Progress (Part I)

I mentioned before that Kira is a nurturer. For example, the first day I met her, she carefully licked some scratches on my wrist, and there was another time early on when she licked a neighbor’s broken thumb. Little Nurse Kira…please, I’m not being sexist…Little Doctor Kira just doesn’t work. Anyway, it turns out that she is also a bit of a champion for the little guy. Last night, the hub took her to the dog park while I went to a meeting, and of course she had a great time playing with all the other dogs. He told me that at one point there was a larger dog that got a little too rough and too dominant with a smaller dog, and the smaller one started yipping. Kira immediately went over and put her body between the two dogs to separate them. Apparently it was very obvious to the people in the park, because they commented on how she was protecting the little dog. I wish I had seen it! Little Officer Kira, the peace keeper.

Yet, the other day, she wasn’t quite the kind and loving creature we know her to be. She scared Daily into a hedgehog when she got a little rambunctious. He ran through the room and she reached out with her big paw to hold him down, and poor Daily instantly became twice his normal size, fur sticking out everywhere, and he shot upstairs like a rocket. He had to be coaxed back down to us. Of course, the next minute, both Kira and Daily were sitting next to each other at my feet so I could pet them both. I don’t want Kira to be jealous of Daily, but Daily is my best little buddy, my muse, my familiar (please don’t burn me at the stake). He doesn’t get to leave the house like Kira does, but he gets to climb on the bed with us and Kira doesn’t. Kira may only weigh 60 pounds, but she is huge. I think she is as tall as an Irish Wolfhound. I love her, but I don’t want her in bed with us.

We took her to the park again this evening, and she's really fun to watch. She barks a lot, but it's not aggressive. That's how she riled up her brothers at Karen's house, but it doesn't work the same at the park. I'm hoping she will figure that out and stop barking so much. Actually, she seemed to do it less as time went by. H noticed that her back legs seem to be getting stronger. And when you feel her shoulders, you can tell there is no real muscle on the bones. Boy. That makes me feel bad. We think getting her out of the crate as much as we can is building her muscles. I wish we could get her out of the crate permanently. It’s just taking time and patience. She is actually still attached to the thing, but little by little she is letting us know that she wants to stay out of it. I know that the crate is not a bad thing for dogs. I think it can be an excellent tool. But at the same time, I’d really like the family room and kitchen to be her “crate.”

She is so thin. It’s not like we starve her. We have given her every type of canned food known to man (and dog). We add cheese to her meals. We’ve given her egg yokes on top. I've given her rice. We even mixed some pats of butter in her food (yum, she loved that!). Like most German Shepherds, she loves cheese. Ziggy would have done anything for cheese…he was the ultimate cheesehound. I hope more than anything that we see weight gain the next time we put her on the scale. We were so distressed when we found out she weighed 58 pounds last time we took her in. What to do!

I'm hoping that the more we take her out to play and exercise, the hungrier she will get. I don't like having to explain to people that we are not starving her. This morning, I stayed in the kitchen and encouraged her to eat. When she finished the bowl, I told her what a good girl she was. But she has not eaten her entire dinner tonight. We will be patient. I think she will eat it, but it will probably take all evening.

I love this dog. She is similar to Ziggy, and diffrent from Ziggy. She has not replaced Ziggy, but she has filled the hole. I'm glad that, while I was in Houston, she bonded with H. As time goes by, she seems to understand that this is it: we are her pack now. I think I'll send Karen an e-mail giving her an update on Kira's progress.