At the two and a half week mark, it has been an amazing amount of progress in the lizzie front. She is almost unrecognizable from the shy, retiring hound that we first met at Alyce’s house on April 16. She plays, she zoomies in the yard, she uses the dog door (at least when it is dark), she is affectionate, she is a toy whore, and she loves treats.
But it is not all skittles and unicorns.
Yesterday, after I left for work, Barbara heard the distinctive crunch sound of an inappropriate toy. Yep, the Tivo remote has bought the farm. Oops, we will get very good at hiding the remotes. She is a chewer, not an eater, so I didn’t have to look for the tell-tale black plastic parts in her stool. She also nibbled on a rattan laundry basket (since replaced with a Rubbermaid hamper).
Did I mention that she snores? Not Mastiff “shake the windows” snoring, but she saws a pretty mean log.
She also has gas. I know she can hold her stools for a long (insanely long) time, and that often leads to toxic emissions from her hind quarters. Peee-ewe.
She has an affinity for peeing on carpet. We can leave the door open, and pee pads everywhere, and she is pretty good about hitting the pad with her stool, but she just seems to like hitting the carpet. Thankfully, the Bissell SpotClean ProHeat Pet is easy to set up tand handle those messes. Funny thing is, she is mostly house trained. I suspect these mistakes are her way of rebelling about being left alone.
She has an unnatural affinity for tags and labels. Any toy with a tag, first thing she does is get at the tag with her teeth and tear it off. It is like she is OCD about tags. (side note, when I got her bitchen’ Hotdogs custom collar, I was moving the tags, and needed to find a larger split-ring for her collar. While I was getting it. her tags were on the coffee table. I came back and they were not there. Finally, I found her in her crate with the tags (they are rubber-banded together to prevent the shaky-head noise maker). She is weird.
She is a morning owl. 3:00 AM is her wake up time, and while we don’t yet trust her to have full access to the house while we sleep(something that I hope changes soon), that means that I have to get up to let her out. Then playtime begins. This leads to …
House ZOOMIES. Seriously, back and forth in the house with toys. If I dare to try to get some more sleep on the couch, then nope, she isn’t going to let that happen. She is doing more and more zoomies outside though, and hopefully as she continues to settle in, she will come around to a more reasonable schedule. Please.
She is the first girl dog I have owned. Many people complain that their urine destroys the lawn more them male dogs, but that isn’t strictly true. It is just that girls tend to dump their bladder all in one spot, where males typically spread out their pee. Garrett, our dear departed greyhound male, for the last year or so sould stand and pee on the grass. I was constantly repairing spots in the grass. I anticipate the same with Lizzie.
She eats twice a day. A cup (measured) of kibble, with a heaping tablespoon of some Wellness wet food. Currently, the schedule is 5:00 and 5:00, but hopefully we can shift that. She is amazingly good at eating (after dealing with a geriatric Greyhound that had food compatibility issues, and towards the end a lot of specially cooked goodies to heep him fed). We are feeding what we were told his prior foster was using, a high quality Merrick grain-free chicken and sweet potato blend. She is doing well on it. Why change something that is working, eh?
I can hardly wait to get her fitted with the GoPro dog harness and start making Lizzie-Cam videos. Yes, I am easily amused.
In short, Lizzie is now an essential part of the family. She has won the rescue lottery, and has become a welcome addition to our household. I am sure there are more surprises to come, but so far, she has done amazingly well, all things considered. I do want to get her comfortable with walking, and I suspect she will be able to accompany me on longer hikes and walks (I enjoy solitary 3–5 mile walks).