As arranged, Hilda did come on Friday morning. Sharon dropped her by around 11 in the morning. Instant love! Followed, of course, by the inevitable, “What have I done?!” Of course, I know what I’ve done, it’s likely total insanity, but it will be OK.

This is a huge adjustment for her. None of the other critters around here are too upset. Even Jasper came down to say hello. She barked at one or another of them a couple times, but no one seems to mind. Which is kind of amazing really, seeing how intimidated Jasper is by Fiona. I think maybe Hilda and Fiona will be buds. So long as Hilda leaves Fiona’s favorite ball alone maybe. Leno, of course, takes everything in stride.

We had a couple accidents already, though mostly, she’s parked outside. She did, however, pee right after I took her out late in the evening. I mean right after. I can’t exactly blame her for not wanting to go on all this cold snow and ice (it’s pretty much all there is around here at the moment). But i know this too shall pass. Both the ice and snow and the illegal parking.

She has had very little trouble with adjusting to having a collar and leash attached. She has scratched a bit at the collar, but nothing major. Only some attempted leash chewing, but again, nothing that she hasn’t been willing to give up on pretty quickly.

Our biggest problem is the crate. Unfortunately, the only crates we have that don’t belong to Fiona are huge, at least huge as far as she’s concerned. The problem appears to be that she just doesn’t like closed doors. She’ll bark and whine and raise a ruckus if the door closes for any length of time. I’m sure this is something we’ll have to build up to. The trouble is, I have to put her somewhere when, for example, I have to take Leno out or feed him or deal with our own meal preparations. And has she got a set of lungs on her! They probably heard her the next block over.

She is getting adjusted though. She likes to fall asleep in my lap. Right now she’s stretched out next to my chair, with her head just sort of barely under.

For sleeping, we had a bit of a compromise, but I really don’t think I can do that for awfully long. She was fine in the crate so long as the door was open. Close the door, howling, whining, and barking commences. So to preserve a bit of domestic tranquility, I left the crate door open and slept on the floor in front of the crate. That way, if she decided to go on walkabout, she’d have to walk over me, thus waking me up. That worked out OK, and she only left the crate twice. Once to go outside in the middle of the night when I took her, and once to snuggle up next to me. Then she got put back in after a while and quieted down. Because, you know, the door was open.

I’m sure she’ll be fine once things settle down and she figures out that she lives here now. Once that happens and she can focus on something other than whatever it is she’s thinking about now, I think we’ll be OK.