T-minus 5...

Just chewing on an old trumpet vine pod

Contented dog days of autumn

How can you help not wonder what is going on behind that stare?

Tuesday afternoon and the south wind has a bit of a breath on it. Patchy clouds allow enough warming rays through to make puttering around the yard comfortable with a long-sleeved flannel shirt.

Opal Hound bounds through clumps of leaves collected by the wind, searching for a communal, ratty old tennis ball. She brings it to me, hesitates only slightly before releasing the ball when told to "let go", then leaps expectantly for me to toss it across the yard. Once launched, she is off like a shot to beat Beano to it!

A couple or three rounds of the ball usually is enough for her. She takes it to a spot on the grass and begins gnawing on it, holding the ball between her over-sized front paws.

Two and a half weeks isn't much time to teach a rambunctious pup, even if you know what your doing and have all day,every day to work on it. We are not professional trainers. Our goals--make that GOAL--were simple; get Opal comfortable enough being in a crate for a 5-days road trip.

I think we're there. Just now, as I type, Opal silently slipped onto Beano's crate beside our computer station. She's now snoring softly. Nor is this new behavior. Still somewhat reluctant to enter her borrowed transport crate at bedtime, she will take short naps in Beano's two or three times in a day.

Sometimes you just feel compelled to gnaw on a stick.

We have played some with the leash. Opal is less than enthusiastic about being collared and tends to roll onto her back, refusing to cooperate. Once collared and out the door, however, she is eager to explore.

Opal is curious about other dogs and people encountered along the way, but we keep her a cautious distance from strangers, canine and otherwise.

We also have worked with two simple commands, "sit" and "let go." Appropriate responses to either is spotty, at best.

Again, I'm aware the fault lies with the trainer, not the trainee!

Sick as a Dog X 2

Well, hell, we've got two sick dogs.

Of the two, Beano Boglen, our resident terrier, is down the hardest with symptoms of an upper respiratory infection, but Opal Hound has been wheezing and sneezing as well. Having multiple dogs is a lot like having multiple human offspring; if one picks up something, they all share it around sooner or later.

One of the conditions of fostering is that signs of illness must be reported immediately to the Humane Society (HS). Technically, the foster dog remains the responsibility of HS, including any necessary medical care. Additionally, any dog scheduled for transport to New York must pass a final health certification exam.

Opal--aka "Olive", aka "Elvira", aka "Li'l Sister"--is scheduled to board the transport a week from tomorrow, and final medical exams must be done by no later than Thursday. Five days.

Can't say enough about the quick response from Jan Herzog and Cheryl Miller. We had antibiotics for both dogs in under two hours early on a Saturday morning. Only time will tell now if Opal makes her departure date.

Call her anything but late for dinner!

Day 4

If you have food, call her "Opal!" If you have food, call her "Beano!" Either name works equally well if you're holding anything resembling a snack and/or meal. Heck, you can cluck like a chicken, and Opal Hound comes bounding across the hard boards, clicking her toes and trailing long, thin lines of coonhound drool!

Opal Hound proves she can be patient while Jim cuts the cheese.

And don't bother quoting to her from all those articles about how well dogs do on veggie and grains diets. Opal Hound is a committed carnivore.

We weren't concerned last night when post-op Opal showed no interest in her kibble. She'd eat in the morning after, the drugs had worn off.

"Morning" kicked in about 5:30. In the darkness, her tail softly thump...thump...thumped 

against the plastic wall of her crate. Still, she uttered not a whimper, nary a whine. Just her tail drumming on the side of her crate as if to say, "I hear you out there. I smell you near. I know you are coming to let me out."

Her crate opened, she made straight for the back door. First things first after a l-o-n-g night for this lady! 

She moved well, with a spring to her steps, as she trotted all around the border of the back yard. She took her squat and turned back toward the house, glancing only once over her shoulder to insure I was following. Opal showed no ill effects from her surgery.

So I was somewhat surprised when she again turned up her nose at the kibble. She scarcely sniffed at it before going directly to our bedroom and curling up beside Annie. The girl is showing herself to be a woman's dog.

Mrs. Miller's bed is THE place to be on a chilly November morning!
[From top] Simba, Beano, Opal Hound, Raja

After my shift at the dealership I was home a little after two. Annie reported that Opal still had not eaten, and her activity through the morning suggested she was neither sick nor feeling poorly from her surgery. Okay, time had come to do something.

I found a hunk of chuck roast in the fridge, left over from Sunday's back yard bash. Both Beano and Opal were at my side as I began slicing cold, medium-rare beef! The first quarter-inch thick slice was further cut into bite-sized pieces. Both dogs were drooling at attention. Pieces of meat were offered to both dogs simultaneously, because Beano can get super possessive and snappish when it comes to other critters and his chow.

Please, sir, may I have some more?

The good news, of course, is that Opal wasn't off her feed. She just doesn't care for the kibble served here! 

About halfway through dividing up the roast, my son Brian showed up at the front door. When I returned to the kitchen, several slices and the remaining hunk I had been carving from were gone.

Somehow, I seriously doubt that Opal Hound shared her purloined roast with brother Beano. Clearly, nothing consisting of meat or resembling meat can be left unattended on the kitchen cutting board.

Clay County Coonhound

Some 52 pounds of lap dog

Mrs. Miller did some Googling today. Now she is convinced that Opal is mostly black and tan coonhound. What we have seen of her temperament and personality so far certainly checks out with the general expectations for the breed: She's a triple handful of cheerful, affectionate, docile, prone to nap, drooling lap dog in a queen sized package.

To be sure, there's something or things in the mix besides coonhound, but we haven't quite figured out the candidate breeds just yet.

Next to nothing is known of her origin. She showed up at a private residence in rural Clay County, Texas, one day. Several days were spent trying to locate her family or anyone else who might know where she belonged. When that effort failed, she was taken to the animal impound lockup.

Her stay at the pound was extended beyond the typical period a couple of times. Clearly, staff members recognized a potentially fine and valuable creature in this abandoned (most likely) dog. Still, no one came forward to claim her nor to adopt. Further extensions to delay her execution were denied.

In a last ditch, eleventh hour act to save this dog, folks at the Clay County Animal Shelter called on my friend to intervene. A quickie adoption was arranged and the dog was brought to the Humane Society Wichita County shelter where she was registered as "Opal Hound."