She's Back!

We got a surprise when we got home from a nightly walk with Deegan and Neva; a message from the puppy coordinator that the rotation of dogs that was scheduled to happen Jan 4, was going to happen last night instead. We had to quickly assemble Neva and Deegan's things together and say good-bye.

Deegan gave us a run for our money the first couple days, as ALL the dogs have done to all of us in the past. We waited him out, practiced his obedience and got him lots of exercise, including some free range play on the fenced in high school football field and he learned real quickly who was in charge (hint: not him!). He helped get Neva walking without us having to coax her. Neva was hard to let go, she is such a sweet, soft hearted little love, but she will learn much with Ernie and Jan and then the Kahls.

Deegan is now with Mark and Barb for a while until his evaluation for advanced training possibly in sunny CA, and Neva moved on to Ernie and Jan's house, Banjo will go to Michelle's again,and we got our smart little angel, Cinder, back!

Hard to believe Cinder used to be small enough to sleep in the bathtub (you would have to go back to the archived blogs, April 2009, to find out what that was all about).

The past 24 hours she has barely stopped moving, but she is as obedient and as eager to please as she always was. She's constantly bringing us a toy and dropping it at our feet, and if we don't pick it up, she drops it on our lap. She definitely is as smart as ever. We are refusing to throw toys for her because her prey drive is WAY too high and we're hoping we can bring that down if possible. If we do throw a toy, we make her sit and wait until we tell her she can go get it. She brings it back with her tail wagging like crazy, so I guess she doesn't mind that game.

I cannot tell you how moving it is to have been in the "wheel" long enough to get a dog back after 6 months. Dogs get bigger and learn new things but when you sit and look in their eyes, you see that same cute little puppy who knew nothing at 4 months old and was big enough to cuddle in your lap. It is pretty amazing. Of course, Cinder has no memory of us as best we can tell, but she is settling right in, taking over toys (she has to touch every one of them of course!) and beds and crates.
She has found her courage somewhere in 6 months and we still think she is the smartest dog we've ever had... More good news (again going back to the old blogs) as she was playing last night, Marlene noticed that her "innie" has now become an "outie!" The good news is that may mean it clears her to live a normal, UTI-free life as a guide dog, the bad news is her stay with us may be short because she may be finally coming into season and may have to go to Marlene's as she kindly takes care of all the "girls in heat".

For now though, we're enjoying having Cinder back in our home.

Happy New Year everyone!