Well, the furless (nekkid) dog previously known as Mr. Stinky was renamed Dobby last night due to his disturbing resemblance to Dobby the house-elf from Harry Potter; but no need to worry – his impressive wiffyness remains intact.
For folks with a soul, prepare yourself, this tidbit is going to punch you in the gut a little; ready? okay, last night during his nice warm bath when I was gently cleaning his skin, he made this soft groaning sound and leaned into my hand. That’s when I realized this poor little bugger hasn’t been touched much during his first year of life and it felt good. Yep, that’s a heartbreaker right there, isn’t it? Hit me square in my feels. I told him not to worry, he would be very sick of me fussing over him very soon.
So, for folks not familiar with the joys of dog rescue you may be unaware that introducing a new dog, especially a sick dog, to an established pack of dogs is not as easy as letting them all sniff each other and then they take off playing. Nope. That’s a bad idea; please don’t do that. It’s more like you become the ringleader of distraction circus. “Let’s go in this room pack of dogs!! Look, there’s toys and treats for you!” or “Let’s go outside pack of dogs!! There are toys and things to bark at!!” Then go to the Dobster’s room and try to get him to come out to the (separated) outside to use the restroom while you get him clean, medicated, fed, watered and settled. Then release the pack who immediately sniffs everywhere the Dobinator stepped all looking at eachother like, “dude….there’s totes another dog here. I think he stepped here. and here. and holy crap, here too!!” You keep this shell game up for as the sick dog gets healthier, eventually allowing him to meet a couple of members of the pack one on one. Slowly, over the course of a month or so, you get the pack to forget that the other dog hasn’t always been there. It’s a different process for every dog.
But the SamSam dog? He disagrees with the process and as the only dog in this circus with experience in acrobatics this butthead decided that there was a butt to sniff and nothing would keep him from sniffing it. This was of concern because Mr. SamSam, well he loves puppies and kittens and cats and probably would be great with bunny rabbits, ducks, and all the other cute things you sometimes see dogs pictured with, but grown-up other dogs usually cause him to get fiesty. So, when SamSam managed a matrix-like leap to jump INTO the segregated area of yard (this was a new thing) to meet Dobby I was very watchful of his body languange. Thankfully, it appears that according to SamSam, that Dobby is “the wounded baby nekkid mole rat who needs love and cleaning and more cleaning” rather than adult intact male dog invading his territory. The Dobinator was also excited to be sniffed and fussed over. I still separated them as soon as the opportunity presented itself, always best to leave it on a good note.
Dobby has made a couple of impressively-sized examples of his digestive system working well, and he is eating and drinking consistently. He is still (obviously) exhausted and is starting his second day of antibiotics (cephlaxin). He looks rough, but impressively improved for less than 24 hours since pickup.
Food Lady Chronicles 