A Moving Day

Lucy the Dog

The day began with an email from Janice at Hearts on Noses - a three year old female piggy on the island was in need of a home. A couple of emails later and the problem was solved. Pat, who adopted Neezer earlier this year, was willing to take on this piggy too. I phoned the people with the piggy, told them what Pat could offer to the piggy, and everything is a "Go". If all goes as planned, Pat will travel up island Wednesday and bring home the little girl pig --- whose name just happens to be LUCY!!! I hope Lucy the Dog can find her forever home as quickly as Lucy the Pig did. Thank you, Pat, for stepping up to give another pig a great home!

Next, two SPCA volunteers came to help me create a larger space for our Lucy. With such a large litter, all of whom are now walking and barking and looking around them, they had outgrown the 4x6 whelping box/x-pen I had made in the mudroom. With two hairy dogs of my own and the rainy, possibly snowy, month of November just around the corner, I needed to keep some mudroom space available so mucky dogs could dry off without destroying the living room carpets. So the only alternative was to move Lucy and pups into the dining room area. I moved the furniture into the bedroom, office, mudroom, and living room (aaackkkk - I hate cluttered, crowded rooms!). Bob and Doug arrived with an endroll of lino, large tarps, wood, another x-pen and other supplies. We lay the lino over the dining room carpet, two layers of tarp over that, 2x4 tarp-covered frame all around, three x-pens fastened to the frame and each other, some peg board for reinforcement where necessary, and - voila - Lucy and pups now have an area approximately 9x10 all for themselves. Thank you, Bob and Doug!

The mudroom had been the perfect space for the first couple of weeks when the pups needed a very warm environment (I have electric heat only, so could heat the mudroom and still keep the rest of the house as cool as I like it to be), and when Lucy and pups needed lots of rest and freedom from intrusions by visitors and my own critters.

But now the pups need socialization through gradually increased exposure to the everyday sights and sounds and smells of a household and eventually to visitors coming to say hello. They also need room to play, and soon will need to be introduced to the idea of a potty area, either on newspapers in one corner of their new pen, or by frequent forays to small side yard via the patio doors on one side of their new space. And Lucy is happy to be able to have more personal space and freedom, both in the pen itself and via one low doorway which she can hop over to join me any time she wants (except at night when it will be gated). The old whelping box has been moved into the new space, so the pups are once again in their familiar canopied bed, which they can easily clamber out of to check out the rest of the pen.

I don't cope well with chaos, so I spent most of the rest of the day setting my house back to order as best I could. My friend Else brought me a care package from today's SPCA potluck as I was too busy (and too stressed) to attend, so I had a great dinner of salad, casserole, meatballs (the best I've ever tasted - whoever made those better share their recipe or they may find ten puppies on their doorstep!) and other yummy stuff - oh, and apple pie for dessert. Thanks, Else!

And now the pups are sleeping, Lucy is content - AND, by the way, her poopy problem suddenly resolved itself day before yesterday, and she is now happily eating large amounts of Sweet Potato and Venison kibble with just a small addition of rice or oatmeal and chicken or lean beef! Yay! I'll hold off giving her puppy food, with its much higher fat content - she's likely getting a much better diet than 90% of pregnant dogs, anyway.

A busy day, a stressful day, but a day full of good friends and wonderful critters.

An exhausting day!