Generally I have a pretty good understanding of our dogs, even the fosters who are here for longer than a week or so. We have, over the years, developed a good way of communicating with each other.
Most of it is non-verbal, a certain look in the eyes or a tilt in the head. Polly has figured out that if she wants me to either feed her or go to sleep with her at night, and if putting her paws on my knees doesn't work, going out in the back yard, standing on the patio and barking will.
She doesn't yap-yap-yap as if there were something scary that she needs to scare away. No, it's more like Bark... (did she hear me? Is she coming? No? OK then) Bark again... About every 10-15 seconds. As soon as I stand up from my desk and begin walking into the family room, she is already coming back into the house because I've gotten the message.
So there are times when I think I'm not exactly fluent, but at least conversant in Dog.
But this Bella dog. She doesn't speak the same dialect. I am having a devil of a time trying to figure out what she wants.
And she very definitely wants something. For one thing she seems to be hungry every waking moment. I have been giving her considerably more food than the other dogs, but I think that at first her seemingly insatiable appetite was because she was nervous being in a new home. She would eat all that food and then see if anybody else had left anything in their bowls.
But I think we may have finally gotten her stomach to "normal" status. But I still can't quite figure out what she wants most of the time. She is on a forever hunt to see what she can find on the kitchen counters.
Whenever I am upright, she definitely wants something, but I don't know what. Tonight she spent a long time trying to overturn her food bowl (with all the food in it). I don't have a clue why.
However watching her playing with Buttercup is really a lovely thing. They have a couple of playtimes during the day and right before shutting down for the night. I love how gentle she is with her, though if she's eating, she will definitely give her "what for" if she tries to investigate. Buttercup has gone out the back door a couple of times and Bella is right there, nudging her around in a circle until she's facing the door again, and then the puppy waddles back in the house.
There have already been inquiries about adopting Bella, as Ashley predicted, so she will probably be adopted as soon as Buttercup is weaned.
To that end, I started trying to give Buttercup solid food today. Trying to find a place to feed her that is NOT immediately surrounded by dogs hoping to steal a snack is difficult. The first feeding did not go well and Bella ended up eating it all instead of the puppy. Then Walt went out and got puppy food, which I blended with a bit of formula and warm water. I took her in the bathroom to give it to her. She wasn't the least interested in the food bowl, but would take some food if I gave it to her on my finger. However, after three fingersful of food, she was bored with it. When I put her back in the cage, Bella followed her and Buttercup immediately started nursing.
I intend to give her solids three times a day, hoping to get her to start taking enough that it would be OK for Bella to find a forever home. It's hard to gauge what Buttercup should be doing because she's so huge that I forget she's really only 3 weeks old, and all the former puppies I've raised never started eating solids until about 4 weeks.
It would be nice if I could discuss all this with Bella, but we don't seem to speak the same language.
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