Day 5
Auntie Melinda comes over to help walk. Again, it goes swimmingly. Whoopee!
Day 6
Guess who else likes to chill on the picnic table.
Tulip and I head to Phydeaux, an independent pet store, in Raleigh for an adoption event. When we arrive, two other foster pits sit out front. Tulip is ecstatic and practically asphyxiates herself straining against her leash to get to them. There are shnurffles and butt-sniffs. She really wants to play with the other doggies and yanks so hard on her collar that she does that sneeze-cough thing and then gaks a pile of dog food right in the middle of the grassy spot we’re sitting in. I do my best to calm her down, but after a while, two other fosters arrive, both with puppies, and Tulip’s like,
OH. EM. GEE. Puppiiiiiiiies!
Yank. Sneeze-cough. Gak.
I take her for a walk around the block to calm her down. We get back to the spot.
PUPPIIIIIIIIIIIES!!!!!!!!!
Yank. Sneeze-cough. Gak.
We go home. We were there less than an hour.
Day 7
I’m gone most of the day. It’s almost 7:00 by the time I get home. Tulip’s been in her crate all day, and she didn’t get a walk yesterday what with the 45-minute drive each way and all the yanking, sneeze-coughing, and gakking. She needs a walk. Violet and Redford need a walk. I shall walk them. All of them. Together in one combustible pod.
I leash up my two in the kitchen and Tulip on the deck. Because the kitchen door opens into the house, I worry about their interacting while I pull the door to. I take Tulip out to the driveway and shut the end of her leash in the car door, go back inside, get my dogs, close the door, walk with calm, assertive eneryee out to the driveway, and release Tulip. We’re on our way.
A couple of times Tulip kisses the other dogs on the side of the mouth. Occasionally, all of them sniff the same spot. Other than that, they all just walk.
Victory.
(Still too nervous to let them hang out together at the house though.)