It was really almost funny arriving home. Ever since my bike accident in 2003, my knee has been "funny." It hates to be bent for long periods. Driving in the car usually doesn't bother it because it's my left knee and I don't need it for the gas pedal, but as I went to get out of the car, I had sharp pains in my knee so that it was difficult to walk. I was trying to get through Walt and two dogs at the front door to the bathroom, since that was a pressing need as well.
Walt answered the door bent over. Part of his bike broke while he was riding it the day before (no danger to him, but the bike wouldn't work) so that he had to carry it two blocks to the bike shop and twisted his back so he was having a hard time getting around too.
Having just left my mother looking like death warmed over, I was beginning to think that everybody was falling apart around me.
Shiloh and Polly were not at home. They had gone to training classes and their handlers had taken them to Petco afterwards, so we didn't have to immediately get into the car to get the dogs to Petco.
I spent the next couple of hours getting yesterday's journal entry written, after which we went to pick up the dogs (I no longer think of going to Petco to "find out if either of them has been adopted." I think they are just there at Petco for window dressing. They'll be with us forever.)
The two dogs were asleep in a cage and as we were about halfway down the sidewalk from them, Polly's head came up and she cocked it to the side quizzically. Then her head came up farther and her tail tentatively wagged and by the time we'd reached the cage, both she and Shiloh had furiously wagging tails and were climbing the sides of the enclosure to get out.
And no, nobody had expressed interest in them.
We got home from Petco and I took a nap to prepare me to go and see "The Owl and the Pussycat" in Sacramento that night.
Polly is being very weird lately. She trembles and cringes when she looks at me and she has stopped sleeping with me at night the last few nights. She started out sleeping with me during my nap, but got down soon after getting up. I don't know how much of this is because of my spending so much time with the puppies and how much is because of a couple of incidents which have happened lately. She went to jump up on the recliner with me just at the time when I was moving one of my feet and accidentally kicked her in the face. Then yesterday we took the two little guys for a walk around the block and she got too close to my foot and was kicked yet again. But even before that, the whole the we were walking she was walking in kind of a half-cringe position, hyper alert, and looking around furtively the whole time. I don't know what is going on with her and I am worried about her.
As for the puppies, I can't believe how quickly they are changing. They arrived here Monday night and on Tuesday at each feeding they, collectively, took 2 oz of formula. By Thursday they were collectively taking 4 oz of formula a feeding, and yesterday and today they went through eight ounces of formula per feeding. They are growing so fast it seems like you can watch them get bigger and it seems that hourly they are becoming more mature. Still no eyes or ears opened, but they are no longer crawling around their cage slowly, but walking around confidently, climbing "mount Mama" (the teddy bear) and letting me know LOUDLY that they want to be fed NOW.
I think this is the fastest maturing set of puppies we've had.
We don't know their story or their parentage. Someone at the post office found them in a box outside the door and the best guess at their breed is Australian Shepherd/pit bull. But the way they are growing, I would guess that they may end up at the large end of both of those breeds. Their three sisters (who have been named Greta, Mona and Sadie) seem to be growing quickly too, as their moms wrote, "Our puppies are still in a laundry basket but only for one more day as they are rapidly outgrowing it!!"
1 comment:
One person had an interest in Shiloh on Saturday.. but they didn't fill out an application. (I volunteer at the SPCA) I'm guessing the puppies have some form of border collie, but I can't really tell what breed they are, since they still look like spotted potatoes :)
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