(Today is the first full day of Snicker's fostering at our house.)
We're having some issues with Skeeter, Randall's altered male chihuahua, and Snickers. This isn't totally unexpected because Randall belongs to Skeeter (per Skeeter), and he's very jealous of Snickers. There's been a bit of growling coming from Skeeter, but as I told Skeeter last night, he and I will have a conversation if this keeps up, and I will win it. With any luck, we'll be over most of the territorial issues in a few days.
Elvis was also a bit out of sorts. He's not a dog that has ever wanted much in the way of holding, but last night he was pretty unsure of himself and needed some reassurance. It doesn't help that he's reading off of Skeeter's actions and responding to the tension. This situation actually concerns me more than Snickers and Skeeter simply because Elvis really can't handle stress.
Haley, as I pretty well expected, is just having a jolly good time seeing a new dog. This is pretty much Haley's reaction to any animal that comes in here. I've never seen her speak a cross word towards another animal.
The cats? Well, there's some perplexity involved (mainly Ollie), and some distance glaring (mainly Howdy). Snickers is more curious this morning towards them than he was last night, and I want to keep an eye on that situation, if only because I KNOW Howdy will provoke him. Howdy can be a little bitch when she wants to be, and today is one of those days.
Food wise, I can see that Snickers is going to have to have the soft food like Elvis does (at least for now). I tried soaking kibble in hot water last night, and that didn't work. Once I ran it through the blender, though, Snickers scarfed it down. And this morning I could tell he was hungry. He's eating less than he's used to, I'm sure, but to make things easy, I think I'll put him on the same schedule as Elvis.
In the morning, Snickers will have 1/3 cup soft food. At 5:30 he'll get a tablespoon or so. That puts him in line with what should be a reducing plan. Elvis is a steady 8.6 pounds, and Snickers should be right around there. So this will be a good amount of food, but still something that should help him lose weight. Once the weight goes down, I can see about putting him on a weight maintenance diet.
The crate seems to be fine with him. He slept through the night. Ate in it. He'll go in of his own volition, and curls up and sleeps. Occasionally he'll whine some and scratch at the door, but overall, he does well in it. This is good because he's having to spend quite a bit of time in there while the integration goes on.
As I expected, his teeth are giving him fits. I don't *think* he's got an infection going on, but there's a whole lot of snorting and some "gagging" (that's not the exact word for it, but it's common enough in a dachshund that gets excited and if you pinch the nostrils, it stops it). The shelter opens at 11, and I want to talk to Kris about this. If the teeth situation isn't addressed pretty soon, I'm afraid he's going to develop some medical issues that might impact his ability to be adopted.
I'll probably continue to post updates a couple of times a day for the next several days. Once he's integrated into the household, things will be much easier, and the posting will slow some. I'll also try to get more pictures today or tomorrow.
