Monday, April 2, 2007
Yesterday I went home early to take Tara for a campus walk. Before we left the apartment, I checked on both cats as well, Oscar on the cat tree, and Anastasia on the dog bed locked in the bedroom with baby gate. When we got back from the walk, I went to the bedroom to open the baby gate to let Anastasia out, but I couldn't find her, she wasn't in any of the cat beds. So I thought, maybe somehow she ran past me as I was opening the gate, so I went back to the livingroom, anticipating seeing her walking around under the cat tree or something. But no, Anastasia was sleeping on the big chair in the livingroom, I think she must've jumped across the baby gate somehow! So I guess now the baby gate is ineffective way to separate the cats, so this morning I did not close the baby gate when I left for school.
Another reason to use the baby gate was to keep Tara out of the bedroom, so she wouldn't eat Anastasia's food from the feeder on the floor. Tara is fairly food motivated, and it took her only a couple days that there is free food in the bedroom, even though normally she and I don't spend a lot of time in the bedroom. I think Tara spent a little more time in the bedroom when Virginia was here, since Virginia mostly slept in the bedroom. There's another story about Tara when Virginia was here. One afternoon I had to stay at school because I was proctoring for a midterm, so I called and asked Virginia to take Tara out potty for me. Virginia said on the way to the grassy area across the parking lot, she didn't watch Tara carefully enough, that Tara walked straight into the bumper of a car. Who knew the dog couldn't even see something as big as a full-size car?! Anyways, Virginia said she felt bad and reminded herself that she will watch Tara more carefully on the way back, but Tara walked into the car again! Well, yeah it does take a while for the handler to get used to having a blind dog too I guess.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
I think Oscar is beginning to realize Tara's blind. Last night, Tara was sleeping closely on my right side. Before Oscar refused to get close to Tara, but last night, Oscar actually came up to me as Tara and I were sleeping, and rubbed on my left side and licked my hand! Also, when Oscar's on the table, she appears to be less nervous when Tara paces under the table.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Well, Tara "killed" Oscar's rat. It was a large black fur toy, but when I came home yesterday, it was just a pile of fur and the chewed up plastic inside. I put out another fur mouse for the cats, thinking Tara wouldn't be able to find one mouse in the 8 by 8 feet bedroom, since she's blind. Well, this morning, I found her sniffing in the bedroom, and heard the mouse rattle sound once, so I hurried into the bedroom to try to take the mouse away from Tara. But she had just kicked it two feet away, and was sniffing around looking for it. Luckily I picked it up before she found it.
Today I received email from Angie asking if I could help transport a Springer named Jasper. The dog�s original owners, in the Atlanta area, were moving to Florida. Leslie, who did the evaluation, said, �This dog (Jasper) is living underneath an old frame house. He is a large field (-bred) Springer (70 lb) black and white, with a full tail. His coat is matted on the belly with dirt. He lives with his companion a lab/mastiff? mix. The owners are leaving Thursday to move to Florida and taking the Lab mix but not the Springer. They intend to turn him into the pound. He is neutered and supposedly house trained. I imagine he will be heartworm positive. He seems very attached to his companion and likes the neighbor, Cindy, who showed me around. She says the owners have had other dogs including a Husky that was choking on a chain that she had to free. He was initially protective of Cindy but then warmed up to my husband right away. Cindy says they are fed sporadically.� Peggy in Birmingham had agreed to foster him, but could not take him until Sunday night, because she was hosting an Easter dinner. Angie was traveling from South Carolina early Sunday morning, picking up her niece for a visit for spring break, and said would be willing to transport him to Auburn when she passes through Atlanta. I offered to keep Jasper at my apartment for a few hours on Sunday, until Peggy could meet me to take him.
