Girls' Night

It's been a while since we had three females in the house. Gypsy never allowed any, and we were only able to keep Molly and Emmylou upstairs because Gypsy didn't do stairs. I'm not sure why but it enabled us to keep two separate packs in the house, with the male dogs able to move between them. Fortunately, Maya isn't that hardcore and I think she's secure enough in her position that she'll permit other female dogs, only occasionally asserting herself so that they know that she holds the position of "Daddy's Little Girl." 

We've got Mercedes now and she's extremely velcro, following me every step I take indoors or outdoors. And now we've got Coco, and I need to train myself not to refer to her as the "little girl" because Maya really does consider that to be her nickname.

Coco has been fine in the crate at night. I've been giving her time in the AC yard during the day, but only in the early morning and late afternoon when it's shady out there again. She still too skittish to trust her in the big dog yard and she small enough that she could probably find a way out of there if she was so inclined. I always have a pretty busy work day on Monday so for the dogs that means laying around in the office watching me on the computer. I think Coco was getting pretty bored with that and was probably beginning to wonder what sort of place she had gotten into, so I took the three girls out for a late evening walk.

Even walking just before dark, it was still hot and humid. There was no breeze and the air had that Virginia summer smell to it that brings to mind a stale humidor. You could sweat without even moving be we did move - we went our usual two mile route.

Most of my pictures of Coco are from the side because she
was generally walking on my side, a full leash length out.
It was hard to get a face shot of her tonight.

I was planning to go without Mercedes since this would be Coco's first walk, but Mercedes made it clear that she did not intend to be left behind. Actually walking all three was fine. I don't know if Coco has done much leash walking but she really enjoyed it and was pretty good about it. Having lived on a chain she was adept at avoiding entanglements with her legs and other dogs. She walked along with us but she definitely had her own agenda for the walk. She was always in the grass, tail up high and nose down low. If there was taller grass, she headed for that, which reminds me that I need to put some flea and tick stuff on her tonight. She was generally a full leash length away from me, but was more apt to be out to the side going through grass and sniffing fence posts, rather than pulling me forward.

She had a good time and I hope it was a bonding experience for her, learning to trust, and at least learning that we aren't always boring around here.

p.s., I had a quick note from Rugger's adopter Monday morning that he had done well with everyone the first night, was happy to see her in the morning, and was sitting next to her at her computer. So far, so good.

Mercedes is always out front but she will at least turn
around and look at me when I stop.

She really looked like a girl on a mission going through the
grass. She liked tall, thick grass even better.
She's probably a small game hunter.

Maya has spotted a deer back against the trees. Coco came
over to see what the excitement was about.