WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR NOVEMBER 2019

Joe's colonoscopy consult went ok after I kvetched to the receptionist TWICE about the long (30 min) wait. Neither of us had had breakfast so went to cafe and pigged out on French toast, linguica and tea with white sugar.

We'd both seen a black shelter puppy picture in the paper, and Joe mentioned it so we went to the shelter to see. They were closed 'til noon.

At home, walked Tumble down the lane to the mailbox, off leash at first, then on leash as we got close to the pavement. She walked the best on leash she has since the miraculous day she passed the Canine Good Citizen test.

When we got back, Joe said "Are you ready to go back to the shelter?" I was. He'd said he never wanted another dog, but has been mentioning the possibility more than once lately. Every time I suggest a puppy he said he didn't want to go through the housetraining, chewing up phase. So we went to the shelter and saw three possibilities, a 2 yr old male medium sized lab mix, a 4 month old female pit mix (didn't look that pitty to me and was smallish too) and an 8-10? week old female half GSD/half big black whatever. After talking about it, Joe was interested in the male and I agreed. A compromise I could accept, I wanted a black male to bond with cheddar cheese at the chopping block, and this after all would be Joe's dog. We filled out the application for an overnight test stay, then learned we had to bring Tumble in for a meet and greet before they'd release the dog to us. So we drove back up the mountain, got her and drove back down into town.

Good idea. Tumble did NOT accept the dog. She barked at him and while he was calm and non-responsive she continued to bark and bark and bark and started lunging finally provoking the poor dog into responding. After about 10 minutes of this, I said to the volunteer “I don't think this is going to work” and he and Joe agreed. Joe was ready to give up, to leave, to wait for another male dog to be surrendered, but I stubbornly insisted we try with the shepherd mix pup.

Another miracle. Tumble sniffed her, didn't bark, let her sniff Tumble, growled once as a correction, but generally behaved in an accepting manner. Joe is glad, she'll be a big dog and that's one thing that was important to him. He also said she'll help him get out and be more active like the doctor wants. He may even bring her to dog group with Tumble and me soon as her vaccinations are complete. Her eyes have a little discharge, if it doesn't get any worse, will ask the shelter vet when she goes in on the 16th. But if it starts to change color, off to our vet she goes.

The dogs got along fine in the van on the way home and ok so far in the house, yard and bedroom. I keep the pup on leash while I'm moving around the house, we feed her in the crate, confine her to the master suite while we sleep, take her out 20 mins after feeding and every time one of us has to pee, to give her the idea that outside is where to do her business.

She growls and barks at herself in the mirror, chomps squeaky dollies, tries to tempt Tumble into playing, chews roots and sticks. She explores fearlessly until Tumble grumble/warns her off from getting too close or too rambunctious. She figured out how to jump up onto the couch and the bed almost instantly. It's all new to her, she'd never been outside of the shelter, not even to the grass out front. We don't like the name she came with but haven't seen enough of her personality yet to settle on a new name. . . so introducing “she who is soon to be named”