. 

She's also getting along well with Zorro most of the time.  Although she does keep asking him to play with her, and he says no.

Day Three: Settling In

Princess seems to be adjusting a little better.  She snuggled with me in bed last night, and she even gave me some kisses!  She continues to enjoy bringing tons of stuffed animals into bed with us, and then destroying them.

We had a nice walk this morning.  She is really picking up leash walking quickly!

Today is the first day that she braved getting up on the couch to sit with me.  She previously curled up in the little white poofy bed on the floor.  I could tell she was curious about getting on the couch, and I knew she could jump high enough, but she just wasn't ready to take the leap before today.

Once on the couch, she spent her time chewing on stuffed animals and cuddling up to me.  She even licked me in the nose just like Lady used to do!

Day Two: Our First Walk

First thing in the morning, it's walk time!  Princess did not seem terribly familiar with walking on a leash, but she picked it up very quickly.  She seemed to enjoy seeing the neighborhood and sniffing around in the grass.

Afterwards, she was happy to snuggle down for a nap.  She also made her first visit to the backyard and ate her breakfast.  So, the day was off to a great start!

So far, she is doing well with the cats.  She tried to play with Duncan, but he told her to back off, and she did so.  He's met a lot of dogs in his life, so he isn't intimidated by anyone. 

Day One: Meeting Princess

Princess came into the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation about 6 weeks ago, along with her sister, Lady. They were previously in a hoarding environment, so they are shy, scared, and not very well socialized. I fostered Lady for a month, and she found a wonderful forever home recently.  So, it was now Princess's turn!

Princess has been staying at the Lost Dog Ranch since she came into the rescue.  I requested that she come up on the van to attend the Saturday event at the 7 Corners PetsMart, so I could take her home.  We took her off of the van still in her crate, since she was terrified, shaking, and had been car sick.  We brought her into the store to ensure that she wouldn't try to run away when we took her out.  She immediately sought places to hide in the store, and wound up spending most of the event under a table with the boxes.

I took her home, and she was still extremely frightened.  I introduced her to my dogs, Zorro and Gryphon.  She eventually also met my cats, Myst and Duncan.  As luck would have it, several shelves on my bookcase are empty, because Gryphon kept eating the books.  Princess decided that the empty bookshelf was a perfect hiding spot.

She didn't end up eating any of her dinner, but that's not unusual on the first night.  She does seem to be cratetrained.  She actually seemed pretty happy to go into the crate when I went out for a couple of hours.  At  bedtime, she curled up in the bookcase, so I left her to it.  After an hour or so, she crept carefully into my bedroom.  She figured out the doggy steps immediately, which is unusual.  She wandered around the bed, trying out different places to sleep.

She kept leaving the bed and coming back.  It turns out, she was gathering stuffed animals.  When I woke, there were at least 6 on the bed, and she had pulled the stuffing out of a few. Her sister loves stuffed animals too.