Carol's rainy holiday

A few weeks back, I brought Carol home for a few days to give her a rest from the shelter. Unfortunately, it was a rainy weekend so we didn't get to go on many outdoor adventures (though we caught a brief break in the weather for a quick walk in the park and found snow, which fascinated Carol!). Luckily, Carol didn't mind too much - she was pretty excited to get the feel for home life. Not surprisingly, she's one big cuddle bug! I had an unusual amount of visitors that came to the door while Carol was visiting and her manners were fabulous! She sat and waited while they came in, and then wiggle-waggled up to them and sat to greet them.

Carol also outsmarted me. I have a dog blanket that I use to get dogs settled on. I had it on the floor, and then moved it onto a bed, and invited Carol up. She loved the bed....she stretched, she rolled over, she definitely appeared to be experiencing a little slice of heaven. A while later, though, she pulled it off the bed to the floor. I thought, "oh great, she's going to chew it up" but I gave her a moment to see what her intention was. Well, she got it just right on the floor, lay down on it, and pulled a toy over to play with. That moment was adorable!

It seems to me that Carol's never spent a lot of time in a house so she'll need a little help with appropriate inside behavior...don't worry, she wasn't eating shoes or pulling things off counters...but what allows her to survive in the kennel is a learned lack of inhibition about going to the bathroom in the same area she's sleeping, playing, etc. So, she'll have to be patiently re-educated when she gets home.

At the kennel, we've had Carol with other male dogs and she's been fine. She's not a lady looking for trouble, but she's not really an active player. She much prefers playing with people and toys. Cats, however, are a different story. Carol's view on cats leans toward hearing dinner bells around them. My cat was definitely testing Carol's limits (on leash, of course, before Mollie kitty was confined to another part of the house) and, after a couple walk-bys, Carol was more than willing to refocus on me, but she's not immediately cat friendly.

Here's the thing, obviously I take dogs home that I already think are great. Each dog may need a little refining but they're all well worth the effort. Carol's no different, I really can't sing enough praises for her. She's got a great spirit and she's very keen to please. Anyone would be lucky to have this lady!