Night and Day

What an incredible difference! Saturday night, we didn't put her in her crate. We left her in closed into the family room/kitchen with the crate opened and she gave us lovely wolf howls all night. Her voice is not nearly as loud as Ziggy, so it was not annoying. It did, however, keep us from getting a good night's sleep. But that was Saturday night, and we had Sunday to recouperate. Last night, we put her in her crate, after she had another nice long walk with H. I was, of course, unbelievably tired from all the walks. It's like all that exercise simply whetted Kira's appetite for more exercise, but it beat me up! I'm not used to all that walking up and down hills, at a quick pace. This morning, I awoke with sore calves, sore shins, sore ankles and sore thighs...but my heart was anything but sore.

This morning, H got up at 5:30 to give her a long walk. He was delighted that, when he opened the crate and ignored her to feed the cats, he found her standing behind him wagging her tail at him. How gratifying is that! He lavished her with praise. Then he let Daily loose to come upstairs and snuggle with me while he walked Kira. Daily had to make sure he was still my main man. He was so cute, stretched out next to me, patting me with his little kitty paw, putting his face into my hand, holding my wrist, purring and chirping at me. Where did these great animals come from! And yes, Daily is still my "familiar." Anyway, I got up at 7:30 (sleepy me!) and Kira met me at the door, wagging her tail! I walked her for 20 minutes, and then put her back in her crate for the day. She was fine with that. She is used to longer crate time...Karen's commute was so long that Kira had to be crated from very early in the morning until quite late in the evening. I supposed she was crated at night, too. For the time being, she will have to be crated at night and while I am at work, but her time in the crate will be shorter. I am hoping to wean her from the crate in a few weeks. I don't think crating is a bad thing. But I'd like her to have the run of the kitchen and family room the way Ziggy did. As it is, I am so happy that we really do have more time to spend walking and bonding.

This evening, I got home by 5:00 (I love my 20 minute commute) and immediately took her for a walk. We stopped to greet every dog we met, whether she wanted to or not, and we met lots of people who wanted to pet her. Several people commented on how she looks like a wolf. Actually, I think she does, too. My cave wolf.

A couple of blocks away from the house, I stopped to talk to one little girl and her nanny. She was maybe 4 years old, couldn't keep her hands off Kira's head, and Kira loved it. What a lovely dog. The little girl...Rachel was her name...said "Sometime, you can bring your dog to my house for a sleepover." I melted.

While I was talking to yet another group of neighbors and dogs, H drove up in the truck and we climbed in and rode home. Kira is remarkably comfortable in the truck now, and eager to get into it, ready to migrate again. Actually, I think she is quite eager to go for a ride.

So we got home, had a glass of wine, sat in the living room with Kira and just talked to each other. Kira paced a little bit, then found a comfortable place on the dining room rug and lay down to listen to us talk. This is new for her, I think. There are no other dogs for her to rile up, and I guarantee the only rise she would get out of the cats would not be to her liking. Ziggy got lots of warning scratches in the beginning.

Then we decided to take her to the pet store again to get some canned food (Karen's routine gave her half canned food and half dry food) to see if we can get her to eat. She's a "drive by" eater. She goes into the kitchen, eats two or three kibbles, then comes back into the living room. Then she returns to the kitchen for a couple more kibbles and returns to us. This goes on and on. (Maybe she is making sure we aren't going to disappear on her?) Anyway, we thought we'd try the canned food thing. When we got home, we put half a can of food on her kibbles and she ... dare I say "wolfed"? ... it down. Maybe we'll get a good poop from her now. In the back yard, I hope, not the house!

I think Lea is right. I think she will be a different dog within the week. I'm planning to take Kira to Lea's house on Saturday, and we'll walk our German Shepherd girls together. I'd like to take her to the doggy park this week, too. And I want as many friends as possible to come over so she can learn to "discern." That's a word I have heard used many times regarding how GSDs decide who is friendly and who is not.

I am learning as much from this dog as she is learning from us.