Puppy Love, Part 1

Now we. know what they mean by the term “puppy love”! It has been all of three days, and we are fully in love with this fur-ball. She shows us new ways to see the world. She make us smile three times before breakfast. And she is affectionate, and clearly bonding to us quite well. In short, she is a delight.

We are carefully filling out a journal of when she pees and poops, when she eats, when she sleeps. Every burp and fart is documented. But it’s kind of fun. She has been introduced to many people, but no dogs (yet). And she had her first visit with the vet today, which went well.

(Now picking this up on April 15) Finding the time to write this blog has been a challenge. This pup is fun, witty, clever, but time-consuming (like a new baby). And, of course, we are not the same age as we were when we had the babies. Between taking her outside for her pees and poops, feeding her, getting her ready for bed, playing with her, cleaning up after she pees on the floor, and so on - there isn’t a lot of time left when we want to be awake and working.

And we had our first trauma with her. Three days ago, we took her on a 20-km ride to see how she would do. Not surprisingly, she threw up—once on the way there, and once on the way back. So we decided that was too long, so we tried a shorter (3 km each way) trip. Again, she threw up twice. Then she stopped eating and drinking, and we got worried. But maybe she would be okay, so we gave it the night to see. The next morning, she was lethargic, and we phoned the vet. Bring her in, she said, and we did. At that point, we realized just how much she had become a part of our lives already. We were scared of losing her, and waited anxiously for the vet’s call. Dr. Whelan called and said she was dehydrated, but probably not seriously infected (no fever). We thought maybe she had eaten some walnut stuff. But she had lost about 12% of her body weight! And for a pup that only weighs 8 lbs, that’s a lot to lose.

They gave her 150 ml of fluid sub-cutaneously and kept her for several hours. The staff were great, including carrying her in a make-shift front pouch. She was happy, but happy to be back home. And you can imagine how relieved we were to have her back. That afternoon, when she was feeling better, we invited our friend Margot to come over with her dog Midas (a full-sized Golden Retriever) for a doggie visit. They had a great time.

That was actually the second dog she had met since being here. We have to be careful: only fully-vaccinated dogs are allowed, since Lily doesn’t have all her shots yet. But there was a little miniature poodle from the neighbourhood (Pearl) who was walking by the other day, and they met.

And we’ve had a visit from our dog trainer lady (Cathy), who said we were on the right track so far. Hopefully, she will keep us on the narrow road to victory with this pup. 

And several visits from friends who have dropped by (with social distancing) to visit the new baby. It’s been a busy time. Right now, she is alseep at my feet, which is a favoured place to be (for both of us). Soon she will get another trip outdoors and some food, then perhaps a sleep again. A dog’s life is a hard one.