time for internets? on a weeknight????

[pellucid]

So two weeks in, and I finally feel like I'm achieving some equilibrium with the dog. I should clarify that she's really doing fabulously! Any new dog is going to take a while to settle in, and any new dog's person is going to take a while to get used to the new routine. Considering that I adopted a potentially finicky breed with an absolutely

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[pellucid]

I will remember this around the month mark, if things take a turn for the worse! I do generally feel like we're making steady progress, but it also all feels fairly tenuous at this point. Mostly I just feel like thinking about the dog is taking up 75% or more of my brain power, and everything else--work, the rest of life--is just getting pushed to the side. I'm looking forward to that part of things sorting itself out.

While I know that people and their dogs are all different, can you remember how long it took you to really feel like you'd settled into a comfortable and mutually beneficial routine with Enza? I'm just curious.

And the coat is working pretty well. Even with the coat, she still does not love being outside when it's below freezing and at all windy--and the fact that there have actually been days when this was not true points to the freakishly warm winter were having here--but the coat has allowed us to start to get into the habit of taking walks, and on the warmer days (around freezing or a bit above) she's really starting to get the hang of it. If this winter continues to be mild through the rest of February and March, I think we'll have a fine time, but I really have no idea how things are going to go if next winter is a more typical Saskatchewan winter. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

[beanpot]

I pondered this as I took Enza out for her walk and there are different parts to that answer. The moment I knew I was never ever ever going to give her up and realized she had wormed her way into my heart was about six weeks into it. She ate something weird, I rushed her to the Evet at midnight and spent two hours crying so hard I was dry heaving. It was awful. After they made her throw up (which I now know how to do at home), she came out, placed her head on my knee and that was it. She was mine, I was hers.

As for the "new normal", I don't know. Maybe when I finally stopped fretting or when I realized how much I loved my walks with her. My morning and evening walks are when I think, destress, laugh, calm down, etc. Or when I realized I was going to ruin her or when her routine because my routine or I realized she was anticipating when dinner was because of the routine. It just kind of happened and I know it's not the best answer, but I cannot pinpoint that moment like I can the above. Now - there are still days I want to kill her (just about every day at 6 AM) and I know I will never ever sleep in again, but I do kind of like fall asleep on the sofa on Saturdays with her curled up next to me.

I do think it will get easier when you can do things with her - ie, go for a ride in the car, go for a long walk somewhere, visit a pet store, go to a park, etc. When she became a part of the fun, it was better.