Wow, what a difference a day (or two) makes

Yesterday Maya and I walked again, on the trails and around the soccer fields at Pleasant Grove.  She had been in that area at one time when she was running at large, so I don't know if it was familiar ground or not but she seemed pretty calm, cool, and collected.  She became pretty concerned, however, when a bunch of girls came running along the road after finishing a soccer practice.


Today I took her to visit Jennifer at CASPCA where I also made a neuter appointment for Rocky for next Monday.  Jennifer is Vince's savior and BFF and Maya seemed to feel the same way.  I left them alone for a bit and after a little initial anxiety Maya settled down and was happy to be with her, touching, leaning, and seeking out petting contact.  She still startles fairly easily but she does seem to be coming out of a her shell.


When we got back home this evening she allowed Clay to leash her and get her out of the van.  She immediately looked around for me, but once she saw that I was here she was ok.  She is exhibiting some anxiety in her crate if she's confined and knows that I'm in the house, but she seems to settle and relax at night or when I'm away. 


When she's loose in the house or in my office she hangs out around me and/or Trooper.  Well, with Trooper if she has the choice.  She's definitely in heat so I won't be able to get her spayed for a couple weeks.  She has decided that Trooper is her guy and she is after him constantly.  She's got good taste, but the fact is that he's just not that into her.  We'd have a sexual harassment lawsuit on our hands if Trooper had a lawyer. 

Maya was a ride along passenger on today's trip to town, but the primary reason was a vet visit with Hercules.  I ran out of the pancreatic enzyme I had been giving to him and to Riley, so I thought it was time for a consultation with the vet.  The timing was fortuitous because when we went over Herc's prior vet records we discovered that his shots were all due.  The vet also found that he had a skin infection and one ear badly infected with yeast.  All those things, plus the digestive issue point towards food allergy so I got him a bag of a limited ingredient dog food (sweet potato and fish), which we will try while monitoring his weight closely.  He also got oral antibiotics for his skin and liquid miconizole for his ears. 

 

The good news is that he was up to 79 pounds, which is great, but really not so great considering that he's eating probably 8 cups of food per day, plus the raw chicken.  We are going to try the dog food alone but if he starts to drop weight in a week's time, I'm going to put him back on the enzyme as well.  He's a shepherd so it's quite possible that he's got both food allergies and pancreatic enzyme insufficiency.  He's been in the rescue for a year now, which I didn't realize, and I've had him here since right before Christmas.  It's time to get him moving.