Happy National Dog Day

Tonight at dinner, Michelle graciously informed me that today is National Dog Day. With a brief browse on social media, this day was confirmed. Charlie has been a loyal buddy every since we brought him home as a puppy. Lady's adoption from Little White Dog Rescue has been a great addition into our world. I have little to say in this blog post, aside from the fact that Charlie and Lady are part of our family. So in honor of them, Happy National Dog Day.

Charlie and Lady have become cuddle buddies,
especially when they get to join their humans in the human bed.

When mom comes home from work, Lily, Charlie, and Lady all run to the gate to greet her.
There is no greater feeling than being welcomed home after a long day at work.

Charlie quickly taught Lady how his affinity for blankets
is preferable to just relaxing on the couch.

Charlie is Lily's shadow. They both love gazing out the front door
to survey the neighborhood. In this photo, Lily was telling Charlie
all about the sticks she collected while driving her car.

Just because . . . another sleeping picture proves how much these two must do the same thing.

Lily recently discovered she is big enough to peer out the windows.
Charlie has always loved these low windows in our house.

Lady socialization update

It's been about six weeks since the adoption of Lady into our family. We have learned a lot about her in the short time she has been with us. Adopting any animal can be a trying time but Lady has adjusted nicely and is taking her time to make incremental, yet positive progress.

She still absolutely adores her canine brother, Charlie. She follows him everywhere and mimics what he does, mirroring both his good and bad habits. Especially when they are outside together, she follows him everywhere.

When Charlie gets overly happy by running and jumping around the house because we are getting him food, Lady now does the same. She wags her tail fiercely, runs to her food dish, and looks at us longingly with her dark-brown eyes. Previously we had to sit next to her and coax her to eat food. Now, she independently scarfs down the food.

While Charlie goes nuts to meet other people, Lady is extremely cautious and cowers when we head her direction. She isn't as frightened as when we first got her but still takes her time. The hilarious part about her is you know that deep down she wants our love and affection because even though she sinks to the floor in our presence, her tail wags back and forth giving away her true feelings. There have been break-through moments where she comes over to me and gives puppy kisses by licking my hand and arm. Or she carefully takes precarious steps towards me and then sits nicely, looking at me, signaling that she wants picked up to snuggle on the couch. And snuggling is her all-time favorite, even if the humans in her life are the ones to initiate it. Charlie and Lady have become good snuggle buddies too.

Once we were able to get Lady to go for walks on a leash, we experienced accelerated progress in her behavior. She loves going for walks and this evening she went over to the box where we keep the dog items and pulled the leash out of it. Tonight, for the first time, while we were on our short walk, she pooped right along with Charlie. This truly is a big deal as she has become accustomed to pooping inside the house because we're working on her signaling when she has to go.

The dog socialization will be a lengthy progress. I look forward to the results and learning Lady's real personality that is buried underneath.