It's been a very interesting day. Some good. Some not so good.
OC got a bath this morning. This MUCH improved life with him. He had that rank smell of a shelter dog, so getting that off him just made things so much better all the way around. The rest of the dogs took that change in stride. Howdy, my Devon Rex mix, stopped wrinkling her nose at him. And Ollie, well, Ollie still doesn't like him. I think the problem is OC is definitely *my* dog, and Ollie takes offense at that. As far as Ollie is concerned, he will share me with my dachshund Haley, Howdy when he has to, and that's it. He's been all bent out of shape all day.
After the bath, OC was laying in here on the blanket when he began acting very strange. He was very shaky and unbalanced. He looked a bit disoriented and he didn't want to stand up to his full height. I called Randall in, and we decided to take him in to the shelter for a quick check. He has a mild heart murmur, and I wasn't sure if maybe there was something going on there. Randall went out to the van to get the crate settled, and shortly after he walked out of the door, OC appeared to be over whatever was going on.
Not sure what happened. The shelter did a quick check, and his heart sounded good and strong, and he has been just dandy all day, but that was a bit of something I wasn't prepared for.
That aside, everything has been normal, so now it's time for me to update what I'm seeing.
I got a weight on him this morning. 10 lbs. I really think he needs to be a bit heavier. Somewhere between 11 and 12 pounds, I think. Right now he has a bit too much tuck up and his head looks too big for his body. So I've increased his food from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup. He didn't eat it all this evening, but he ate more than 1/3 cup. I won't push this.
I really have to revise my initial thinking about his age. He's listed as 10, and I said yesterday I think he's closer to 13 or 14. Having watched him today, I don't think he is. Somewhere between 10 and 11 is my guess. He moves way too easily. I'm also not seeing the cataract problems I would expect to see. Yeah there's a bit of cloudiness there, but only in a certain light. So like OC "said" in his blurb up on the right what he needs is a dye job. :)
The pack has pretty much accepted him. There's not nearly the transition period with OC that there was with Snickers. I suspect that's because OC is in here with me, and isn't competing with Skeeter for Randall's attention. He's definitely a woman's dog. No doubt about that. He doesn't shy away from Randall, but the best interaction comes with me. We'll have to work on this, but it will be a few days.
This little guy was definitely an outside dog. No question. He loves it outside, and will happily stay for hours. He really has no idea about thresholds, and coming in a door from outside to inside is going to be a major hurdle for him. I suspect he was never allowed inside a house. That's changed. I'm currently bribing him into the house with a treat, and we'll keep that up as long as needed.
He's doing fine with the cats, though so did Snickers at this point, and once he became more comfortable, I saw the desire to chase come in to play. So we'll see where we are early next week. But for right now, he's fine with them.
The only snacks he understands are the soft treats I bake Elvis. Those come from canned dog food, so he's got no problem recognizing that their edible. Fruits, veggies, other dog treats...not so much. I'm sure he'll learn and, right now, it's no big deal. This moves at his pace.
OC has no idea what "Kennel." means, so to get him in his crate, we're gently encouraging him to go inside and he gets a treat immediately. Once he's in there, though, he's very quiet, so that's a plus.
Our initial plans were to return him to the shelter after he'd been here for a few weeks and before I went to Dallas in mid-April. We may rethink that. If by the time I'm ready to leave he's coming in from outside for Randall, he may stay here. He'll need a caretaker for the couple of nights when he's up in Dallas to pick me up, but we're thinking OC may be our next foster dog.
This dog is definitely adoptable, but he's going to have to be trained to be an inside dog. He needs to be neutered, and there's a lot of learning that needs to take place or he'll boomerang back to the shelter. He's a definite project, but one I sense is imminently doable. His personality is beginning to come out, and there's a definite sweetness there that's appealing.
Cared for, I would expect this dog to have many good years ahead of him. Getting people to see past the grayness will be a challenge, but if someone does and takes him home, I suspect they'll have a wonderful little companion.
I will try to get more pictures tomorrow. We're in the process of moving off Blogger an onto one of our own domains, so I'll post a note and link when that happens. It may be a few days because I have to get Ollie's blog done first.
Hopefully I'll have a bit more of an update tomorrow.
