First Impressions...
Aggie doesn't appear to be pure dachshund. Mainly dachshund with some sort of smallish hound type dog thrown in. Her color reminds me of a cross between a lemon and a red basset. Heavily roaned. There also has a white mask that made that grey face look even whiter. White feet, too.
Which reminds me, I should NEVER try to age a dog from a photo. The vet who saw her said he thought she was about 10. That looks to be about right. She is very active and curious. And she is most certainly less than the age I had her pegged at.
Deaf as a post...except for some percussive sounds which means we're not sure she's hearing the sound or feeling the air displaced. Hard to say, but there is a reaction at times. We've ordered a Deaf Dog bandanna for her to wear when she's out of the house.
The transporter warned us that she tends to whip her head around when startled (to be expected), but there have been no negative reactions even when we've touched her unexpectedly. She will sometimes acknowledge it by turning around and giving your hand kisses, but that's really all I've seen. No flinching or drawing away.
She does appear to eat and sleep in her crate, which is good. She settled right in with the pack here with only a couple of instances of posturing from Randall's Chihuahua. Haley was the first introduction, and Aggie spent the entire time licking Haley. She tends to do that to me, too, so I figure it's the pack pecking order (not sure if she thinks I'm above or below Haley LOL) asserting itself.
She's a bit curious about the cats, and she and Howdy have had a couple of stare downs with words exchanged. Nothing spectacular, and I don't expect any trouble there once Aggie has settled in here.
Mainly we'll just spend the next few days getting her settled. Once I have a better sense of her, I'll post more. I'll hopefully get some photos, too, though getting the attention of a deaf dog will be a challenge. For now, here are three photos...better than the intake type photo of her at the shelter.
She is sneezing occasionally, so I wouldn't be surprised to she her break with a URI. I'll keep an eye on it, but hopefully it won't be serious. She's also a huge food fan (that's obviously the dachshund part), and it shows. We were able to weigh her, and at 17 pounds, and no detectable ribs, she could slim down a bit. I'll target 15 and see what that gets us.
All in all, I'm very happy with how she's doing. It's so obvious she's happy to be in a home, and she positively loves the petting and slobbering over that she's getting. She just stands real still with her eyes half closed and soaks it up. Occasionally she'll wag her tail, and you can feel her shivering a bit, but she is just so relieved to be cared for again.
Poor girl. It's traumatic enough for a dog with all its senses to go through what she's been through. I can't imagine being hearing impaired and thrown into that sort of chaos.
