My husband and I were having lunch this afternoon at the little table in the breakfast room and Savannah was napping near the table. I think she likes the area rug in that room because she gets quite comfy in there. Just before we sat down to lunch, I put a load of laundry into the dryer and we could hear the machine running because the laundry room is in a corner of the kitchen. Halfway through lunch, we heard a noise from the laundry room and a split-second later, Savannah jumped up from her sleep and roared at the laundry room door.
Both my husband and I got up from the table to see what had happened, and it wasn't much of anything except the movement of the dryer caused a cardboard box of plastic puppy-walking bags to fall to the floor in there. Happy day... Savannah's score for Protect This House And Everyone In It is 100% because she hasn't failed to bark (roaaaaarrrrr!) when she hears a noise that is out of the ordinary. We told her what a good girl she was and she went back to sleep... and neither my husband nor I failed to notice that while we were checking out the laundry room, Savannah was not attempting to steal our lunch. What a great dog!
Today's mail brought the ID tag that I had ordered for Savannah... bright pink metal in the shape of a heart, engraved with her name, our town, and my phone number. The heart is big enough to be noticed, bright enough to be pretty... Savannah's first piece of jewelry. Puppy bling?
For the past few days, I've noticed that Savannah isn't gobbling up her food the way she did during her first week with us. Being that the other puppy she was with seemed to have been the 'alpha dog' within their kennel, my guess is that she only got to eat whatever was left, which may not have been enough for her. I think she knows now that whatever food goes into her bowl is hers and hers alone, not to be shared, not even with the cats. Savannah will eat what she wants, leave the rest, and then goes back to it when she gets hungry.
My husband is still giving Savannah a lot of treats, trying to earn a sense of trust from her that doesn't disappear when he goes upstairs or drives to his office in the city. He has taken her stand-offish behavior personally because he is definitely not used to non-acceptance from dogs, whether they have belonged to us or neighbors and friends, or have just been strays that we've found on the property and took away to the shelter. I reminded my husband that I had to earn Savannah's trust also when we first brought her home... one day at a time until she finally came to believe that I was here to love her, not hurt her. Those first few days here, Savannah would walk around the kitchen island, not wanting to get too close to me at all. I know that she will eventually learn to trust him with all of her puppy heart, and I'm hoping she will eventually be the same way with our friends.
Our inside cat Sweet Pea has come to the conclusion that Savannah is here to stay, and unless he wants to spend the rest of his kitty-life in the TV room, then he has to make friends with the puppy. And that's about what happened today... Sweet Pea walked out of the TV room very slowly, looking as if he were part of a baseball game slow-motion re-play. That cat walked right past Savannah, with me watching and telling her "Good girl, Savannah, good girl." Savannah looked at Sweet Pea, then looked at me, repeated both processes a few times without moving more than her big puppy head, and then she let out a huge sigh and continued her pillow-napping with her chin resting on top of her little blue monkey toy.
Happy day.... Sweet Pea has come in and out of the TV room all day long, with Savannah doing nothing more than moving the blue monkey or the white bunny out of the way. Sweet Pea did sniff the puppy food in Savannah's bowl this morning, which Savannah did indeed notice, but by the third sniff, Sweet Pea was "burying" both the food and the bowl and I don't think that cat will be wanting to eat any of Savannah's puppy kibble.
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