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Mercy |
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Mercy is a little weird with her water bowl. This afternoon after she drank her water, she just put her head straight down, resting there, with one of her ears half immersed in the water. After drying her ear, I put her water bowl in the food/water feeder so she wouldn't tip it over or put her ears in the water anymore. |
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Also, there were a couple times when she wanted to get closer to Anastasia, Mercy was lying down, with her back legs in splits again, and inched forward on her elbows and dragging her body behind her. Mercy and Anastasia are getting along okay. I think Mercy tries very hard to ignore the cat, and Anastasia pretty much stays out of the dog�s way most of the time. Mercy has a thin coat of fur compare to Penelope and Dudley, and Millie and Debbie said that Mercy might be a field bred. But they said that she might have more fur after a few weeks of good nutrition and living indoors. Debbie said they had cut hair off her ears only (but not rest of her body) when they got her, so her coat is naturally a little thinner than Penelope or Dudley�s. Tonight on the Outdoor Life channel, they were talking about hunting dog nutrition and had music playing the background, and several Springers running around in the field, but no dog barking sounds. But Mercy stared at the TV for about ten seconds. So she knows how to watch TV. She�s the first dog that I�ve taken care of who can watch TV. |
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Wednesday, September 1, 2004
Early this morning Anastasia worked her charm again. This is the scene I found when I woke up from falling asleep watching TV. Mercy still wants to go up to her sometimes, but I'm not worried about them together in the same room as I had before. And Mercy didn't have another accident when I was taking the nap. When I went to school, I got an email from Chris about Mercy�s water stories when she stayed with her. Chris said that when she took Mercy to her parents' farm, she filled a tub with water, and Mercy jumped in and just sat in the tub, while her own Springer, Callie, tried to dig through the bottom of the tub, and Maggie, her parents� Lab, didn�t go into the tub. And Chris said that when Mercy was with her, she took Mercy out potty along with Callie every two or three hours, and Mercy didn�t have any accidents while she was there. But she says at least now Mercy gives me a signal when she needs to go potty. Also Chris said her cat sleeps on Callie�s bed too, just like Anastasia likes to sleep in the big dog beds. Like Penelope slept on my bed, Callie gets to sleep on Chris� bed, and Callie doesn�t mind the cat sleeping on her bed either. Chris said that at first Callie chased her cat too, but now the cat chases Callie back! All these dog-cat stories make me think about Dudley and his feline brother, Milo
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Today I think Mercy finally got potty training! After her accident on the carpet yesterday afternoon, I took her out after I cleaned up the carpet. I didn't think she would urinate that time, because she just did it about ten minutes ago in the apartment. But I thought since I promised her that I would take her out after I cleaned the bathroom, so I did. Well, she did urinate during that outing. And have been every time I took her out ever since. I think she's finally got it. But I'm going to keep her in the crate when I can't actively supervise her until the end of this week just to make sure.
Also this morning she discovered that there is another water bowl in the bathroom. So the person adopting her might want to keep the lid down. Mercy likes to lick me. It's not excessive, but some people might not like it. When I take her outside, when she walks from one side to another, if the leash happens to drape over her muzzle, she would bite on it. It's not chewing, just one bite each time. She's so spunky. I can definitely see her as the dominant one of the two girls like Debbie said (as the Olive Branch people told her). I think one of the cutest things that she does is when she wags her tail. When I come home and she's wagging her tail in the crate, her tail hits the side of the crate making this loud thumping sound. I just thought that's so sweet.
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We went to the pet supply store to get more canned food yesterday, and while we were there, she let a 4-year-old little girl stroke the fur on her back. I don't think Mercy really cared about the attention from the little kid, but she would really bond to one adult person. Then we went on campus to walk around for a while. When we were walking through an intersection, there were about 15 students coming toward us, going the opposite direction, and Mercy got a little scared. And when we were walking on the sidewalk, when a guy walking his bicycle started walking behind us, Mercy got a little scared about that too. She started walking faster and pulling me away from the bicycle. I will take her on campus more often to get her more used to suburban living. At the pet supply store, I got her a pig ear. She wouldn't eat it in the store, and she wouldn't eat it in the car, but she ate it after we got home. Chris said that Mercy only guards her treats only against other dogs, and not against humans. When she was with Chris, Mercy growled at Callie when Mercy was eating one of Callie�s chew bones and Callie came near Mercy (but has no problem when Chris removed the bone from her mouth), and she growled at Callie too when Callie got near Hope�s treat when Hope was sitting in Callie�s bed. It seems like Mercy�s a little protective of Hope. But later Chris fed them in separate bowls two feet apart, and they were fine together. When I took the pig ear away from Mercy while she was chewing it. The first time she held on to it, but she let go of it when I pried it out of her mouth. The second and third time she just let me take it. I guess she knew I would give it back. |
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Mercy has this extra flap of skin on her left ear, but it's covered by fur, so most people can't tell, unless they get really close to it. Millie and I have this feeling that Mercy and Hope were probably backyard dogs (not living indoors) before they were found by the humane society, and that�s why they don�t know a lot of indoor living stuff. |
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Also when we were driving back to the apartment, she was suppose to sit in the back seat, but she tried to squeeze between the two front seats to get to the front. If that gets to be too much for her adoptive family, they might try having her wear a harness, and put the backseat seatbelt though the harness.
Mercy seems to be more interested in the cat toys than the dog toys that I got. She likes to carry the cat toys around and put them in the crate. And she likes to use the lamb toy that Chris got her as pillow when she's in the crate. Also, I think I said it too early when I said that Mercy's potty trained, because she had another accident on the carpet last night. She still urinates whenever I take her out, just that she doesn't like to hold it very long. If she has even a little bit of urine in her bladder, she wants to go. But physiologically, she can hold it, because when I keep her in the crate at night for six hours last night, she was able to hold it for the entire six hours. She urinated on the same spot on the carpet, but I don't think she will do it there again, because I put her water feeder on that spot now. It's just a little weird to see a water feeder in the hallway.
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Thursday, September 2, 2004
This morning we went to the bicycle trail next to the state park on the southern tip of Auburn. We walked one mile. She loved the walk. While we were on the trail, a family with a toddler in stroller and a dog came toward us. Mercy was not afraid of the stroller. The dog was a Bernese Mountain Dog mix. I know that Mercy is suppose to be the dominant of the two girl Springers, but whenever we meet other medium to large dogs, Mercy is always the one standing there, letting the other dog to sniff her.
When we were walking back to the parking lot, a riding lawn mower came up behind us. At first Mercy didn't pay any attention to it, but when she turned around and saw the mower, she got a little scared, walking faster and pulling me away from the mower. When the mower pulled up next to us, riding parallel to us, she wasn't that scared. She always gets scared when the machines' coming behind us. I'm wondering if she was chased by a person in bicycle or something like that in the past. But hopefully I can get her over that.
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