Friday's children

After a night of fitfull, intermittent sleep on Thursday, Friday dawned as the day of the painful cough.  My sinuses were mostly cleared and my throat was no longer sore, leaving me with a freezer full of unjustified ice cream.  The cold had settled into my lungs and I learned something new--laughter provokes coughing.  I worked at stiffling laughter and coughs, which produces very odd sounds and sensations.  I also learned that most of my dog handling skills, such as they are, depend upon my voice.  I was unable to yell or even to speak in a normal, attention-getting voice, and the dogs ignored me.  I worked half a day (making up the other half today) because I had dog business in town Friday afternoon.

I picked up Teddy, an owner surrender from down near Lynchburg.  Teddy is sweet, dumb, and goofy.  He's under two years old and had been living on a horse farm.  He got evicted from there because he barked at the horses.  He got passed to a young guy who really wasn't in a position to keep him.  But at least he contacted me and even drove the dog up here, meeting me at the Pantops Starbucks.  Although the dog arrived tethered in the back of a pickup and jumped out upon arrival, he was fine and he went into my van and settled down with no problems for a long afternoon of driving around. 

Trooper was with me for this trip because he had a vet appointment at 5:00 p.m.  When gathering up the rabies certificates prior to boarding everyone, I had discovered that Trooper's rabies vaccine had expired.  Trooper doesn't like strangers looking at him so I knew the vet visit wasn't going to be an easy one.  I had time to kill so we went early and they worked us in.  Fortunately, the folks at Old Dominion know me.  I muzzled Trooper, backed him into a corner and sat on him for the blood draw and vaccines.  The exam may have been the shortest on record, but he's young and healthy and our main objective was to get in and out of there without incident.  The picture of Trooper here is him smiling once he was back in the van after the vet visit. 

Gypsy II was my next pick up.  She was a CASPCA pup who didn't pass their temperament test because of resource guarding of particularly high value food items.  She's still a pup, maybe 9 months old.  I don't know what she is other than a mutt, but she looks like a larger version of former foster Sunny, now known as Sophie.  I'm calling her Gypsy II because my senior female shepherd is named Gypsy and she would not be keen on sharing her name, or anything else, with a female pup. 

Gypsy II did fine in the foster home where she's been for the last week or so.  She just needs to mature a bit and learn some social skills, the first of which is to not jump on me. 

My final pick up for the day was Zeus, f/k/a the Appalachian Wanderer.  He had come in just before I left on vacation and had been in a temporary foster home.  A few folks met him, I guess, but he's still very much a big puppy and hadn't yet found a good match.  The foster home where he had been has small dogs and cats, and although he was fine with them, he really needs a higher level of activity and play.  That's something I can offer. 

We put the new shepherd, Teddy, into the big kennel with Koa and Odie with really no proper introduction.  Odie was a bit domineering at first but they worked that out in a few minutes.  Gypsy II and Zeus went together with no problem in the adjacent kennel.  I showered and went to bed. 

This morning there was too much barking so we rearranged a bit, putting Gypsy II and Zeus into the big kennel with Teddy and Koa and separating out Odie.  This arrangement should work.