Playing Inside, Part II

Keeping Nikita "quiet" -- ie., no running, jumping, or wrestling with other dogs -- has proved to be fairly challenging.  This little gem of a game (thanks Jess!) bought me five-to-10 minutes of peace and quiet earlier this afternoon, not to mention some funny photos.

You put some treats in a cereal box, seal up the box -- done, in my case, with some heavy-duty clear tape, -- then give them the box.  Now I just need to start eating cereal and/or hitting up the neighbors for their empty boxes...

Update:  this works even better with a washed-out, treat-infused, resealed Fourbucks cup.  ("Fourbucks" because it's tough to get any drink there for less than four bucks...)

*So* Proud of Puppy

Nikita's had a tough week.

She was attacked Tuesday evening by Kody, a shepherd mix in our neighborhood, and got what turned out to be an incredibly nasty bite-wound just above her tail out of it.  I didn't find it initially under all that fur, and didn't think anything major had happened.  We had an appointment first thing Thursday morning to have her spayed at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital though, so I figured the doctors there could take a look at it just incase.  

"Just incase" turned out to be a severe bite, with an even more severe pocket under it.  (Dogs apparently carry so much bacteria in their mouths that even minor bites are prone to infection -- fortunately this one hadn't spread yet.)  So, after shaving a four-inch by four-inch area of her fur, they cleaned up and stitched up the bite-wound, then made a clean incision about an inch-and-a-half over; drained the pocket under the wound; and left in a slim plastic tube about as wide and as thick as a drinking straw, though much softer and more bendable, to help with follow-on drainage.  She got to come home late Friday.  

(The spaying operation, by the way, was a piece of cake in comparison, requiring no follow-up visits, tubes, or antibiotics -- ironic that *that* procedure was what I'd been so nervous about.)  

Her energy level and spirits have both been higher than I was expecting, which is generally good -- the only bad part is how frustrated and stir-crazy she's been.  After our follow-up appointment today, during which she had the tube removed as well as the stitches from the bite-wound, she's allowed to start taking semi-normal walks -- as in, short, slow, excitement-free ones -- which should help alleviate her boredom and thus hopefully her frustration, anxiety, etc.  When I told the doctor how generally aggravated she seemed and asked if there was anything else I could be doing for her, I was told, "It's just really tough with the Arctic breeds."  That's my little monster =).  

It'll be good to start spending time outside again with her, and really good to get a break from her bashing the cone into the walls.  She definitely hasn't been loving it...

World's Greatest Neighbors

N and I are lucky enough to live in a building -- and, more specifically, on a hall -- full of puppy- and dog-lovers.  Melina and Henrey next door have become good friends of ours, and we're looking forward to sitting out on the stoop with a bowl full of dog treats for passing pooches on Halloween.  Hen already has his dinosaur costume:

Melina gave Nikita a squeaky toy that's provided her with almost 'round-the-clock entertainment.  Here's N playing with it first at Melina's, then back at the apartment on the bed:

Melina and Hen also bailed me out big-time when an allergic dinner-guest required that I either leave Nikita trapped and upset in the bathroom or drop her off at a neighbor's.  She had a *huge* time playing with Melina, Henry, and Christina from across the hall, pictured below with the pooches:

I got to sleep in all the way until 8:45 -- approximately an hour-and-a-half later than usual -- so clearly N was exhausted from an initially stressful and then fortunately fun night.  Thanks Melina and Henney!

Addendum: readers may be pleased/horrified to learn that I've since purchased the very same dino-mite costume for Nikita, size XL.  

Eargate

So, N's grandparents and I have been at loggerheads as to whether or not to do anything about her "lazy ear" situation.  I find it kind of endearing, particularly when we play dress-up -- see Tourag Puppy below -- but grandma and grandpa find it undignified.  Breeder Helen attributes this situation to larger- and heavier-than-average ears, inherited, apparently from her mother and (great-?)grandfather...  

"Fixing" it would require that I do the following:  

1. Shave/buzz/seriously-trim the hair on the inside of her ear,

2. Cut an ear-shaped piece of cardboard from the inside of a roll of toilet paper (which apparently have the perfect curvature or something), and 

3. Using fabric glue (!), afix this ear-shaped piece of cardboard to the shaved/buzzed/seriously-trimmed inside of her ear for a *week* or until it falls out if that happens before a week is up, which would at least spare me -- and her -- my having to rip the thing out of her ear.

I then check to see if the ear will stand up on its own when the other one does -- as in, when she's "alert" -- and, if not, repeat until it does.  

Not sure I want to run try this home-ec experiment on my sweet puppy, but am also getting sick of all the "Oh look at its floppy ear!"s on the street...  Vhat to do, vhat to do??

Lucky Boy

I'd been so nervous Nikita would miss her old buddies in Chicago and wouldn't meet new dogs here...  She seems to have adjusted just fine, meeting handsome four-year-old Lucky the Siberian Husky one of our first days in Boston.  He's quickly become her new best friend and they play almost every day, sometimes twice a day. 

They'll also, very rarely, just hang out without being crazy.  (This typically requires an hour plus of playing first.)

The New Deal

I take Nikita for A Very Long Walk several times a day, because a tired puppy is a well-behaved puppy.  Our usual loop is a circumambulation of "the Fens," the big park we now live on.  

We start by taking the elevator down the couple flights -- N doesn't like steps much but does like to give the inside of the elevator door a good lick (?) -- and hang a left down Park Drive.  

We pass the rose garden; the memorials to those Bostonians who died in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam; the Victory Gardens (my application for a plot is in); and curve around Boylston Street, getting nice views of the big dome of MIT across the Harvard Bridge and of the start of swanky Back Bay on our side of the Charles.  

We then skirt the edge of Northeastern University -- mascot: Huskies, so Nikita gets lots of appreciative calls (even though she's a *Malamute* not a Husky but anyway).  Then it's the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, its School, Simmons College, and Emmanuel College, before looping around the opposite end of the Fens and heading home.  

Along the way, I try to keep N away from the huge gaggle of Canadian geese that live in the park, in part because she tries to eat their poop, in part because some of them seem pretty aggressive, staring at us and making odd hissing noises.  (My neighbor's dachshund was attacked by one: apparently flipped onto his back, straddled, and beaten repeatedly by the thing's wings while being pecked in the face by its mouth/beak/whatever.  Nice.)  

Adding in time for sniffing things; picking up and dropping sticks, branches, logs, empty coffee cups and soda bottles; and saying "hi" to any friendly dog that crosses our path, this takes us about an hour.  If she's not dropping from exhaustion, I then bowl a tennis ball down the length of our hall (~75 feet) and she retrieves it until she really is exhausted.  We then go in, she passes out, and I get to do whatever I need to without having to worry about what she's up to.  

Live From Boston...

Nikita is such a champ.

Frequent stops at the fine, highway-side offerings of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York helped wear her out and make the two-day ride from Chicago to Boston seem more bearable.  She didn't even complain about the absurd little (2.5 by 3.5 foot) space all my assorted crap left her in the backseat of our rented minivan.  

My mother had booked us a big suite at a Marriott in Syracuse, NY, smaller than the Chicago apartment where N's spent her last few months but alot bigger than my new Boston studio, so hopefully it helped her gradually get used to progressively smaller digs.  She definitely got a kick out of jumping up onto a high hotel bed after my little platform job.  (I was laughing too hard to take a photo, sorry.)  

Once we got to Boston, N just sacked out in front of the fan -- no A/C here -- while my mom and I did all the hard work of unpacking, etc.  It's a tough life.

I'll post shots of our new neighborhood and her new buddies soon, but just wanted to celebrate having internet at home (as of an hour or so ago, woo!) with a fresh post.