Oakley

Oakley is a very nice dog, but she hasn't been the easiest foster. 

She's skinny as a rail and posting pictures of her in that condition brought out an internet Karen, criticizing the rescue (and indirectly, me) for not feeding her enough. She came to us very underweight and with diarrhea, which made it very hard to put weight on her. She's been de-wormed multiple times since then and I think she's beginning to put on some lean muscle weight, but it takes a lot of that on a slender and still growing Dane before it results in any padding on the ribs. 

A few weeks back Oakley got into a fight with Elvis and tore him a couple of new ones. I expect Elvis provoked it, he has a bit of a Napoleon complex, but it was a very one-sided fight and Elvis ran up a sizeable vet bill as a result and still needs to be seen again.

She had an interested applicant, still does, but she also had a weird growth on her left front leg that really needed to be looked at. A simple needle biopsy didn't point to any obvious cause, nor did bloodwork and urinalysis. We finally had a big chunk of the growth surgically removed and biopsied, but it still didn't reveal any cause, must less a cure for the weird bump on the leg. That surgery was two weeks ago and today she got the bandage and stitches removed. Oakley ran up a hefty vet bill on top of her spay surgery because of all this and still no answers were found. Fortunately the potential adopter is still interested in her, and is coming to meet her Saturday morning. 

Until the incident with Elvis, Oakley got along with everyone around here, including Elvis, but since then I only let her associate with Paige. They had each other so that worked all right, although it complicated household sleeping arrangements and meant that Oakley and Paige didn't get as much uncrated, indoor time and experience as I would have liked. Since Paige got adopted last weekend Oakley has been pretty much solo, which isn't ideal but neither she nor Elvis seemed ready to forgive and forget. 

This afternoon I took Oakley to get her stitches removed and then we went for a two mile walk. It may be the first time I've walked with Oakley. She was really pretty good and seemed to enjoy doing something new.

Asked to "touch the dog," Oliver complied, but just barely. 

Oakley was fine with him.

I used a rope harness on her for the walk. 

The rope was long enough to add a half hitch and the rear end of the dog.

That helped, but I also needed a short slip lead to control the front end.

She's a pretty girl.