Kevin and I traveled up to New England last weekend with his mom to spend some time visiting family and friends. We were there for almost three whole days, and we managed to cram in a whole bunch of people. Some were out of town, but it's probably for the best. We might not have gotten any sleep if we'd really attempted to see everyone we know who lives in that area.
We landed in Providence mid-morning on Friday. We actually had some time to kill before we could visit Kevin's great aunt, so we spent some time exploring Roger Williams Park and downtown Providence. The city is adorable, much smaller than cities I'm used to. We got some great burgers for lunch, then found a brewery and had a few beers.
In the late afternoon, we headed over to the rehab center where we spent some time visiting with Kevin's great aunt, who will soon turn 100. Everyone caught up on the family gossip and we shared our wedding pictures. Then it was out to dinner with some cousins at a delicious Asian restaurant. After dinner we drove up to Massachusetts to spend the night with Kevin's aunt.
Saturday was mostly devoted to visiting with Kevin's grandmother. We took her out to lunch then showed her our wedding and honeymoon pictures. In the evening we drove in to Boston and got dinner with an old friend of mine who just started graduate school there. Then we met up with other friends for beers and went back to their place to play board games. Of course, I only made it halfway through the first game before I fell asleep. All that traveling takes it out of me.
The next morning we got up and went to brunch at a cute little restaurant with live jazz music. Then it was more board games and the beginning of the Patriots football game. We finished watching that game back at Kevin's aunts before heading back to Providence to fly home. Everything worked out perfectly timing-wise, and we made it home shortly after 10:00.
While we were gone, the cat tore into a brand new loaf of bread and ate some of it. This is the third time a loaf of bread has been eaten by one of the animals, and I've always blamed the dogs before (either Kina or Lily). But this time it was definitely the cat. They must all be in on it together, with the cat initiating and the dogs finishing off the loaf.
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
Questions Raised While Dogsitting
This past week we watched Zach and Sarah's dog, Lily, while they were on vacation. I'd hadn't entirely realized that having two dogs would end up being more than twice the work of one, mostly because there was some work to be done integrating Lily into the household. To that end, quite a few questions came up and were answered over the course of her stay.
Is this food? Lily largely refused to eat the food that was placed in her bowl. Or rather, she refused to eat it for long enough that either Kina or Onyx would get there first. We spent a lot of time telling Kina no, telling Lily yes, and attempting to lock Lily in one part of the house with her food so the other animals couldn't get it. At one point, I was sitting on the couch in the basement telling Lily she was a good girl and generally cheering her on every time she took a bite of food. Unfortunately, that strategy only worked once.
Despite snubbing her own food, Lily was eager to experiment with other forms of food. I caught her attempting to eat grass and other plants on our walks. I'm fairly certain she followed Kina's example at least once and grabbed a "treat" from Onyx's litter box. She ate our spatula because it had egg on it, and we foolishly left it on the kitchen counter without supervision. I stopped her from going after an empty tuna can that had been left on the counter. We quickly learned that we had to be a lot better about keeping our kitchen clean than we usually are. No more leaving the dishes out overnight.
Lily eventually started eating a little more. I gave her these stew-like dishes that were more liquidy a couple of times and she chomped them down. On the last night she even ate most of Kina's food, which we were perfectly happy to let her do by then.
Just who's in charge around here? The hierarchy of pets in our house very definitely goes: Onyx -> Kina -> Lily. Lily mostly knows this, from having visited before. But the cat still felt the need to enforce it. This was most notable at bedtime, when Onyx would claim the bed. Kina would lay down on our floor between the bed and the door, and Lily was forced to stay in the hallway. If we called her in to cuddle with us, the cat would protest loudly. We did get her into the bed once or twice while the cat was distracted, but Onyx was never happy about it. Once Lily knew that Onyx was in charge, though, everything was pretty peaceful, and the cat even came downstairs to hang out with everyone and keep an eye on Lily. In all the time they've known each other, that's a first.
How absorbent is that diaper? This was one of my first questions upon Lily's arrival. She's been sick so, as a precaution, Zach and Sarah bought a doggy diaper to help prevent (or at least contain) accidents. It's basically a maxi-pad and Lily hated it. I wasn't entirely sure it would be effective. Still, we kept it on whenever we were asleep or out of the house. A few days in, we woke up to discover Lily had had need of her diaper. The answer to my question? Not quite as absorbent as we'd like. The pad had soaked through to the diaper and we had to run the diaper through the washing machine, which also meant leaving it off Lily for a few hours when we were gone. Luckily, Kevin was able to get home around noon that day, and there were no more accidents.
Is this drool or pee? Closely related to the previous question. After we woke up to Lily's sodden diaper, we were worried that it hadn't fully contained the mess. This led to two separate searches of the house to determine if and how badly the diaper had leaked. We checked the usual places (is it bad that there are usual places for this? Each animal has basically claimed a room to have their accidents in) to no avail. Then I laid down on the couch and immediately found a wet spot underneath my foot. We tried smelling it, but we couldn't determine what it was. So we cleaned it to the best of our ability without ever knowing what the mystery liquid was. It was probably drool.
Which way are you going? Walking two dogs at once is a whole lot harder than just walking one. Lily is easy enough, but Kina isn't always. I had to keep an extra sharp eye open to avoid potential problems with other dogs. I even ended up altering when I walked them to avoid other dogs as much as possible. The biggest challenge ended up coming from getting tangled in the leashes. Kina and I have a system built on her preference for passing people on the left. Her consistency means that I always know where she'll be and can pass the leash around accordingly. On our very first walk, Lily initially passed me on the right. I thought, Great! That makes it easy to keep them separated. But it turns out that Lily has no system like Kina's and will pass on either side, willy-nilly. I was never really expecting this, and ended up tangled in the leashes several times per walk because I'd incorrectly assumed Lily would a different way than she did.
Am I allergic to dogs? Very Probably. I spent most of the week congested and even more sneezy than usual. Though that could have also been a mild cold, since Kevin experienced similar symptoms. But it doesn't matter if I'm allergic to Lily and/or Kina. They'll still get all the love.
Is this food? Lily largely refused to eat the food that was placed in her bowl. Or rather, she refused to eat it for long enough that either Kina or Onyx would get there first. We spent a lot of time telling Kina no, telling Lily yes, and attempting to lock Lily in one part of the house with her food so the other animals couldn't get it. At one point, I was sitting on the couch in the basement telling Lily she was a good girl and generally cheering her on every time she took a bite of food. Unfortunately, that strategy only worked once.
Despite snubbing her own food, Lily was eager to experiment with other forms of food. I caught her attempting to eat grass and other plants on our walks. I'm fairly certain she followed Kina's example at least once and grabbed a "treat" from Onyx's litter box. She ate our spatula because it had egg on it, and we foolishly left it on the kitchen counter without supervision. I stopped her from going after an empty tuna can that had been left on the counter. We quickly learned that we had to be a lot better about keeping our kitchen clean than we usually are. No more leaving the dishes out overnight.
Lily eventually started eating a little more. I gave her these stew-like dishes that were more liquidy a couple of times and she chomped them down. On the last night she even ate most of Kina's food, which we were perfectly happy to let her do by then.
Just who's in charge around here? The hierarchy of pets in our house very definitely goes: Onyx -> Kina -> Lily. Lily mostly knows this, from having visited before. But the cat still felt the need to enforce it. This was most notable at bedtime, when Onyx would claim the bed. Kina would lay down on our floor between the bed and the door, and Lily was forced to stay in the hallway. If we called her in to cuddle with us, the cat would protest loudly. We did get her into the bed once or twice while the cat was distracted, but Onyx was never happy about it. Once Lily knew that Onyx was in charge, though, everything was pretty peaceful, and the cat even came downstairs to hang out with everyone and keep an eye on Lily. In all the time they've known each other, that's a first.
How absorbent is that diaper? This was one of my first questions upon Lily's arrival. She's been sick so, as a precaution, Zach and Sarah bought a doggy diaper to help prevent (or at least contain) accidents. It's basically a maxi-pad and Lily hated it. I wasn't entirely sure it would be effective. Still, we kept it on whenever we were asleep or out of the house. A few days in, we woke up to discover Lily had had need of her diaper. The answer to my question? Not quite as absorbent as we'd like. The pad had soaked through to the diaper and we had to run the diaper through the washing machine, which also meant leaving it off Lily for a few hours when we were gone. Luckily, Kevin was able to get home around noon that day, and there were no more accidents.
Is this drool or pee? Closely related to the previous question. After we woke up to Lily's sodden diaper, we were worried that it hadn't fully contained the mess. This led to two separate searches of the house to determine if and how badly the diaper had leaked. We checked the usual places (is it bad that there are usual places for this? Each animal has basically claimed a room to have their accidents in) to no avail. Then I laid down on the couch and immediately found a wet spot underneath my foot. We tried smelling it, but we couldn't determine what it was. So we cleaned it to the best of our ability without ever knowing what the mystery liquid was. It was probably drool.
Which way are you going? Walking two dogs at once is a whole lot harder than just walking one. Lily is easy enough, but Kina isn't always. I had to keep an extra sharp eye open to avoid potential problems with other dogs. I even ended up altering when I walked them to avoid other dogs as much as possible. The biggest challenge ended up coming from getting tangled in the leashes. Kina and I have a system built on her preference for passing people on the left. Her consistency means that I always know where she'll be and can pass the leash around accordingly. On our very first walk, Lily initially passed me on the right. I thought, Great! That makes it easy to keep them separated. But it turns out that Lily has no system like Kina's and will pass on either side, willy-nilly. I was never really expecting this, and ended up tangled in the leashes several times per walk because I'd incorrectly assumed Lily would a different way than she did.
Am I allergic to dogs? Very Probably. I spent most of the week congested and even more sneezy than usual. Though that could have also been a mild cold, since Kevin experienced similar symptoms. But it doesn't matter if I'm allergic to Lily and/or Kina. They'll still get all the love.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Adventerous Kitty
The cat decided to go on an adventure. And while he's fine now, the last day was a little harrowing.
Onyx is an indoor kitty. It's not just that we don't let him go outside; he mostly won't go outside. I've carried him into our backyard a couple of times, and he always flips his shit and runs back inside as soon as he can escape from my arms. He may sit at the back door for hours staring outside, but as soon as we open the door he disappears.
This led to us being a little lax about leaving the back door open. Especially now that we have a dog. Kina likes to go in and out. She'll explore the backyard for a bit, then come back in to make sure we're still around before going outside again. Mostly we close the door when we go up or downstairs. Certainly if we're going to leave the house.
Unfortunately I forgot to do this at some point on Sunday. Either that, or the cat was sneakier than I can really imagine him being.
While I was putting laundry away on Sunday afternoon, I noticed that Onyx wasn't in his usual spot under the bed. I had been impressed that he wasn't howling at the dog, but it turned out he just wasn't there. I assumed he had found a new and exciting hiding place and tried to put it out of my mind.
I went the rest of the day without seeing the cat, which isn't that unusual. I mentioned this to Kevin, and we weren't able to find the cat after a quick search. But we decided not to worry too much. He'd come out when he got hungry enough.
Early Monday morning we were woken up by fight outside. Kevin assured me that the howling was too high pitched to have been Onyx. But when I noticed that he hadn't touched his food I began to get really worried.
There wasn't much I could do, so I went to work and tried to keep my mind off the cat. When Kevin got home, he put the dog in the basement and left the back door open so Onyx could come home if he wanted to. I sat in the backyard and read for a while, occasionally calling for Onyx, but he never showed up. I decided to go searching through the woods behind our house to see if I could find him, certain that if I found him at all he wouldn't be alive.
Eventually the sun went down and I had to go home. A few hours later, Kevin went back out with a flashlight. When we called Onyx this time, he meowed back. But since it was so dark, it took us a while to find him. It turned out he was sitting on the neighbor's fence.
We went to collect him, but he ran away, hopping from one back yard to the next. So we went inside to give him some time to calm down and decided to try again in a little bit. It didn't take long for Onyx to make his way inside on his own. I think the prospect of food and water is what ultimately convinced him to come home.
It seems that Onyx spent most of the day and night hanging out under our neighbor's deck. He didn't have any scratches or bruises. The worst he seems to have suffered is a little bit of dirt. I'm really happy that he managed to make it home okay. I'll definitely be more careful about keeping the door closed in the future.
Onyx is an indoor kitty. It's not just that we don't let him go outside; he mostly won't go outside. I've carried him into our backyard a couple of times, and he always flips his shit and runs back inside as soon as he can escape from my arms. He may sit at the back door for hours staring outside, but as soon as we open the door he disappears.
This led to us being a little lax about leaving the back door open. Especially now that we have a dog. Kina likes to go in and out. She'll explore the backyard for a bit, then come back in to make sure we're still around before going outside again. Mostly we close the door when we go up or downstairs. Certainly if we're going to leave the house.
Unfortunately I forgot to do this at some point on Sunday. Either that, or the cat was sneakier than I can really imagine him being.
While I was putting laundry away on Sunday afternoon, I noticed that Onyx wasn't in his usual spot under the bed. I had been impressed that he wasn't howling at the dog, but it turned out he just wasn't there. I assumed he had found a new and exciting hiding place and tried to put it out of my mind.
I went the rest of the day without seeing the cat, which isn't that unusual. I mentioned this to Kevin, and we weren't able to find the cat after a quick search. But we decided not to worry too much. He'd come out when he got hungry enough.
Early Monday morning we were woken up by fight outside. Kevin assured me that the howling was too high pitched to have been Onyx. But when I noticed that he hadn't touched his food I began to get really worried.
There wasn't much I could do, so I went to work and tried to keep my mind off the cat. When Kevin got home, he put the dog in the basement and left the back door open so Onyx could come home if he wanted to. I sat in the backyard and read for a while, occasionally calling for Onyx, but he never showed up. I decided to go searching through the woods behind our house to see if I could find him, certain that if I found him at all he wouldn't be alive.
Eventually the sun went down and I had to go home. A few hours later, Kevin went back out with a flashlight. When we called Onyx this time, he meowed back. But since it was so dark, it took us a while to find him. It turned out he was sitting on the neighbor's fence.
We went to collect him, but he ran away, hopping from one back yard to the next. So we went inside to give him some time to calm down and decided to try again in a little bit. It didn't take long for Onyx to make his way inside on his own. I think the prospect of food and water is what ultimately convinced him to come home.
It seems that Onyx spent most of the day and night hanging out under our neighbor's deck. He didn't have any scratches or bruises. The worst he seems to have suffered is a little bit of dirt. I'm really happy that he managed to make it home okay. I'll definitely be more careful about keeping the door closed in the future.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Adventures in Dogwalking
Kina is an incredibly curious dog. She loves to smell things and will often plant herself at an interesting branch of patch of grass while I'm pulling on her leash trying to get her to continue our walk. We've managed to work out a bit of a system that seems to keep both of us happy. Kina will run out ahead of me as far as her leash extends. Then she finds something interesting to smell and stops. I amble along past her until the leash catches again. Then Kina's off and running ahead of me again until she finds the next interesting thing to smell. This doesn't work as well when we're on a path that Kina's unfamiliar with. But when we're going over worn ground, she's more willing to keep walking.
Kina hates staying on the path. She's usually off in the trees. If we're walking on a sidewalk, she's in the grass next to the sidewalk. This mostly works. But when we come across a tree or a sign, I have to either pull her back to the path or leave the path and walk around the same way as her to avoid getting her leash caught. Last night I made the mistake of calling her and following her. So Kina came running back to me and started following me around the tree. We walked around in circles a couple of times, with me looking like a fool, before I managed to get everything straightened out.
Kina's a pretty big dog (75 pounds) which has gotten a few comments. I wasn't too surprised when the little girl said "Big doggie!" and made sure to stay out of our way. I was surprised when a grown man reacted the same way. Kina's big, but she's not mean or poorly behaved or anything. She doesn't even bark. But people are still scared of her.
It turns out that the only reason Kina hasn't chased Onyx is that Onyx hasn't run away from her. Kina's pretty content to approach cautiously and just sniff when Onyx is sitting there. But I've found that she has a penchant for chasing things that run. I've had to hold her off what seems like every cat in the neighborhood and a few small dogs at this point. She still seems pretty uninterested in squirrels, though. Perhaps because they're so small.
For some reason, Kina has yet to poop while on a walk with Kevin. But she makes sure to go every time I take her for a walk. You'd think this would mean I've gotten used to picking it up, but that's not the case yet. Yesterday as I was leaning down with the bag, Kina saw something and took off. She managed to tear the leash out of my hands and I had to go running after her across the park. Then I had to drag her back so I could pick up the poo. I really hope that doesn't happen again. On the bright side, I can catch up to her across short distances. Or maybe she just slowed down because I was shouting at her.
I got to experience my first rainy dog walk. It actually has me not looking forward to winter for the first time in my life. But hopefully Kina won't like the cold as much as she seemed to like the wet. She was having a ball running through puddles and pulling me off the paved path so we could tromp through the swampy grass. My pants were soaked almost up to my knees by the time we got home. Thankfully, at this point Kina proved what a good dog she can be. I told her to stay in the kitchen while I ran upstairs to get a bath towel. She refrained from attempting to follow me or even shaking herself off and I was able to dry her completely before releasing her into the rest of the house. Now I just need to teach her to stay after she's pooped.
Kina hates staying on the path. She's usually off in the trees. If we're walking on a sidewalk, she's in the grass next to the sidewalk. This mostly works. But when we come across a tree or a sign, I have to either pull her back to the path or leave the path and walk around the same way as her to avoid getting her leash caught. Last night I made the mistake of calling her and following her. So Kina came running back to me and started following me around the tree. We walked around in circles a couple of times, with me looking like a fool, before I managed to get everything straightened out.
Kina's a pretty big dog (75 pounds) which has gotten a few comments. I wasn't too surprised when the little girl said "Big doggie!" and made sure to stay out of our way. I was surprised when a grown man reacted the same way. Kina's big, but she's not mean or poorly behaved or anything. She doesn't even bark. But people are still scared of her.
It turns out that the only reason Kina hasn't chased Onyx is that Onyx hasn't run away from her. Kina's pretty content to approach cautiously and just sniff when Onyx is sitting there. But I've found that she has a penchant for chasing things that run. I've had to hold her off what seems like every cat in the neighborhood and a few small dogs at this point. She still seems pretty uninterested in squirrels, though. Perhaps because they're so small.
For some reason, Kina has yet to poop while on a walk with Kevin. But she makes sure to go every time I take her for a walk. You'd think this would mean I've gotten used to picking it up, but that's not the case yet. Yesterday as I was leaning down with the bag, Kina saw something and took off. She managed to tear the leash out of my hands and I had to go running after her across the park. Then I had to drag her back so I could pick up the poo. I really hope that doesn't happen again. On the bright side, I can catch up to her across short distances. Or maybe she just slowed down because I was shouting at her.
I got to experience my first rainy dog walk. It actually has me not looking forward to winter for the first time in my life. But hopefully Kina won't like the cold as much as she seemed to like the wet. She was having a ball running through puddles and pulling me off the paved path so we could tromp through the swampy grass. My pants were soaked almost up to my knees by the time we got home. Thankfully, at this point Kina proved what a good dog she can be. I told her to stay in the kitchen while I ran upstairs to get a bath towel. She refrained from attempting to follow me or even shaking herself off and I was able to dry her completely before releasing her into the rest of the house. Now I just need to teach her to stay after she's pooped.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Dog Adoption, Part 3
[Part 1] [Part 2]
The whole dog adoption process sort of accelerated towards the end. Once we decided we wanted Kina, it was only a matter of days before we had her.
We emailed Kina's foster mom on Monday to let her know we were interested in adopting. We had known that the shelter needed to double-check that she'd been spayed before we were allowed to take her. Given how long the previous steps in this process took, I honestly expected it to take forever to get Kina to the vet. Kevin attempted to offset this by sending our own vet's information and offering to organize the appointment. But the next time we heard from the foster mom was with dates when we could take Kina.
We were given a choice between taking Kina on a Friday or a Sunday. Given that both of us work during the week, we decided to take her on Friday. This way we could hang out over the weekend and make sure she was adjusting properly.
Kevin picked her up in the later afternoon and brought her home. But he had to go to a baseball game before I got home. So Kina got to hang out in the house by herself for about an hour. She was really excited to see me when I got home.
I walked in the door after work, and Kina immediately started running circles around me. She went to pick up her rawhide chew and held it in her mouth while continuing to run around me. She wouldn't even stop long enough to pet me. Eventually I let her out to our backyard and she went around excitedly sniffing thing for half an hour or so.
It actually didn't take long for Kina to wear herself out. Once we came inside she was content to nap on the floor in the same room as me. I'm a little sad that she refuses to jump up on the couch and cuddle. I've been told that we should be happy she knows to stay off the furniture, but I'm sure we'll end up breaking her of that. Kevin and I don't have particularly nice furniture, and it would be nice to be able to cuddle with the dog while I'm laying on the couch.
At the moment both the cat and the dog are in my office. They're having a bit of a standoff, mostly because Kina accidentally managed to trap Onyx in the room. Onyx came in while the dog was downstairs and got too scared to leave when he heard the dog coming back upstairs. He's sitting on the desk, growling every now and then. But the dog doesn't seemed overly concerned. She's mostly keeping her distance, just laying on the floor. I'm pretty confident that they'll work out their differences before too long.
The whole dog adoption process sort of accelerated towards the end. Once we decided we wanted Kina, it was only a matter of days before we had her.
We emailed Kina's foster mom on Monday to let her know we were interested in adopting. We had known that the shelter needed to double-check that she'd been spayed before we were allowed to take her. Given how long the previous steps in this process took, I honestly expected it to take forever to get Kina to the vet. Kevin attempted to offset this by sending our own vet's information and offering to organize the appointment. But the next time we heard from the foster mom was with dates when we could take Kina.
We were given a choice between taking Kina on a Friday or a Sunday. Given that both of us work during the week, we decided to take her on Friday. This way we could hang out over the weekend and make sure she was adjusting properly.
Kevin picked her up in the later afternoon and brought her home. But he had to go to a baseball game before I got home. So Kina got to hang out in the house by herself for about an hour. She was really excited to see me when I got home.
I walked in the door after work, and Kina immediately started running circles around me. She went to pick up her rawhide chew and held it in her mouth while continuing to run around me. She wouldn't even stop long enough to pet me. Eventually I let her out to our backyard and she went around excitedly sniffing thing for half an hour or so.
It actually didn't take long for Kina to wear herself out. Once we came inside she was content to nap on the floor in the same room as me. I'm a little sad that she refuses to jump up on the couch and cuddle. I've been told that we should be happy she knows to stay off the furniture, but I'm sure we'll end up breaking her of that. Kevin and I don't have particularly nice furniture, and it would be nice to be able to cuddle with the dog while I'm laying on the couch.
At the moment both the cat and the dog are in my office. They're having a bit of a standoff, mostly because Kina accidentally managed to trap Onyx in the room. Onyx came in while the dog was downstairs and got too scared to leave when he heard the dog coming back upstairs. He's sitting on the desk, growling every now and then. But the dog doesn't seemed overly concerned. She's mostly keeping her distance, just laying on the floor. I'm pretty confident that they'll work out their differences before too long.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Dog Adoption, part 2
[Part 1]
Once we got approval to adopt a dog, we were assigned a case worker. She emailed us to let us know that she'd been assigned to our case, but I don't think she really did much after that. She answered Kevin's questions, but she wasn't particularly pro-active about helping us find a dog. Or maybe it was just that we were so pro-active that she didn't need to be.
Kevin and I went through the website and found a bunch of dogs that we were interested in. The majority of them were two-year-old females. After emailing the foster owners, we found out that all of them would be at an adoption event pretty close to us, so we went to that.
At the event we learned that one of the dogs had already been adopted. Another had been living in isolation and needed other dogs to model her behavior after. Since we don't already have dogs, the foster mom didn't seem very willing to let us adopt that dog. This left two dogs: Kina and Mystique. Mystique was younger, but also more energetic. She was really sweet, but we decided that she wasn't really a good fit for us. Kina was older (five), and whether it was because of this or just a different personality, she was much more laid-back. She was also reportedly better with cats
Once we decided that we wanted to adopt Kina, we contacted the foster family and set up a sleepover. See, we can't just take the dog, we have to double and triple check that everything will work out. This makes sense. They don't want the dogs bouncing around from one house to another forever. And it's good for us to figure out what we're getting in to. But it definitely made the process drag out even longer.
The sleepover was a lot of fun. Kina is a very laid-back, low energy dog. She sort of knows basic commands, but could definitely use some work in the form of obedience training. She can sit and shake if you have a treat ready for her, but if you ask her to do more than a couple of things she gets confused and excited and tries to do everything at once.
She also doesn't quite understand fetch. There are some baseball fields behind our house. We took her up to one of those and let her off her leash. She had fun running around and sniffing anything. If we threw a stick she would take off running. And she didn't always go in the direction of the stick. But I bet we can teach her how to fetch with a little work.
The only other worrisome bit was that she had some trouble with the stairs. Since we live in a three story town house, this could definitely become a problem. But what we initially thought was a hip problem may have just been nervousness about being in a new house. By the end of our time with her, she seemed to be getting more comfortable going up and down.
The biggest pro is that Kina seemed to get along well with our cat, Onyx. At least as well as could be hoped. She didn't chase Onyx or bark at him. She was curious and sniffed him a little, but she kept her distance. Meanwhile Onyx kept up a steady stream of howling, growling, and hissing whenever Kina was in the same room as him. But since Kina never pushed Onyx, the cat should get over this in a few days.
All in all, Kina seems like a really good fit for us. So we're going to move forward with the adoption. There's some more paper work to fill out. We also need to double check that she's been spayed before we can take her. Hopefully it will just be another week or two before we have a dog. And hopefully Onyx doesn't get too mad at us when she moves in permanently.
Once we got approval to adopt a dog, we were assigned a case worker. She emailed us to let us know that she'd been assigned to our case, but I don't think she really did much after that. She answered Kevin's questions, but she wasn't particularly pro-active about helping us find a dog. Or maybe it was just that we were so pro-active that she didn't need to be.
Kevin and I went through the website and found a bunch of dogs that we were interested in. The majority of them were two-year-old females. After emailing the foster owners, we found out that all of them would be at an adoption event pretty close to us, so we went to that.
At the event we learned that one of the dogs had already been adopted. Another had been living in isolation and needed other dogs to model her behavior after. Since we don't already have dogs, the foster mom didn't seem very willing to let us adopt that dog. This left two dogs: Kina and Mystique. Mystique was younger, but also more energetic. She was really sweet, but we decided that she wasn't really a good fit for us. Kina was older (five), and whether it was because of this or just a different personality, she was much more laid-back. She was also reportedly better with cats
Once we decided that we wanted to adopt Kina, we contacted the foster family and set up a sleepover. See, we can't just take the dog, we have to double and triple check that everything will work out. This makes sense. They don't want the dogs bouncing around from one house to another forever. And it's good for us to figure out what we're getting in to. But it definitely made the process drag out even longer.
The sleepover was a lot of fun. Kina is a very laid-back, low energy dog. She sort of knows basic commands, but could definitely use some work in the form of obedience training. She can sit and shake if you have a treat ready for her, but if you ask her to do more than a couple of things she gets confused and excited and tries to do everything at once.
She also doesn't quite understand fetch. There are some baseball fields behind our house. We took her up to one of those and let her off her leash. She had fun running around and sniffing anything. If we threw a stick she would take off running. And she didn't always go in the direction of the stick. But I bet we can teach her how to fetch with a little work.
The only other worrisome bit was that she had some trouble with the stairs. Since we live in a three story town house, this could definitely become a problem. But what we initially thought was a hip problem may have just been nervousness about being in a new house. By the end of our time with her, she seemed to be getting more comfortable going up and down.
The biggest pro is that Kina seemed to get along well with our cat, Onyx. At least as well as could be hoped. She didn't chase Onyx or bark at him. She was curious and sniffed him a little, but she kept her distance. Meanwhile Onyx kept up a steady stream of howling, growling, and hissing whenever Kina was in the same room as him. But since Kina never pushed Onyx, the cat should get over this in a few days.
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| Kina hanging out in the living room |
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Dog Adoption, Part 1
It turns out that getting a dog is a lot more complicated than getting a cat. When I decided I wanted a cat two years ago, I had one pretty quickly. I went to the shelter and met a few and found one that I really liked. I picked him up the next day, once I'd bought some things like a litter box and food. I'd been thinking about it for a while at that point, but I essentially went from deciding to get a cat to owning a cat in less than 48 hours.
This is not how dog adoption works. Kevin and I had been talking about a dog for a while. At first I really wasn't on board with this idea. I got a cat because they're fairly independent. But a dog requires a lot more care. At that point, Kevin was spending more time on the road than at home and I wasn't eager to be saddled with the responsibility of an animal I wasn't sure I wanted.
But then we bought a house and he got a new job that keeps him closer to home and the idea of a dog started to get more exciting. So we started to really look into it.
Kevin had already decided that he wanted a German Shepherd, so we started looking online and found a rescue that specializes in German Shepherds. They were having an adoption day at a nearby PetCo, so we decided to go and meet some dogs.
Once there, we discovered that they really weren't willing to talk to us until we had filled out an application. An application that wanted more information than some apartments I've rented, including three references.
After we turned the form in, the waiting game began. They called our references who all confirmed that we weren't going to kill the dog. And then they forgot that they had called one of our references, which led to a weird back and forth between Kevin and the lady who was "organizing" all of this. We ended up having to provide an additional reference to placate her.
Next came the in-home interview in which someone came to make sure we lived in a dog friendly area and had some sense of what we were getting into. She was not impressed with our rather small back yard and we had to assure her that the massive park on the other side of the fence was dog friendly. We talked about morning and evening walks and signing up for a dog training class and the possibility of hiring a dog walker to come by every day since both of us work full time. We'll see how much of this actually comes to pass.
Having finally jumped through all of the hoops, we have now been approved to adopt a dog. The next step is attending one of their adoption days or possibly contacting the foster homes directly to meet some dogs we're interested in. Once we find one, the foster family will have to sign off on us as well. I'm not sure how long this part of the process will take. But we're one step closer to actually adopting a dog.
This is not how dog adoption works. Kevin and I had been talking about a dog for a while. At first I really wasn't on board with this idea. I got a cat because they're fairly independent. But a dog requires a lot more care. At that point, Kevin was spending more time on the road than at home and I wasn't eager to be saddled with the responsibility of an animal I wasn't sure I wanted.
But then we bought a house and he got a new job that keeps him closer to home and the idea of a dog started to get more exciting. So we started to really look into it.
Kevin had already decided that he wanted a German Shepherd, so we started looking online and found a rescue that specializes in German Shepherds. They were having an adoption day at a nearby PetCo, so we decided to go and meet some dogs.
Once there, we discovered that they really weren't willing to talk to us until we had filled out an application. An application that wanted more information than some apartments I've rented, including three references.
After we turned the form in, the waiting game began. They called our references who all confirmed that we weren't going to kill the dog. And then they forgot that they had called one of our references, which led to a weird back and forth between Kevin and the lady who was "organizing" all of this. We ended up having to provide an additional reference to placate her.
Next came the in-home interview in which someone came to make sure we lived in a dog friendly area and had some sense of what we were getting into. She was not impressed with our rather small back yard and we had to assure her that the massive park on the other side of the fence was dog friendly. We talked about morning and evening walks and signing up for a dog training class and the possibility of hiring a dog walker to come by every day since both of us work full time. We'll see how much of this actually comes to pass.
Having finally jumped through all of the hoops, we have now been approved to adopt a dog. The next step is attending one of their adoption days or possibly contacting the foster homes directly to meet some dogs we're interested in. Once we find one, the foster family will have to sign off on us as well. I'm not sure how long this part of the process will take. But we're one step closer to actually adopting a dog.
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