Adjusting

It has been almost a full week since we brought little Sadie Roo home, and it has been a very adventurous one for everyone involved. The first few days and nights were rough, but we came to the realization that we now live on a quarter acre lot and while we are housebreaking Sades, there is no reason she can't be out in the back yard during the day to prevent in-crate accidents and constant howling and wining. She was born outside and lived her first 6 weeks outside, and so wants to be outside most of the time anyway. So to keep everyone happy, she now gets to spend a few hours during each day just running around the back yard, sleeping under the porch, playing in the grass, and doing her "biz" whenever she needs to. Then she gets to spend a few hours in her play pen where her crate is located. Hubs says she will spend almost all of her time in her crate all on her own. I'm glad that she realizes her crate is her safe place and willingly goes into it.

Yesterday I noticed that Sadie had some blood mixed in with her "leavings". I had a kitten once that had the same problem, and after running a whole slew of tests, it was determined that his problem was just that he had an irritable bowl. I didn't know if Sadie had the same problem, so I called the breeder today to see if he had known if any of his other pups had had this problem. Much to my dismay, he got defensive with me and proceeded to tell me that Sadie had never had diarrhea when she was living with him. I beg to differ! He pulled her out of her pen the day we picked her up COVERED in diarrhea. He handed her to me covered in crap so that my arms ended up being covered in crap until we bathed her. Then she had diarrhea in her crate on the way home. Needless to say, his attitude made me slightly angry. Don't freaking lie to me and think I am stupid enough to believe it when I've seen the truth with my own eyes. Not only that, but I didn't call him to accuse, only to ask if he had seen the problem before.

I called a vet this morning and got her in this afternoon. They ran a bunch of tests, all of which came back negative. She is running a slight fever, so their best guess is that she has some kind of virus or bacterial infection. She is now on three different oral medications for the next 10 days. Poor little sweetie.

Maggie is not adjusting well at all. The only thing she will do is hide under our bed. She wants nothing to do with the puppy and nothing to do with us either. She refuses to come when called, and when she does she will come part way, stop, wait for you to command her to come again, come part way, stop, wait for you to call her.... this goes on for way too long. She feels that she does not have to obey Hubs or me. Not only that, but she has barely touched her food and refuses to go to the bathroom if the puppy is outside. I realize her world has been VERY traumatic the last 4 months, so I am very patient with her and am trying really hard to figure out what I need to do to help her confidence levels. I make sure she gets her own mom time, and we snuggle all night long now. I did notice a vast improvement today, however. Hubs put both dogs out for a few hours, and when I came home tonight Mags didn't tuck tail and run when I started paying attention to the pup. She actually came over and socialized with us. She didn't run away from the puppy when Sadie affectionately nuzzled her.

I knew the first week would be the hardest, and I knew I would be glad when it was behind us. I was right. Its only going to get easier from here.