Next, I was expecting Echo to come home tomorrow, originally. Well, plans change. I met Kathy and picked up Echo today. Echo and Kathy have had a rocky relationship. Some of it is stuff going on with Kathy, and some of it is Echo. I have some ideas about some of the problems, in terms of Echo. I don't want to share them until I get some confirmation on those ideas.
She's bigger. On September 4th, the day after she came to live with us, she weighed 16.25 pounds. On October 29th, on the same scale, she weighed 26 pounds. I've picked her up several times today. My guess is she weighs close to 30 pounds, now. She IS NOT fat. If anything, when she is standing, it looks to me like she could use a touch more weight. Her chest has deepened. Her stomach looks a touch thin. Not much, but it looks like she is beginning to get a greyhound profile. I'm thinking it's time to bump her food up from 4 to 5 cups a day. Maybe 4 and a half cups.
So much for appearance.
When Kathy opened the door of her vehicle, today, Echo showed no interest in leaving it. ... Until she saw me. Her head came up. The tail started wagging, and she went from laying on her side to upright. Once out the vehicle, she was able to greet me. She started to jump up (something that was a problem when Kathy picked her up). Once I let her know that was unacceptable. She came within arm's reach, and went into a very pretty sit. I pet and hugged her. The tail gave me "my/the family" wag. I had seen it, a lot, before today, but it took until today for me to identify this tail wag. It's very specific. The tail is at just a certain height, and it goes at just a certain speed.
I bring up the wag, because I saw it A LOT today.
For instance, when Kathy and I met, we stood and talked for almost an hour about the last two weeks, and her experiences with Echo. Most of that time, Echo was on her lead, and I was holding it. Most of the time, she was content to investigate the stuff on the parking lot, or sit and observe the things going on around her. However, when she would scan the area for something interesting to watch, if I came into her line of sight, she would do one of three things: a) come over to me, do what I call the "big dog lean" (where the dog comes up to you, puts the length of their body against your legs, and lean into you), and give me "my" tail wag; b) walk up to me, within her reach, gently touch my leg with her nose, look up at me, and give me "my" tail wag; c) walk up to me, with her head down (like she was going to sniff my shoes), and give me "my" tail wag.
When we left where we met Kathy, we went to Amy's workplace, to take Amy home. She wasn't sure about getting out of the truck (I need to talk about her traveling, later). In the parking lot, she was a weird combination of anxious and curious. Once she figured out we were going into Amy's workplace, she was hesitant. (By this point, I had identified the tail wag I have been talking about, and identified it as "mine".) Then she heard Amy. It was at this point that I discovered it wasn't "my" tail wag. The tail started going the same way, and she made a bee-line for Amy. Echo started to "jump up", and Amy reacted perfectly. Echo went into a sit (tail going), and waited for Amy to greet her.
When we got home, Andrew was the only one in the house. Echo greeted him with the "family" tail wag, just looked up at him, and waited for Andrew to greet her. (By the time that Jesus came home, later tonight, she had "crashed". I think there was a tail wag, but she did little more than lift her head.)
Anyway, Amy, Echo and I arrived home about 6:30. She "crashed" between 9:30 and 10. Between 9:30 and 10, she was pretty active. Mainly, she spent her time "re-discovering" the house and the yard. That, and trying to be near the "family" that was in the house. (She was off-lead, but closely supervised.)
The interesting part, to me, was that, just like when we met Kathy, she would be doing ... whatever, in the house or yard. ... And this happened at random points during the night ... She would do the "scanning" for something interesting thing, or, on other occasions, I would turn my head.
If it was a "scanning" moment, when I was watching her, she would do the "c" behavior, from above. If I caught her attention, and I wasn't looking, she did "b", from above.
I will address what went on in the truck later. Mainly because, for once, it was not a concern. She traveled fine. In fact, if she continues to travel like this, then she will be a better passenger than Gimli is. Gimli is an "old pro" at riding in vehicles, and LOVES "going for a ride".
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The last thing is that, once she began to get tired, she went straight for "her spot", if the family is not going to bed.
There have been plenty of pictures of her there, previously. Mainly, the pictures have featured her on a maroon pillow.
Tonight, when she first wanted to "settle" the pillow was not there, but she went to the spot, not the pillow. She went to the spot, and sat, leaning against the couch. I moved the pillow to her spot, and she did this:
Her favorite spot to "crash" is in that area in front of the couch, on the pillow, under the cover of the blanket. Kind of like this:
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