Dolly and Dancer

Dolly weighed 68 pounds today.
I wish I could give her about 10 of mine.

I've had Dolly in the house for most of the past week, but mostly at night and mostly in her crate. The last couple days I've kept her in more and given her more freedom around the house. She's well-behaved, no problems, but she's just so excited that she can hardly stand still unless someone is petting her. She's happy to be a house dog again. Today we went to the vet.

She sought out the treats but wouldn't eat them.
She was interested in the corner of a cabinet
where some boy dog must have marked.

Although Dolly loves people and is pretty easy to handle, you never know how a new dog will react and the vet's office to being handled, poked, prodded, and stuck with needles.

Dolly handled it very well. She squirmed a lot but just from excitement. She was fine with all the procedures. No one thought she looked or acted 10 years old. She tested negative for heartworm (yay!) but positive for Lyme; I got doxycycline to treat her. She had a grade 3 heart murmur, and one rear leg that didn't like being manipulated. The vet took two xrays. They showed no enlargement of the heart so I think we'll assume that's just been a long standing condition and at her age it's not likely to affect her longevity. One hip showed some displasia, and there's some arthritis in her spine, neither condition too unusual for her age, size, and breed, and they don't seem to be affecting her clinically.

All things considered, a pretty good report, particularly given the fact that she's been living outdoors for years and probably last saw a vet when she was spayed as a pup. 

She was very much inclined to opt for the prize
behind door #2.

The meet and greet

Dancer is HUGE compared to Dolly.

Dancer's mom does face painting
and body art. She had given him
some temporary designs before a
therapy session with children the
other day. Completely safe,
non-toxic, and removable.

A few days ago I had an email from a former adopter. This woman has adopted at least two rottweilers from me in the past and still has one, Dancer. She had written to tell me that she and Dancer were now doing therapy work, which social rotties are wonderfully suited for since they love nothing better than human contact. I knew she was down to one dog now although she had usually had at least two in the past so I mentioned Dolly. Arrangements were made for us to meet after Dolly's vet appointment on Thursday afternoon.

Dancer ran around, excited to have her and
wanting to play. She was more interested in
checking out smells in the house and the yard
but they got along fine and she will play with
him when she's ready.

We met. The dogs got along well as I knew they would. She liked Dolly as I knew she would. I came back home to get a crate to lend her and Dolly stayed with her and Dancer. There are cats in the household, but they have trained Dancer and the adopter seemed confident that they could work things out. Dolly was interested in the cats, but not aggressive, so there is every reason to hope that things will work out.