First - check out all the blooms on Yellow - I think I counted around seven total. And White has opened another bloom too!
So Cruz' history - I'm slowly putting together her past from emails and telephone conversations with three ladies from Cruz' rescue group.
Cruz is a little over a year old and evidently when she was about four months, another rescue group adopted her out and she had a microchip implanted.
Somewhere between that adoption and when Panora P.E.T.S. literally trapped Cruz - she had gotten loose, run away or something from her first home - and the family that had adopted Cruz did not tell their rescue group about this to let the rescue group know they had broken their agreement when they adopted Cruz. That alone makes me want to go to that family and bap the adults on the head. How dare they want to adopt a dog - any dog - and not be responsible pet owners. I've never had a dog microchipped but I've learned that contacting the microchip company alone can help start trying to find your lost dog. Along with letting the rescue group be aware to start looking for her.
Somehow Cruz ended up in the country roaming for two to three months - yes two to three months - between two farms with her sleeping on the porch of one of the farm houses. The owner of that farm happened to be the sister of the lady that is in charge of Panora P.E.T.S.
Evidently Cruz would lay on their porch and if food was left out for her she would eat it but when someone from the house would try to approach Cruz - she would be off in a flash.
Long story short - the only way Panora P.E.T.S. was able to get Cruz was to live trap her. The lady that is in charge of P.E.T.S. (whose sister's porch Cruz would stay on) was concerned that someone would shoot Cruz because of seeing her run "wild" for so long.
It took a few days after being caught for Cruz to realize everyone from the rescue group was trying to help her and she slowly warmed up to them. Cruz's foster mom works at a local kennel so Cruz would go to work with her each day and gently be introduced to other dogs and more humans.
So knowing more of her background helps me know how to approach Cruz and work with her. And when I share little milestones in my blogs - I hope those reading my blogs will do a little "dance of joy" for Cruz, me and of course include Butler in the mix :)
Sunday afternoon I had an instance with Cruz after taking off her collar, putting it back on, buying her a new collar at Petco, putting the new collar on and realizing it was too large, taking the new collar off and putting it back on - she started to bare her teeth at me. No growling or noise - just snarling up her nose and showing me her teeth. I'm like "great......". I wanted her to know I was the alpha but didn't want to be too aggressive with her to either make her mad at me or even more timid/afraid. I pointed my finger at her and said, "no". And we got into an eye-staring contest with me not wanting to break eye contact first but again I didn't want to be too "aggressive" toward her so soon in our relationship. For quite a while the rest of the afternoon she would bare her teeth at me, but after working with her - sitting on the floor sort of close to her, holding my hand out to her to sniff before approaching and everything - the teeth stopped being shown.
I continue to tell her she is a "good girl" and other positive comments like that - even when she chewed my two shoes yesterday which ended up ruining two pairs of shoes - that was my bad that Cruz was in the position to even have the opportunity do that.
Cruz doesn't eat hard treats which is good to finally know. In the past starting with Lucy and moving to Butler and Milly - whenever one of my dogs goes outside to do their duty when they come in they get a Milk Bone treat (hard treat). Butler almost rips the treats out of my hand - that's why I call him Jaws sometimes - but Cruz wouldn't take them from me or eat them when I'd lay the treat next to her. She is used to soft treats but she does eventually eat the Milk Bone.
Tonight I had a great milestone with Cruz. Sometimes I buy a package of cheese sticks and share them with Butler. I break off a small piece, toss it to him and it's gone in a nanosecond. I've tried to hand Cruz a small piece of cheese a few times, and while she wouldn't take it from my hand, she would eat it fairly quickly if I'd leave it on the floor next to her. Tonight - she actually took a piece of cheese from my hand. The cheese wasn't laying on the palm of my hand but I held it between fingers and she took it from me! Wow.
Now I'm awake because Butler has been wiggly, I've had the bedroom lights on and off seeing if he needs water or food among other things. One time after turning the lights off and I laid back down in bed on my side with my back away from Cruz (she sleeps on a pillow next to my side of the bed), I felt a nudge in my back. I thought I imagined it so ignored it - and I got another small nudge - it was Cruz sitting up looking at me when I turned the light on again. I wasn't sure if she needed to go outside but we went outside anyway. One good thing - she hasn't had any accidents in the house since I brought her home.
Hopefully mommy here can get a few minutes of sleep now before the alarm goes off.....
