Pet Update

For those of you may be curious and have not spoken to me on the phone, via email, or through carrier pigeon, both Dagny and Lucy have made it to the farm and are both happy and healthy. Both have adapted well to farm life, and are behaving wonderfully. It was an ordeal that I really don't want to take the time to type out here, but let me just say that if you are a pet owner, try to hang on to all documentation you get for everything done to your pet at the vet hospitals, because I learned the hard way that you never know when you might need them, and you can't count on the vet to have records, no matter what Colorado state law says.

Ok....gotta stop there or else I'm going to get worked up about it.

So, Lucy got here first, which in retrospect was probaby a good thing. I had a few days with her to work directly on possible trouble points, i.e. the other dogs and cats. Honi was a great sport about the whole thing. He never freaked out, and that really helped Lucy adjust. But I think because of her years of squirrel chasing, and her slightly obsessive nature, it took several days for Lucy to finally stop following Honi everywhere. Now she's pretty much leaving him alone, although if he suddenly runs or jumps anywhere, Lucy very clearly thinks, "It's a squirrel!" and is off chasing him again. Even that behavior has subsided quite a bit now that Lucy has a new facination: pigs.

Dagny, on the other hand, has been really nonchalant about the cat, only occasionally licking his face when she is presented directly with him.

Luana doesn't care about the new dogs one way or the other. Kilo, on the other hand, feels he has to establish his male dominance or something, so whenever Lucy was around, he'd growl and maybe show some teeth just to let her know he meant business. This is pretty standard behavior for him. He did the same thing for the short time we had River, the stray that walked out of the jungle and lived under the yurt. It's such a low, monotone growl that we've taken to calling it his "Kik-enstein" bit, or his "Franken-beeks" routine, depending on which one prefers. As adamant as he was about pushing Lucy around with it, he stopped immediately when Dagny arrived, turning all of his attention toward her. Apparently he can only apply his Lon Cheney Aversion and Dominance Technique to only a single target at a time.

While Lucy was very responsive to Kiko's aggressions, Dagny frankly could not care less. This had Kiko so flummoxed the morning after her arrival that he actually took a couple of nips at her. Dagny's response: "Go ahead, tough guy. I'm 80% hair. When you're brave enough to actually reach skin, then we'll talk." So, while the growling continues, Dags goes on ignoring, and eventually Kiko will get bored.

As I write this morning, all four dogs have worn themselves out barking at the pigs on the neighbors' properties, and are all sleeping here on the porch. One of them is even snoring.

If I get some time tonight, I'll update this post with some photos.