Skinny Kira, protective Kira

Kira met our vet last night. We are a little concerned about how thin she is. When Karen took her to the vet at the beginning of March in preparation for adopting her out, Kira weighed in at 60 pounds and we knew this was too thin for a dog her size. We have been trying to put weight on her. For some reason, we thought we had succeeded in putting a couple of pounds on her during the week and a half since we got her.

But we could not have been more wrong! Last night, even after eating, she weighed 58 lb! OMG, we were shocked. We have been following the regime Karen set up: half kibbles, half canned food both morning and night for a total of 3 1/2 cups of food. She never eats the entire morning meal, and it takes her a while to get through the evening meal, so I don't think she is going hungry. Although we prefer to feed her dry food only (because, among other benefits, it keeps her teeth cleaner), we asked the vet if we should give her MORE canned food to try to beef her up a bit. He liked that idea and said we should try a whole can of food at night and a half a can in the morning along with kibbles. He wants us to try to get another ten pounds on her, at least, and says that fifteen pounds would look even better. A review of her earlier vet records (Karen gave a copy to us when we got Kira) shows that she had a tapeworm when Karen got her. Because I had forgotten to bring the fecal sample, he suggested that we go ahead and give her a round of worming treatment just to be safe. Tonight, we took the sample in.

Tonight, I put a whole can of food on her kibbles, along with the worm treatment. She ate it, but very slowly, over a span of about an hour and a half. She'd go in and take a delicate ladylike bite and come back out to us, go in and lick the fluid and come back out to us, and this continued for a while until only four or five kibbles were left, and the cats finished those off in short order. We've stopped giving the cats their midnight snacks because they have been getting some of Kira's leftovers. AND they think nothing of sticking their heads into Kira's bowl WHILE she is eating!!! We have to lock them away until she finishes her meal. I have so many stories about my hedonistic cats, but I'll try to fit them into the dog stories as best I can, because, after all, this is intended to be a dog blog, not a cat blog. But, I have to warn you, I really cannot resist telling stories about the cats. They are very funny cats. Especially Daily. Ok, that comes later on. Back to Kira.

She really is SUCH a princess. When she met our neighbor's 120 pound Malamute for the first time, and he came around to do the usual tail sniffing thing, she just sat her little boney butt down on the ground. "No, no, we're not having any of that," was her attitude.

This evening, when I got home from work and we went out for a good walk, we went down to the little wooded park at the end of the street and met several neighbors and their dogs and kids. All the dogs were off leash, playing with balls and frisbees and running around like children. As Kira and I came up, everyone quickly pulled their dogs in. Let me put it the way H puts it: if a 150-pound Golden Retriever comes bounding up off leash, people say "Awww, isn't it cute?" but when a 60-pound German Shepherd comes into the crowd ON leash, some people say "Oh my God an attack dog."

Now I know that GSDs are often used for guarding (there is the Schutzhund aspect, of course, with the attack training, which I would never have for a family dog), and there is the association of the police dog. Those things might cause people to be frightened. But people who are most afraid of GSDs are people who don't know dogs at all, and my personal feeling is that GSDs look so much like wolves that those people's race memory and caveman instinct takes over, and that's where the automatic fear comes from. That's what I believe, anyway, that it is a fear born of instinct even more than association with police dogs and guard dogs.

OK, so I digress. Back to the story of tonight. As Kira and I came up to the group of doggy people with their dogs suddenly kept close, both of us were smiling (yes, Kira has a lovely smile). One of the ladies starts to realize that there is no aggression in Kira, and she asks: "Is she friendly?" "She's amazingly friendly," I responded, and everyone came over to Ooooo and Aaaaa over her. "Oh, she's so pretty." "She's so sweet." "She's so soft." "She's so good." Before you know it, all the dogs are off leash again, and Kira is right out there with everyone. She had so much fun! She ran all over the place, trying to herd a short black dog (no one knows what it is!), but the little dog could turn tighter than she could, and she got lots of exercise trying the round everyone up into a circle. You know the German Shepherd thing: first I put everyone in a circle and then I guard the perimeter. But she certainly had fun trying! Then Cocoa was playing with her frisbee and Kira interfered and got taught a good lesson for it. Lots of snarling and snapping, and Kira was mortified! As I said, she is a princess and apparently is not used to such treatment. After all, she was the boss at her old house. Karen's other two dogs (German Shepherd mixes, both rescue dogs) did as Kira instructed. She could rile them up with a bark. But this new world is totally different for her. I don't think she has ever had so much exercise! I keep hoping it makes her hungry.

She did something very interesting at the beginning of the walk. I started to go into the park at the extreme end of the path, a very secluded area. It was quite light, and I was very comfortable going that way. But as I started down the path, Kira began to bump her head against my thigh. When I didn't stop, she moved in front of me and stopped my progress, the way seeing eye dogs do. I thought it was an odd behavior, but I went around her and kept going. Then she started leaping up onto her hind legs in front of me and hitting me with her shoulder. This time, I stopped and thought "Well, I'm not going to fight this." Obviously she didn't want to go that way. So I turned around and went into the park at a different location, and that's where all the people were. I don't know why she didn't want to go that other way, but I was not going to question her. I think there is at least one homeless person living in a dense area of the park...not that homeless people are per se dangerous. Last year, Ziggy flushed a guy out and actually growled at him (we know of only two times that Ziggy growled at a person and that was one of the times). There have been a couple of attacks on women in this park, but they were quite a few years ago and in the dark. Did Kira know something? Or did she just not like going that way because of the sound of traffic on the other side of the wall? Of course, I'll never know what it was, because I didn't go against her instincts. What really surprised me is that H said she did the same basic thing to him last night in the same area. She does not like that entrance for some reason. We won't go that way. I think I'll trust her.