There really isn’t a lot to say about the last few days. Progress will probably be incremental, rather than in leaps and bounds. Still, progress is progress.
Not at all incremental is how Hilda is growing. Stepping on the scale with her Saturday tells me she’s something around 18 pounds. And probably needs her food intake increased again. Which we’ve done. As predicted, her coat seems to be lightening, according to Alena anyhow. She still has soft puppy fur. And, since Thursday, her left ear is drooping at the end again a little, but that’s coming back up, too. We’ve also noticed watery eyes, so we’ll ask the vet about that on Friday when she gets her 12-week shots and they see a stool sample.
Thursday, we had visitors. Heidi, who has another of Sharon’s dogs, came over with her family to help with annoying paperwork and to play with pups. They even brought pizza. They did a nice job of wearing out the pup, too.
Hilda is definitely not attempting to chew on me or her leash as much these days. She also seems to be a little more tuned in and attentive to me. Also more willing to sleep, or rest, in the crate, and more quietly most of the time. I think most of her complaints are to do with “I don’t want to take a nap!” And “Hey, where you going?!” And of course, the ever present “Ooh! Cat!!!! Want!!!!”
Sunday, I had an activity with Alena, which meant I was going to be gone longer than the usual or recommended time. All together, we were gone for over five hours, so I opened up the big crate and stuck some newspaper in it. Yeah, all that junk mail is handy. She was sure to express to the newspaper her displeasure at being penned up, as we found lots of shredded newspaper thrown out of the crate. Fortunately, however, we also found soiled newspaper where we expected to find it, so all was well. I think taking her around the block helped to tire her out for that, at least, I hope so, because it sure tired me out! She of course wanted to go here and there and check out dogs she heard behind doors. She jumped. She stepped in front of me, and consequently got stepped on more than once, but she’s no worse for it. We’ve definitely got a long way to go before walking with Leno will be fun and easy. We did, however, make it the whole way around, if not exactly gracefully.
By the way. Long-lasting bully sticks? Don’t believe a word of it. Leno finished one in five minutes or less. Hilda took a bit longer, but still made short work of it. Fiona got one today, and she was not well pleased when I took it away after about 10 minutes. These things must be like doggie crack, because all the dogs just love them. I find this vaguely disturbing, considering what they’re made out of. There’s probably a subtext in there somewhere which I don’t really care to examine.