Nala, Nala

(l) 21 September 2005

(r) 21 December 2005

She just lov-v-v-es to go walkies! She does her happy dance. (And I cannot begin to tell you how happy it made me when she was able to do that.) My dogs have to sit and stay at the gates before they are opened to go for a walk. After 15 months, Nala has got the sit part, only she thinks it means touch bum to ground and rise. Once the gates are open, she tears out. Bad precedent; I started letting her run after the first time she did it. I was so happy that my crippled dog could actually run, not just trot, I was almost in tears. I think the leg weakness came from neglect and lack of exercise. She'd been living in a van.

The nitty gritty: she'll walk for an hour, but if she wants to go to the river, she pulls to go to the river. I she wants to stop and sniff, she stops and sniffs. When we turn around to come home, I have to walk behind her pushing my shins against her butt to get her to keep moving because she doesn't want to go home. It's best to take her in the car somewhere and walk her so she doesn't know she's on her way home. When she *really* doesn't want to go, she just lies down. Which is also what she does when she gets tired, so I know it, but I can also tell the two states apart. If we go into town she wants to stop and sniff every brick, rock and blade of grass and wanders from side to side on the sidewalk. I could handle her, but it's tiresome and it's almost impossible with two of them.

I think that because she couldn't see before we got her (we've had her operated on for entropion and are managing the infections and the dry eye), her previous owners just took her out of the van once a day, let her snuffle around a bit,pee, poop, and then put her back. So, when we got her she was in a state that might be called wild if she wasn't so gentle.

Someone has recommended "Second Hand Dog" so I ordered it today.

Summer 2006