The Dog House

We have a dog!!!!!!!!!! It's been a week and a half since we brought home our one-year-old pup Mija! She's the cutest thing ever. I named her Mija because I figured that JT wouldn't let me name any of our future children Spanish names. However, Mija is a little hard for him to get used to so he usually ends up calling her Mia. Close enough. She's a German shepherd mix. Before you go getting crazy thinking we have a ginormous dog on our hands, please remember the keyword is MIX. We don't know what the mix is. All we know is that whatever it is makes her forever small! She looks like a German shepherd puppy and will be for the rest of her life! We took her on a foster care/trial run basis hoping things would work out.
When we brought Mija home, Snickers was NOT happy. She didn't like sharing the attention and toys. We thought it was funny that when we throw a ball, it's our cat, not our dog, that runs and fetches. Mija has some catching up to do. Mija took a few days before she let her first bark out. Snickers had it coming. Since day one that feline has been stalking Mija around the house and slapping her in the face everytime she turns a corner. Mija is really good about it though. All she's ever done is let out a single bark and walk away. Most of the time she just sits there staring.

The day after we brought Mija home was Sunday. We left for a 3 hour block of church without locking her up--she's little, so how much harm could she do? HA. We pulled into our driveway and found a 25 pound dog in our window sill, behind the blinds, wagging her tail and slobbering on the glass! That spot is usually reserved for Snickers. We came inside the house to find this:

After that mess we realized that she needed to stay locked up in the bathroom when we are gone until we could buy a crate for her. OH my goodness I've never heard a dog howl like that! You'd think we were stabbing her!!! A few times throughout the night I'd have to get up and check because it sounded like a woman was crying! That only lasted a few nights until we broke down and bought a crate (like Kathryn Lindsey had suggested. Thanks again!). Our training book suggested keeping the crate in our bedroom to cut out the howling. It worked like a charm.

Here we are a week and a half after bringing her home and today was the day to take her to the vet for her free spaying. I chickened out and decided not to go to the 8am appointment. JT and Mija ended up running a little late so he wasn't able to give her a blessing like we had planned. But he assures me that they had a prayer before going into the vet's office. Since it's like 10 degrees below freezing (OK, not really. But it feels like it) I insisted that Mija put on her coat--yes, she has a coat. She's a little,thin, and light furred creature. She looked so cute! Don't tell JT I said so. I caught a few pictures of them leaving. Mija was blissfully unaware of her danger.

At first Mija didn't have any problems with the vet. However, once the doctor came out to greet them with a leash, she understood. Her ears went flat, tail went between her legs, and she put her front paws on JT's lap and began to cry. She kept inching up her hind legs hoping that he would allow her to get into his lap. That broke JT's heart.

Four p.m. was the pick-up time and I've never seen her look more depressed, scared, and sad. Her demeanor hasn't changed yet. The vet says that she took the surgery worse than most other dogs. She's experiencing more pain than normal. We couldn't get her to lie down for awhile. We hope that with pain medication and some TLC that she'll be back to her happy and sweet self!