UPDATE on Our Girl - Truth Be Told! I have a confession to make, Ive been holding back on you - not wanting to focus on the negative aspects of Freedoms new life. But Here Goes: When Freedom first arrived in January we thought 2 things. 1) the dogs at Red Shed Racing would be of a comfort for her and their playful attitudes would do good given what we knew about her life on the streets - we had many accounts of her regularly rough housing with dogs in Soldotna 2) we believed we would need lots of patience to gain her trust and we had limited expectations of her engaging physically with the Humans during the first year. How could we have been so wrong ? As you know Freedom quickly came around to seek our human attention and loves to play games in the yard with me and she is also asking for belly rubs more and more indoors. This was a happy surprise for us! What you dont know is the dogs have been shunning her at play time beyond the first month of her being here. Ive kept this quiet but my heart was so sad about it. I just could not understand this at all. During the first month the dogs who we allowed access to her tried to play with her but she was too overwhelmed and quickly turned away. Once she gained confidence she tried to engage them but they have staunchly snubbed her. For example if Rockstar and Rabbit were wrestling she would run up and paw at them trying to get in on it and they would immediately stop playing and walk away... I had my theories on this and kept saying they have to have their reasons. Whatever signals she was giving off were unacceptable in the pack structure. The logic of pack mentality was easy for me to see - but it was so heartbreaking knowing how much she WANTED to play. She also had been in a scuffle or two with CatchMe our leader early on. And for months she showed teeth at him. We eased them into a coexistence by limiting their access to each other but not stoping it altogether. Its has only been about six weeks that it has been free reign inside the cabin where they are both loose at the same time. Last week I thought CatchMe and Freedom were playing while I was sleeping but had no proof. He is not an all the time player as his role is to rule the roost but he does get the bug sometimes and he lets loose chasing and romping like a maniac. Today we may have truly turned a corner. I was sleeping after a long night of working and the dogs were running in and out of the dog door like last week. Freedom came in super fast once turned and pivoted on a dog bed and sent it sliding several feet. The action was intense so I woke myself up and peered out the window to see for sure who the players were. I saw CatchMe running around and knew he was involved with Freedom - But it gets better... AND scarier too! I caught a glimpse of Rabbit and Pickle pawing and nuzzling Freedom which made my heart sing. These are good boys who love to play hard but not aggressively. Things settled down from super chase mode and the dogs scattered about the yards moseying. I tried to go back to sleep and about 10 minutes later I heard the familiar barks of play. Bark bark bark bark in succession. I got up went to the window and saw three dogs in a triangle bark bark bark all facing each other (Rockstar, Rabbit and CatchMe) Pickle was also barking from a nearby spool facing them. I thought it was weird then I looked down at the feet of the triangulated dogs and Saw Freedom on the Ground laying lifeless on her side.... Oh crap! I ran and grabbed the seizure meds from the cabinet and turned to run outside but then Rabbit and Rockstar came bolting in the dog door . CatchMe and Pickle still out Barking. So I glanced out just in time to see Freedom stumble to her feet. She took a few steps and froze CatchMe all over her in his typical leader rattlesnake pose (which is playful but meant to intimidate also). Freedom just lowered her head no teeth just stayed. And then just like that she sprang into action came bursting through the dog door with a giant grin! Oh Man I said to her - I had the seizure meds silly girl ! There is very little chance it was a seizure she was not out of it at all. So what was it Im not certain but I suspect the playing got intense and she submitted to the pack calling uncle playing dead? All along I kept telling Sean Rice that I thought the shunning had a large likelihood of The Pack respecting CatchMe and his challenge to Freedom. NOW that he is engaging her and she is holding her own no longer showing teeth I think we will see a lot more games on her horizon!
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 04:26:25 +0000
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