Alissa, my "new" dog has settled in quite nicely. She is a hoot and provides me with entertainment and more.
What I've observed about her: She is very off-put by the tube that follows me around from the oxygen concentrator. Parker used to step on it as though it were just part of the floor which usually ended up giving me something like whiplash. But, not this girl. She avoids it like the plague. This is a very good thing. If I leave the house, even if it's only for 15-30 minutes, she is ecstatic when I come home. She does "zoomies"--my name for the way she runs in circles in great celebration because Mom's home. She's a good watchdog, alerting me when someone rings the doorbell. Unfortunately, she can't distinguish between our doorbell and the sound of a doorbell on TV. She's learned to pull her toys from the basket I bought for them. We're going to have to work on her learning to put them back at bedtime!
I think she's been somewhat abused in her past life though the previous owners gave every impression of loving her to death. She backs away from her food dish if I come anywhere near her when she is eating. She'll actually back off 2 feet or more. She wants to be petted, but she ducks her head as though she thinks she will be hit when I reach out to pet her. She's generally a VERY non-aggressive dog.
She's smart as a whip. We've been working on '"stay" and I think she's about got that. We're working on "sit" and "shake". She has never been trained to properly walk on a leash so when the weather is consistently warmer, we'll try working on that. I'll bet I didn't spend 20 minutes with her before she figured out the pet door though she'd never seen one before. She has learned that she is going to be petted and kissed at bedtime. That was a struggle at first. She made herself at home sleeping on the bed but on the other side right away, but I couldn't even reach her to pet her. However, now when I get into bed and get the covers all pulled up, she approaches me for snuggle time. I'll be happy when we get the "walk" thing down because then I can start taking her with me wherever I go.
She'll eat pretty much anything. I found some entrees that were pretty old when I cleaned out the freezer. I sorted through them and so far she has eaten black bean soup, Marlboro man's sandwich meat (from The Pioneer Woman), and white bean chicken chili.
I am absolutely convinced it was the hand of God that brought her to me. He made the perfect choice!
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