Where The Wild Things Are...

Sorry for the delay in blogging again. Things have been rather hectic of late. Skittles safely arrived ten days ago. The integration plan my dad and I put together worked like a charm. After a peaceful few weeks in the suburbs of Chicago, Skittles had adjusted to the real world again and made a good friend in my folks' Airedale, Winston. In fact she had gotten so well adjusted she was starting to guard their house against workmen and squirrels. She slept most nights in bed with my folks and Winston. When they went out, she had free reign of the house and didn't get into any mischief.

On Saturday, March 19th, she traveled from Chicago to the Upper Peninsula. There is a lone official rest area on this trip just south of Green Bay. All the Shell dogs have visited this rest stop and left their offerings and so Skittles continued the tradition. Upon arrival, my dad put her on the leash and walked her around the road for a bit. Eventually we let out the other dogs so the sniffing ritual could begin. There was no tension between them at all.

During my dad's visit, she slept with him, but almost immediately I began to feed her with the other dogs. When it came time for him to head home, she handled the transition without any problems at all.

She is extremely obsessed with the cats. As I posted on Facebook the other day, I am learning that it is not so much when will Skittles get bored as when will the cats remember that they are in charge. I make sure they have ample room to escape the canine frenzy. We are making slow progress.

In the midst of all this, Frankie got rather ill. He started to vomit that Saturday night and wasn't right for a few days. By Monday night, something was clearly wrong and I brought him to the vet first thing Tuesday morning. He was very dehydrated. He ended up spending the night and the next day there. My concern was the similarity between his symptoms and Cosmo's symptoms just before he died. In the end, the vet decided that Frankie must have eaten something that has floated to the surface courtesy of the Spring snow melt. He's doing much better now.

Not long after Skittles made it to the U.P., her Olga past away in New York. To what extent she was holding on to see her safely here, we will never know. Her spirit watches over us all now and I'm sure she approves. Peace.