We loaded up the van and drove to Lynchburg, Virginia, last Thursday. Prior to that day Lizzie had only been on short jaunts. We fitted her in her pink harness and secured her with the shoulder belt on the driver’s side passenger seat. Once settled on top of her paw print blanket, she settles right down. She’s still not completely comfortable drinking out of the Buddy Bowl, but she’s taken a few laps of water on several occasions now.
When we first arrived at my sister-in-law’s house, Lizzie was terribly frightened. She spooked at everything and I could tell all she wanted to do was go hide under the bed in the room we use.
There are three cats who live there, and later several dogs came to visit. There was a lot of activity in preparation for a barbecue on Saturday. The many coolers were particularly frightening to her. I wonder what she thought they would do to her. A young Maltese, named Winston, brought out Lizzie’s grumpy side. A side of her that we had not yet seen. He was acting like a silly puppy and getting in her face, and she growled and snarled at the poor little guy practically non-stop.
The first two days she jumped at nearly every sound, but seemed to calm down considerably by the third day. I took her out for walks in the early morning, and she ended up being able to stay out from under the bed more frequently to watch the goings on. Although she was curious about the cats, she was well behaved with them. She didn’t eat well, but did eat some, especially when I coached her from nearby.
I made another nasty discovery while petting her on Friday evening…a tick on her right ear!!! I was able to remove it and promptly flushed it. I’m wondering if my Frontline Plus is defective or something. Sheesh. I’ve been thoroughly going over her since finding the fleas on July 1 and now a tick. Poor Lizzie!
On the way home on Monday we stopped at PetSmart, where I was able to take her into the store! (This is a big deal for me.) My dog, Tucker, was too aggressive with other dogs and subsequently was never taken inside. Lizzie was very calm and showed a polite interest in all the neat stuff on her level. I got her a Nylabone (her Gumabone was taken away when she started chewing pieces off of it), an Orka Jack Toy, and a Mini Easy Toss Ring.
She’s not taken to the Nylabone like she did the Gumabone, but we’re performing a great deal of silliness to entice her. She’s rolled the jack around and chewed on it a little and has totally ignored the toss ring. She’s such a quiet dog, but she does have her playful moments. She certainly gets a lot of praise from us when she shows enthusiasm for any of her toys.
She's so cute that we just can't leave her alone. She seems to take it all in stride though and shows great patience for us silly humans.
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