We woke up after a nice night of cuddling together and I wondered if this would be my last chance to sleep with Polly safely curled up under my arm.
The dogs were particularly cute this morning, chasing each other back and forth down the hall, and even playing with Lizzie, who sometimes likes to play and other times just wants to be left alone.
I could feel that I had already started making the "separation" process, starting to hold Polly at arm's length emotionally. It's a thing I do with dogs I come to love that I know I have to give up. We "talked" about how she might be going to a new home. She didn't believe me.
When it came time, I got the dogs into their leashes, which Shiloh just loves because he loves dragging Polly around by hers.
I got the two dogs into the car and drove to Petco, Polly sitting in my lap and Shiloh whining because he wanted to too.
Kim had asked me to bring Polly around 12:30, because that's when the woman who was interested in her would be coming, so we got there at 12:30 and learned that the woman was running an hour late. I decided to come back home again, but someone had parked too close to my car and I couldn't open the driver's side door, so I just sat at Petco and read, trying to keep out of sight of the dogs, since they whined and tried to climb out of their cages when they saw me.
Finally the woman arrived and Kim suggested that we go off away from the craziness of the adoption area and see how the two of them did together.
Polly was her usual reticent self, and just pressed her body close to mine whenever the woman reached out to pet her. I suggested she get a treat, since Polly was so food oriented, so she did. I credit Angela, the trainer who worked with Polly for such a long time just to get her to approach her and take food out of her hand for the fact that Polly had no hesitation about checking the woman's hand for food.
I liked the way she worked with Polly and liked even better her understanding of Polly's fears and what it would take to overcome them.
Polly even sort of, warily, let the woman touch her. Briefly.
And Polly went off with her on a leash, after initially looking back at me and pulling to get to me. At some point something clicked in my head and I could see Polly living with this woman, which made me feel very good.
When they returned, Polly hopped up next to me and pressed her body into mine again. The woman and I talked. She wants to bring one of her other dogs to meet Polly next week and, if that goes well, she is going out of town on business and wouldn't be able to actually adopt her until November 1, but she filled out the paperwork to get the ball rolling.
So we have another week to wait while the woman thinks about it and then brings the rest of her family into the decision making. But I am cautiously optimistic and feel good that I can envision this as being something that will work and something I will feel comfortable about.
It's all about the best for Polly and I'm hoping this will be it.
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