She's Gaining!!

She's gaining weight!! She's gaining TRUST!!! YEAH!!!!

Ok, ok hold on a minute I'm getting ahead of you. So the gaining trust part...

She is laying closer to the entry of her kennel! Hallelujah! She's also coming out a little more and while she's still skitsy, she's a little less than before. It's a small thing but it's noteworthy.

She is however very concerned about the cats.

I may have mentioned that we have cats. We also have a wonderful playground for them called "the crawlspace". In this "crawlspace" live several mice who are quite efficient at making more mice. Now, our cat "Hawk" likes to go into that space and rid our home of the mice. The only thing is...that Hawkie likes to take his toys for a walk. He'll bring them up to the first floor and then up to the second floor where he....drops them in the bathtub. I actually have a video of that on the other computer - I'll stick it on here sometime.

Well, last night was the first fall feeling day of the year so I'm sure some of Hawk's little friends decided it was time to move indoors. Nice. So, Hawk, being a two year old grey tabby did what two year old grey tabbies do and went to greet these little friends. It wasn't long before he had "met" one and took it for the usual walk. I heard them in the bathtub crashing around. The mouse was running laps around the tub with one cat, enter Kahn (a pixie-bob) on one end, and Hawk on the other. As the mouse runs by they SMACK IT and let it move on. It's great fun...for the cats.

At some point Hawkie tires of the game - we all have ADD around here - and he drags the mouse downstairs. Enter here, Miss Issabella. Like I've said before, she's like the moon, only comes out at night. The poor thing decided to do her roaming a bit later than usual and when she was out and about Hawk came downstairs with his mouse.

Hawk is a very proud mouser and he'll tell you that himself if you get too close to him and his prize. He growls - LOUDLY. I am only guessing as to the sequence of events here as it was 330 this morning. Allegedly, he surprised her and before she could complete her morning ablutions (look that one up), he and his growl had scared her back into the kennel.

Where she promptly peed.

I have this fear of things that are weak and frail dying. Especially when they don't belong to me. So when Scott came upstairs (at 400am) to request help with the dog, right away I figured she died. Sorry, it's who I am. Given her present state, nothing would have surprised me less.

But alas, Princess Issabella still walks the planet.

Scott says, "I think I'll just take the top off the crate and we can take her out that way since she's covered in urine (editorial licence taken here, by the way)."

Um..ok, I agreed.

Once he pulled the top off, she kind of went...um...ah...what is the word here...if you are reading this to your kid, be prepared to substitute...well, she kind of went apeshit. And in the process, took a dump in the kennel too. So she was covered in...well, you're here, you're smart...you can guess what she was covered in.

Scott got the honor of cleaning up the crate. I don't mind giving dogs baths so I picked her up and hauled her upstairs. I gotta tell ya, she's gaining weight! I haven't had a really good look at her since last week and I had a chance to this morning while I was soaping her up.

She has gained weight and she's significantly less boney! HOOORAY!!! She's actually, gasp, kind of heavy - I KNOW I KNOW - I'm excited too! A little sleepy perhaps but excited.

After her bath, which I'll spare you the gory details of, I dried her off and hauled her back downstairs where we sat on the couch wrapped in a handmade baby afgan I found at Vinney's. For a while she laid there and shook and shook and shook and shook. Then the shaking became big tremors but they got less and less and less and soon they had stopped altogether. Until Scott reappeared but even then it wasn't bad, it wasn't bad.

We laid there on the couch like that for a while; Te'a even joined us up there. And then Mousekiller Hawk over my shoulder. I took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. And so did she...