Day 96 - ADOPTED!

Today, Lana was adopted - by us, of course. We thought we had to act now since she looked all gorgeous on the new Petfinder photo.
We have just become so used to her and she's become part of the family.

She has found new confidence and is now even following me up the main staircase. She still won't go downstairs, but I'm positive that one day she'll just get up and do it.

So here the story ends......
Hey, at least it's a happy ending!

Day 94 - Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Last Thursday we got Lana groomed. Since we don't know anything about groomers, but heard from our neighbors who not to go to, we asked our vet. She said they had a groomer come up from Ponca City once or twice a month, that she was one of the best in the area, and loved poodles. Bingo! She was due to do her magic in 2 weeks and although I would have liked to have Lana groomed immediately, we decided to wait.

When I delivered Lana to the vet's office the groomer hadn't arrived yet. The vet assistant asked me what I wanted to have done, but all I could think of was: "Just make her beautiful!"

In the afternoon, Tom picked her up and when he got her out of the car I couldn't believe my eyes! I didn't think it was the same dog, because indeed, she was beautiful.

The groomer went all out, even painted her toenails pink. I've always frowned on people putting little ribbons on their dogs and painting their nails, but I'll be darned - it doesn't hurt the dog and it made her look so pretty.

As long as we don't treat them as fashion accessories I guess it's o.k.

We totally think Lana noticed a change, because she carried herself much differently - just pranced around with her head held high.

But see for yourself:

We are now seriously thinking about adopting her. She's still not o.k. with the cats, but has gotten much better. We think there's hope that in another few months she'll be able to fully ignore them.

The shelter took a new picture of her and posted it on Petfinder.com so we'll see what happens.

Day 78 - Friday, March 27th, 2009

O.k., so I didn't post anything when I said I would. I'll use the usual excuse - been busy.

We got a call from the Humane Society on Monday saying that somebody was interested in Lana again. We arranged a meeting for Wednesday and I had high hopes. The potential adopters were an older couple and they asked all the right questions. The best thing was that they don't have cats. Sounded like heaven to old Lana!
Unfortunately they were looking for a smaller dog and the old girl came back home with me. Can't say I was too sad...

Right now we're having a nice little ice storm and I can hear tree branches snapping every few minutes from the weight of the ice.
I just hope our power will stay on!

Update - just completed this post on Sunday, March 29th, because our power and cable did go out. We got our electricity and heat back about 2.5 hours later, but the cable wasn't fixed until now. We had called Cox and they said they'd send somebody tomorrow - Tom and I were perplexed because that meant we actually had to talk to each other instead of playing around on the computer.
We breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the Cox truck pull up today and the cable guy putting our cable back where it belonged.
What in the world did we do back in the dark ages when there was no internet?

Day 75 - Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

We're back! I'll post more tonight.

Day 61 - Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Well folks, freedom is finally here - tomorrow we're taking off for Germany/Scotland and grandpa Tim is here to babysit.

Lana has become better with the cats, but there are still flare-ups; for that she's much better with Tom.She's realized that Tom's not such bad guy especially since his hands magically produce treats.

Josi has now started playing big-time with Sophie and it is so much fun to watch them!

We wish grandpa lots of luck with the circus and off we go!
We'll miss the little boogers, but it'll sure be nice to get a good night's sleep....





See ya in 9 days!

Day 52 - Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Hard to believe we've had the wooly mammoth for almost 2 months now!
She's filled out quite a bit and she's at an ideal weight. Any more gain and she won't fit through the cat door.
Speaking of which, she's still annoyed by the cats (and don't even ask them how they feel about her), but doing much better.

This, of course, has all to do with a shamanic healing seminar I attended last weekend. I learned some energy healing techniques, and if you now think I'm crazy then that has a whole lot to do with the fact that I am crazy.
Thank you for the great genes, mom and dad :).
Anyways, I also attended some animal communication classes (yes, pet psychic) previously and to make a long story short, I tried some of the stuff I learned and am actually seeing progress.
Josephine is less grouchy too so now I have to try it on Tom. Maybe we could say good-bye to those cancer sticks and happy pills!

The cats have been hanging out in the kitchen the past few days, and Lana still yaps at them occassionally, but is dealing with the situation quite well.
Outside, she'll still run after them, but won't do her obnoxious barking routine. Sometimes we can actually all co-exist in the back yard without having to wear earplugs.

What we're learning now is climbing the main stairs. I couldn't figure out if it was a physical or mental thing, but since Lana has shown no signs of arthritis, I'm thinking she's just never encountered a staircase.
We haven't tackled the problem yet, because it had never been a problem before, and we wanted to give the chihuahuas a place to retreat to since Lana and Josephine were a little on edge around each other.
Well, the past few nights Lana has been waking me up several times a night, having to go out and me having to carry her down the stairs. This had the result that I could now compete at work with my students in the lets-see-who-can-go-to-sleep-first-during-class contest.

I thought that Lana had temporary diarrhea and the problem would be over in a few days, but now I don't know if she really still has diarrhea or thinks going out at night to patrol is a poodle's version of hanging out at the local bar.
I've become so sleep-deprived that I just left her downstairs for the night, along with about 5 cozy dogbeds to choose from, but that just doesn't quite cut it for her.
Of course she wants to be with the rest of the pack and starts barking up the stairs about 3x per night. She never barks for long, just enough to wake me up and give me time to invent a few new curse words.
Anyways, I started the training today and whereas Lana's very cautious she's mastered 3 stairs today. I've read online that that's very good progress in one day so hopefully she can use the stairs by the time we go on vacation and grandpa has to come and take care of the brood.

Grandpa, if I were you, I'd be hoping real hard right now!

Day 40 - Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Lana and Sophie at play.

Day 39 - Monday, February 16th, 2009

Last Thursday I got a call from the Humane Society - somebody was interested in Lana and wanted to meet her.

I took her to the shelter the next day with mixed feelings. On one hand we became attached to the old girl, but on the other hand the shelter director assured me that the interested person would give Lana a wonderful home.

The people in question visited with Lana for a bit and then said they'd think about it. They're o.k. inside, but as soon as Lana spots one outside, off she goes.

We haven't heard back from the people and I really think the cat-chasing issue might have been a problem for them. Can't blame them! I'll have to start working on that intensively.

Grandpa and stepgrandma came to visit over the weekend and they got to meet their new granddogs for the first time.

Sophie was bopping all over the place, as usual, but Lana was a bit shy. Even barked at them when they first came in.

Grandpa is going to babysit when we go on vacation in March, and if Lana's still here I'm sure they'll become friends within a few days. Well yeah, since he's the one with the food......

Sophie has been demanding more and more of Lana's attention, and the old lady has seriously started playing with pipsqueak.

She's also been carrying her toys around in a more playful fashion and less in a "I-need-a-place-for-my-puppy" manner.

This odd behavior had been a source of conflict between her and Josephine, but it has changed into something more playful, and now Lana enjoys being chased by Sophie while carrying a toy in her mouth.

She's also starting to go for the tug games.

Surprisingly, Luci has watched the two interact and all of a sudden started playing with Sophie too. This has never happened and was so much fun to watch. Better than TV!

Day 32 - Monday, February 09, 2009

I finally caught the two newcomers playing in the front yard.

Day 31 - Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Today wasn't as warm as yesterday, but it wasn't cold either. We did spend some time outside, first taking a long walk and then sitting in the front yard. The video shows an energetic Sophie, just running around and enjoying life.

Lana had a sort of a breakthrough last night and exhibited it again today - she actually played with Sophie! Sophie tries hard to get the other dogs to play with her, so far unsuccessfully. Last night she started tugging on Lana's ears and jumping up on her and Lana responded by mouthing and rolling around on the floor with Sophie. The old dame is reliving her second youth.

We went shopping in the afternoon and when we came home both Lana and Sophie greeted us outside. The little pipsqueak had obviously followed Lana outside through the doggie door! Nobody has ever showed her and I thought it would take a long time for her to go outside on her own, but here she was - yet another surprise.

Day 30 - Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Today was another special day - aren't we just full of them!

Lana got to participate in our Saturday ritual for the first time. No, we don't sacrifice small animals and drink their blood - we go to the coffee shop.

It was a wonderfully warm day today so I took Lana out to the walking track and walked one mile with her, as I do now every morning.

Then we loaded our 4 kids into the car, which is no small feat and almost feels like herding real children, and headed out to our neighboring town to get some decent coffee.

They tolerate us and our ever expanding circus at the coffee shop and let us sit on their patio mainly because we put their kids through college. Or maybe it's just because they are nice people.

We took all of the dogs for a short walk before planting ourselves on the patio. and they behaved surprisingly well today. There was none of the usual "lets-see-how-tangled-up-we-can-get" contest, but just peaceful snoozing in the carriers - until the food came, that is.

Then of course daddy was suckered into giving out bits of his lunch until he hardly had anything left. And he wonders why Josephine is fat!

Anyways, it was very enjoyable. Lana paced a bit, but then settled down. We'll definitely take her again.

The rest of the day the dogs and I spent mostly outside. They had a ball in the warm weather, just running around in the yard and barking at the people that went by.

Lana is still chasing the cats outside, but can now co-exist with them in the kitchen. Once in a while there's a frustrated bark at them, but when I call her name she stops.

Not so outside, but we're working on it.

Little Sophie also came outside with us, something she hadn't done when it was cooler. She thought it was the greatest thing to run around on her little stick legs, drag branches through the yard and try to animate the others to play with her. They were very tolerant, but wouldn't play.

All in all there was none of the usual "who's-the-biggest-bitch" behavior and everybody got along.

I guess the warmer it gets, the more they chill!

Oh, almost forgot - Lana hasn't had any accidents in the house for quite a while. That's a good thing, because grandpa and stepgrandma are coming to visit on Friday, and we sure don't want them to get wet feet. Not to mention other things.

All we need to do now is potty train Sophie!

Day 26 - February 3rd, 2009

Today was the big day - we took Lana to the vet this morning to get her teeth cleaned. We also took Sophie to get dipped for mange.

This is a precautionary measure, because some of the other dogs at the "breeder" she came from have mange.

I took off work this afternoon so Tom and I were able to go pick up the kids together.

Lana came out with her mouth all puffy, but she was very alert and proceeded to pee on the vet's rug in true movie-star fashion.

The vet said she had to remove 7 teeth and gave us some pain medication for her, but when we got home Lana acted like superdog, chasing the cats, barking enthusiastically, and running around like a puppy. If I were to humanize her I'd say she was relieved to have finally gotten rid of those rotten teeth.

Now she's rubbing her face against the carpet so I guess it's time for the pain pill!

Day 24 - Sunday, February 1st, 2009

I haven't posted in a while since nothing earth-shattering has happened in the past few days.

Lana is still going after the cats despite my best efforts, but I have hopes that some day the yapping and chasing them will shrink to a tolerable level.

Now that the weather is getting better I've been taking Lana out to our local walking trail, which is a mile long, and walking one round with her.

She has enough energy to walk the full mile and enjoys it, but indicates that that distance is fully sufficient for a lady her age.

Barb, the chihuahua rescue lady, sent us some more bling collars for Lana and Sophie, including the matching velvet leashes.

They look so pretty all decked out - if there were a show "Pimp My Dog" they'd be on it!

Sophie is still shy, but will come to us if she wants to be held. She's a little spitfire with lots of energy, but we have the impression she put a little weight on. Luckily we can weigh her on the kitchen scale and get a more exact number than on the people scale.

Seems like the dominance issues between Lana and Josephine have been resolved. For a while there it was cause for worry since at times it seemed they were going to get into fights, but it never advanced beyond the growling and snapping stage.

I'm not quite sure who won, but I have the impression Josephine did since Lana will turn her head when Josephine comes near.

I'm glad since Josi was here first and shouldn't be downgraded in the order of the pack.

Lucrezia has become more tolerant of Sophie, but the most patient dog with Sophie is actually Lana. Sophie will try to get her to play, tugging and jumping at her, but Lana just lets it happen. I think the circus that has moved into our house is finally getting its act together!

Tuesday is the big day for Lana - she'll finally get her teeth fixed. I am so looking forward to that since her teeth must be causing her discomfort.

Sophie will go with her to the vet to get dipped for mange one last time.

There's always something!

Day 19 - Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

I got a call this morning at 5.40 telling me that due to the ice on the road there was no school today. Yay!

Lana was bundled up in her new coat and we took a walk outside. It was freezing cold, but she enjoyed it until she started limping. Guess she got some salt onto her paws so we went back and ran around in the yard for a bit.

The little pipsqueak Sophie is starting to come out of her shell. She was sleeping with Tom this morning and when I came close to pet her she bit me twice. She also growls at Josephine and Josi keeps her distance.

The shelter director emailed me today asking how Lana was doing and I had just got done writing how well she was doing and that I was hoping she'd start playing soon when Lana picked up a little toy Josephine was previously playing with. It was a little pink stuffed puppy and Lana was carrying it around quite a bit - almost as if she was looking for a spot for her puppy. Josephine didn't like it and started growling whenever Lana got close and Lana growled back. It was the first time she didn't back off. I took the toy away so they couldn't fight over it, but now whenever they get close to each other they start the growling and are aggressive.I have the impression it's a fight for dominance, and we'll have to watch them closely - the last thing I need right now is a major dogfight.

I've written before that Lana has shown signs of dominant behavior, but it had always been quite harmless.She gets along well with Sophie, who never growls at Lana. I guess only time will tell...I've done some clicker training with Lana to get her to calm down when the cats show up and I was somewhat successful but that doesn't mean tomorrow will be the same.

Sophie is still hard to catch and does quite a bit of running around, but when she's tired she'll stop and let herself be picked up. She then sleeps on me until she wakes up and gets all goofy, rolling around on her blanket and nipping my hand.

She gets lots of treats, as Lana does, to gain some weight. Right now she's chomping on a lamb's ear that's almost as big as she is.

This house is a real circus right now and the little ones are keeping us busy, that's for sure, but hey, the only drugs they take is glucosamine, they don't stay out at night, and they don't want to go to college!

Day 16 - Saturday, January 24, 2009

Yesterday was the big day - we went to pick up Sophie.

All of our animals are named after historical personalities (except for Ozzy who's named after Ozzy Osbourne - definitely a personality, but not quite historical yet) and Sophie was named after Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst, the later Catherine the Great.
Started out real small and became real big - both anatomically and historically.

Anyways, Tom took the day off and that turned out to be a good thing since Sophie is so small, very quick and hard to catch once let off onto the ground.
I was worried about the cats and Lana - the cats having been freaked out too often lately by a barking and charging Lana, and Lana herself showing dominance behavior towards Luci and Josi. After the initial greeting, Lana did try to get on top of Sophie to nip her in the back of the neck and we had to stop her.

Sophie ran right up to Messerschmitt to play as I held my breath and already imagined me describing to our vet how the cat swallowed the dog whole, but Schmittchen was so confused that she just sat there and let the approach happen.
Ozzy didn't really react either and we were relieved. It is obvious that Sophie loves cats so the worry that she could be scared and intimidated by them was unfounded.
Hindenburg and Richthofen aren't around much these days, because they are so annoyed by Lana barking at them.

Sophie became very attached to Tom and she goes looking for him and whines when he leaves the house. That'll be great fun on Monday, when he goes to work, and I don't plan on sleeping much Monday night.
She's very active, running around on her thin legs with her hip bones sticking out.

I have the impression that Lana gained some weight so I hope the same formula will work for Sophie - home-made chicken stew mixed with supplements and green tripe.
Of course Sophie isn't potty trained so we're having fun all over again.....

Lana can now be trusted enough that we don't have to put her ino the sunroom when we leave the house. She pees in the house about once a day. No poop lately at all though!Of course she marked over the spots Sophie peed on yesterday, but today there wasn't much of a problem.The dominance behavior only comes up occassionally.

It was very cold today, but the sun was shining and we decided to bundle up the dogs in their jackets and go for a walk.
Sophie got to ride along in a carrier that looks like a backpack, but is put on in the front. We wrapped her in a blanket, put her in the pack and Tom put his coat on top. She was snug as a bug with just her head sticking out.

Lana was not slow at all today; in fact I had to walk very fast to keep up with her.
Luckily, walking fast is the thing I do best - just ask my students.
I've noticed a big difference in Lana's activity level. Now, when I come home she lopes around like a puppy and runs circles in the yard for about 10 minutes.
I think she's regained a lot of her energy along with the weight. It is so cool to see the progress she's making!
Luci also exhibits puppy behavior when Lana is doing the homecoming ritual so I'm hoping that the two old gals one day will run around together and become friends.

As for now I feel like I'm the director in a circus - thank goodness I don't have to pick up any elephant poop!

Day 14 - Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

We have news!
What I hadn't mentioned on Tuesday was the full story about the vet visit.

While I was in the waiting room and Lana was socializing with the other dogs there, the vet came out and placed this tiny shivering thing in my lap.

Turned out it was a chihuahua she had rescued, about 7 years old, very little hair (she's being treated for mange), very waggy tail, and weighing a whopping 1.8 pounds.
I've never seen a tiny yet full-grown dog like that!




The vet was hoping we could give the little lady a home, and I just thought: "Oh boy!"
Well, not quite, because I can't repeat here which words I really thought - just about the last thing we need is another dog, but this little girl was so cute, and in my mind I had already named her Sophie - never a good sign!
I mean for the willpower, not for the dog, of course!
Since I couldn't spring another animal on Tom I said I'd send him by the next day to take a look so he could decide. And be the bad guy, of course.

He went for a short visit yesterday, and when he called me I didn't dare ask what the verdict was. He talked about other things first, while I was stepping from one foot to the other wishing he'd finally mention the subject since I didn't want to rush him. Being afraid of the answer could have had something to do with it too.
After what seemed ages he said that he'd visited the mangy runt, and yes, we'd bring it home.
You just gotta love that guy!

The next step was to go into overdrive and plan this out.
Since we've learned a lot from Lana, and nobody knows if Sophie is potty trained, I bought a rabbit playpen we can put her in when we're gone (we're hardly ever gone and we'll make it real comfortable too), because if she pees in the house, Lana will want to mark over and we'll have the vicious cycle going on here.
Sophie also doesn't like walking on a leash so I bought one of those rabbit harnesses until we can get her a real one.
Barb from the chihuahua rescue has already offered to hook us up with some stuff since you can't buy accessories for XXXS dogs at Walmart.

I'm a little worried that Sophie will be terrified of the cats, and that Lana might be too rambunctious since the old girl has decided to transform into a spring chicken every time I come home from work.
That's a good thing since it gets her nice and excercised - and tired, for that matter, but I'll have to watch her closely around tiny Sophie.

I'll go pick her up tomorrow after work and then we'll see what happens.
Somebody help me, I've actually become Paris Hilton!

Day 12 - Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Yesterday was not a good day.

Lana woke up, went right back to her bad bathroom habits and refused to eat breakfast.
She also refused to eat her favorite treat duck jerkey and the no-fail Cheez Whiz.
That's when I became worried.


I was off due to Martin-Luther-King-Day and luckily able to watch Lana all day.
She acted bizarre - grazing grass and henbit leaves like a cow, then going over to raiding the houseplants which I had to put out of her reach.
Earlier in the morning we had caught her eating a decorative plant outside which she immediately vomited back up so it must have been toxic.
We then covered up that plant so Lana couldn't get to it, so she went into the back yard and started chomping down on anything green she could find.

Before anybody wonders - I do feed her supplements like enzymes and powdered barley grass. Any attempt of bribing her with food was fruitless and given her low weight I called our vet and asked if they had a high-calorie paste like Nutrical which they did, so I went and got some. Lana hated it, but by now she was pooping pure grass and I was getting desperate. I'm thinking she must have eaten something slightly toxic first thing in the morning which upset her stomach and made her act strange.

After spending the day trying to get Lana to eat and rescuing the houseplants she finally settled down in the living room and slept for 3 hours straight. I think the Nutrical paste might have soothed her stomach and given her some peace.

When I let the dogs out before going to bed Lana ran straight to one of the wooden posts on our patio, wrapped herself around it and began scratching her sides and face on the wood.
Weird!

She then had some diarrhea (great!), went inside - and ate a whole bowl of dog food!
I was very relieved and called Tom, telling him to take Lana out when he came home and again before he went to bed, because of the diarrhea.
That led to her now being afraid of him (who wants to be taken out of a warm bed and into the cold outside in the middle of the night), but avoided any accidents.

When we got up this morning, Lana was eager to run around and wag her tail. This time she didn't pee in the house, but waited until we went outside, and then waited impatiently for her breakfast. She again ate a whole bowl of food - whew, she was out of the woods!
Our walk went fine, she ate the duck jerkey, and I slipped her some Cheez Whiz just to make sure she was back.
That she was!




When I came home from work today there had been no accidents in the house, and I've never seen her so excuberant and excited.

Josephine had her vet appointment today, and I took Lana along to introduce her to the vet. I asked the doc to take a quick look at her, and she found that Lana had an ear infection and impacted anal glands. That was taken care of, and even though that was a little painful, Lana was very forgiving and socialized very well with the other, bigger dogs.
In fact it was quite the party in the waiting room.
She weighs 8.4 pounds and is still about 4 pounds underweight, but I think we're getting there if there are no more incidents with those devious plants.
She's going to get her teeth cleaned in two weeks so she has some time to recover between anesthesias.

I spent some time in the kitchen when we got home, and there was no pacing - Lana ate another bowl of food, then immediately went to lay on her bed in the dining room to snooze.
My clicker finally arrived, and tomorrow we'll start learning that cats can be your friends if they are not accosted by a curly-haired creature with a Hollywood name.

Day 10 - Sunday, January 18th, 2009

Well, Lana did mark in the hallway this morning while I was in the shower. I half expected it since I couldn't find the spot she marked yesterday morning and cleaned the spot I thought she peed on. Guess I didn't quite hit it.

This morning she paced in the kitchen for a bit, then disappeared. When I went to check on her she had let herself out through the doggie door!

Lana came back relatively quickly, then decided to tackle the mystery of the cat door. It is installed in the kitchen door and leads to a mudroom, but the wind was blowing it slightly inward. I watched Lana trying to get out, and she managed to open the flap toward the inside enough so she could slip under it.
She amazes me every day with the things she can do without being shown, just by trying them out!

We've been practicing positive reinforcement when it comes to the cats. Two of them have now figured out that even though Lana charges them, she backs off if they decide to sit it out.
Whenever she starts raising her ears and looks towards the cats one of us says: "Leave it!" and as soon as she turns away, she's praised.
I was hoping the clicker would have arrived by now to make things easier, but it hasn't. Still, she's making progress on that every day and I hope that in about a week she won't be charging cats anymore.

Personally, I think Cheez Whiz should be named best inter-species ambassador, because when that can comes out, the animals line up and suddenly get along, no matter the year, make, or model!



They eat it directly from the nozzle so just remember to never eat cheese with crackers at my house.
Just kidding!


Having had Lana for over a week now, and hoping a potential adopter might read the blog, this is what I hope she can go home to:
a person that understands positive reinforcement, takes daily short walks (Lana can walk easily for 1/2 mile) , has a yard and possibly a doggie door and lots of love and appreciation for this sweet, intelligent girl.
Lana is an active dog, who is showing a very slight stiffness in the hind legs, but loves walking as long as it's not miles and miles.
I also have the impression her eyesight is not the best anymore, but she hears and smells very well.
She'd make a great companion for somebody!

She also gets along with other dogs even though I have to watch her around Luci when they get excited like right before walks or during playtime. Lana does a dominance thing and tries to nip Luci in the back of the neck, but it only happens when the excitement level is high and poses no problem at any other time. In fact, Luci likes to run outside with her and they all form a "pack".
Cats shouldn't be a problem before too long either. It'll take a while for them to get used to each other, but then they'll be just fine.

Lana has peed in the house only twice the last two days, and a few times she's gone on the pee pads.
Again, she's learned this quickly, and I expect her to be fully potty trained in a week, give or take a few days.
She still hasn't attempted to walk up the stairs and we'll wait with that for another few days until her incision has healed up a little more which, btw, isn't bothering her much.

Lana also rides well in the car. I think she's a little scared, because the first few miles she'll stand on the seat and just stare ahead, but she usually settles down after a while.
She's also become much more relaxed in the house. She still paces, but is starting to settle onto her bed a little sooner every day.
As soon as I sit down, she's on her bed snoozing.
Not bad for a dog who obviously hasn't experienced any of this before!

Day 9 - Saturday, January 17, 2009

Lana became restless at 6 a.m. this morning and woke me up. Figured I better take her out which is much less hassle than having her jump off the bed and breaking a leg. Cheaper too!

When I lifted her off the bed she made a beeline for the carpet and squatted, but this time I was anticipating that move so I scooped her up, carried her outside and praised her relentlessly for finishing her business in the yard.

I've never seen this in a dog, but she seems to react better to praise than treats so even though it was below freezing this morning and I just in a t-shirt, I followed Lana around and every time she finished peeing she got lots of praise. There were lots of spots for her to check out, and I bet I was a frightful sight for the neighbors, but it was for a good cause, right?

During our kitchen-time this morning she still paced a bit and went after the cats, but she's not so agitated anymore when they show up. Lana will huff and puff a bit and run towards them, but then back away especially since they're starting to stay their ground.

Finally she went to lay on one of the dog beds in the kitchen and relaxed . She also relaxed in the dining room while I was having breakfast.

No accidents!

Tom and I are in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and were going to attend little brother's basketball game this morning. What to do with Lana?

I came up with the great idea of leaving her in the sunroom (it has the doggie door leading outside) and blocking off access to the rest of the house, thus avoiding any activity of the lower bodily regions anywhere but the laminat of the sunroom, which is easy to clean.

Luci never goes out on her own anyways, and Josi holds it easily for a few hours, so having no access to the doggie door was no problem for them.

It would give the cats a break too, because they use the cat entrance in the kitchen door.

We made it comfortable for Lana, leaving her with food, water, her bed, and tasty duck-breast jerky.

After the game we brought little brother home with us, and when we opened the door to the sunroom Lana was nowhere to be seen.

I started to slightly panic when suddenly she showed up behind us - she had mastered the use of the doggie door, gone outside and enjoyed the sunshine in the yard!

She learned how to come in from outside a few days ago, but had never gone outside through the doggie door.

She really is a smart little girl!

Little brother, who's 10, connected with Lana, sitting down beside her and running his hands over her back. He commented on how thin she was, then proceeded to counting the number of vertebrae he could feel (it was 11, in case anybody was wondering).

Later on we went for a walk and he was put in charge of Lana. She stopped to sniff every 2 seconds and took her sweet time, but he was right there, patiently waiting for her to move on.

He's a great kid!

It is now almost 8 p.m. and so far, no mess in the house. I let Lana out about every 2 hours and keep on praising her when she pees outside. Other than that she has learned how to relax more and now even rolls on her back for a belly rub. Such a cutie!

Of course I won't break out the champagne quite yet - maybe this was just a lucky day.

So I'll just break out the wine instead and pre-celebrate just a tiny bit.

Day 8 - Friday, January 16, 2009

Lana slept through most of the night, only waking up a few times, and then only to lift her head, look around for a bit, and go back to sleep again.
I had not put her on my bed this time, because she was so groggy, and I didn't want to risk her falling off so she slept in her bed on the floor.

When the alarm went off this morning she hopped out of her bed as if nothing had happened, wagged her tail, and followed me around. I carried her downstairs (she'll still not walk the main staircase), and she was eager to go out, running around outside in the snow and sniffing extensively.

When she came back and spotted Richthofen, our big orange cat, in the hallway she went for him - that's when I knew she was back!

Peed in the kitchen twice too....

She didn't want to eat at first, but when the rotisserie chicken came out of the refrigerator Lana decided the fast was over and went for it - emptied a whole bowl of food and didn't have to vomit.

She still hasn't put on a whole lot of weight, so besides her food she's constantly getting rewards for good behavior - all healthy treats, of course.

Problem is that the chis also expect a treat, when Lana gets one, no matter that they didn't do anything to earn one (after all, she is on the bottom end of the pack), but I guess they think looking cute warrants a reward.

They are so right!

Lana might not have woken up from the anesthesia as quickly as a younger dog would have, but she didn't need 3 days to get back to her old self either, which we thought she would.

When I had to go to work I left her in the room with Tom, and she immediately went to sleep.

I made my daily phone call home around noon, and Tom said Lana was doing very well. He had a long session with her, just sitting next to her, scratching her ears, and reassuring her.

Her incision doesn't seem to be bothering her, and we're relieved we don't have to experience the joys of the canine heat cycle.

I opened the local newspaper during lunch break and there was a picture of Lana staring back at me! The Humane Society puts adoption ads in the paper on a regular basis and this time it was Lana's turn.

I'm wondering if anybody will inquire and that brings up the next problem: what if somebody wants to adopt her soon - will we be able to let go?

I'd sure like to get her housetrained before she leaves so her new parents won't get upset with her.

I have read up on the problem and since I'm off for the next 3 days and can constantly supervise Lana, I'll see if she can learn and make progress.

I've heard that it's hard to get dogs over 5 years of age potty trained, but poodles are the second smartest breed, right?