If you’re new, the Tulip Chronicles start here.
Day 1
Tulip stays in the crate all day and then again when I go out for a date. I feel guilty so I take her into my bedroom for the night. She craps on the floor at 2:00am.
Day 2
In the morning, she eats a bunch of doggy salad in the yard and barfs it up/shits blood. How long is this dewormer supposed to take?
During our 25-minute walk, I make approximately 4.7 brazilian corrections.
Day 3
Tulip wakes me up at 4:00am reverse-gulping. I sprint to her crate and try to shoo her out the door. We make it to the living room.
But it’s just spit-up, nothing solid. I clean it up, and we go back to bed.
She won’t eat her breakfast. I email the org with the update and ask for help.
Oh, the funk, when I get in the house after work! Tulip has escaped from her (NEW) crate and, because I forgot to close the bedroom door, blown mud all over the living room. The org tells me to take her back to the vet, which I do, along with a grocery bag full of diarrhea. (What has my life become?) They peek at it under the microscope, give me some special food and a scrip for Metronidazole. Twice daily, ten days. And I’m to continue the Fortiflora powder I’ve been sprinkling over her dinner, which helps build up the healthy bacteria in her gut.
We do the 2.5-mile loop for the first time in forever. I quickly tire of making corrections, so with Tulip on my right, I wrap her leash behind my knees around in front of my pelvis and hold it at my right side. She’s forced to be in the heel position. I give myself minor rope burns in the process, but it’s so much easier.
Day 4
Tulip does not escape her kennel, and she does have a mostly solid poop in the afternoon! Wheeeeee!
Then my foster baby goes to have a sleepover at prospective parent Nelly’s house.
Day 5
Nelly drops Tulip off at my house while I’m at work, so I don’t have a chance to debrief and see how the slumber party went.
Day 6
A family is scheduled to meet her tomorrow at 4:00. Nelly tells me she’s in love with Tulip, but she worries about the long hours she works/studies and if there’s a family who loves her, then they should take her.
Day 7
The family who comes to visit is RAD. I want them to want her. She’s her cute, friendly self. My fingers are crossed.
At the fourth and final Feisty Fido class session, we’re still working on leash-walking and Generally Being the Boss of Your Dog. We’ve done no work on introducing dogs to each other. So I ask the trainer what to do. He tells me to have Tulip on the shortest of short leashes, so all three dogs know that I’m in fucking charge here.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll be in fucking charge. Tonight I’m in a fucking funk.