Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Crazy Cricket


When we first brought her in the house... she just cowered. She would move through the house and then suddenly cower. If there was a loud noise or one of us spoke too loudly, she hit the floor. I eventually coaxed her into our bedroom, put down some food and just kind of hung out for a while. I'd only had two hours of sleep so I wasn't really in the mood to run around the house with a strange dog. It wasn't long before she learned that the bed is far more comfortable than the floor. She hasn't had an accident in the house yet. Did I mention she's never been in a house? She's believed to be between 2 and 3 years old, although it can be harder to tell with puppy mill dogs. She has scars on her face and her entire left ear is scarred and has hair missing. We don't know if this was from getting beat up by other dogs or from trying to get out of the cage. If it was from fighting, I can tell you right now, Cricket didn't go looking for it. We're hanging out on the bed and she's panting like she's going through menopause so I turn the ceiling fan on. No big deal, right? I forgot the dog had never been in a house before. To her, the ceiling fan was coming to attack her, possibly chopping off her head in the process. I honestly think if I hadn't turned it off when I did, she would've tried to go through my walls. It took a while for her to recover. Once my husband got home, we had to leave as we had a showing for the house today. Oh, I didn't mention that? Yeah, that's because I didn't know till about six hours before the people were set to show up. We load up the car with Cricket and one of my foster kittens since I had to go drop him off at Petsmart anyway. (oh and we threw the kids in the trunk... can't leave 'em behind, it's the law) We come home and no one is in the driveway so we're free and clear. The phone rings before I even have a chance to sit down. It's our realtor and the people suddenly can't come and will have to reschedule. Gee, thanks for all the warnings in advance. We convinced Cricket to go outside for a while with my husband. When she came back in, it was time for us to eat dinner so we left her in the backroom. (we found out very quickly earlier in the day that she will go to extremes to get human food) When we brought her back in, it was like starting all over again with her. She was scared, had to get used to us moving around all over. She's been better the last two hours though. I was told she didn't seem to have much of a prey drive. I'm finding that's not really true. She goes on the defensive with any and all animals. If the cat walks past her, she gives him the Elvis lip. If he hesitates (just like hey doggy what's up? Not, dude I will scratch that look right off your face) at all, she's snipping at them. And if they run, she's running and snipping at them. It was the only time she's actually been yelled at because I was afraid she was going to get my daughter's cat. She hasn't met all of our dogs yet. I didn't want to overwhelm her. I saved the two most dominate dogs for later. She's been outside with all the herding breeds that we have though. It went well other than her frequent giving of the Elvis lip. They don't really seem to know what to make of her. They're very 'you sniff my butt, I sniff your butt, then we play' kind of dogs. She's more 'get the hell away from my ass and let me wander about by myself.' Hopefully she'll learn to play with others in the coming weeks. I would hate for her to be an only animal as it's much harder to adopt out any animal, whether it be a dog or cat, that has to be the only pet. Now, I think I'll try to get some sleep. Hopefully nothing weird happens in the middle of the night and freaks her out. I don't want to wake up to that.

3 comments:

Sage Ravenwood said...

She's absolutely adorable. The shyness may stay a prevalent attribute of hers. Pickles is a working dog. But she absolutely will have nothing to do with anyone unless she gets to know you. It works for me as she's not aloud around other dogs or having anyone pet her to distract her.

However with the cats she's gold. I have feral outside cats that won't let me touch them, but they'll come up and touch noses with Pickles. It's breathtaking to see. Hope you get some sleep hon! (Hugs)Indigo

Ken Riches said...

Awww, poor thing. Hope she acclimates fast :o)

Beth said...

It just breaks my heart to see such a pretty animal be so damaged. I hope she does well and gets to the point where she's not constantly frightened. I like her name, too. Hugs, Beth