This bitch sleeps around

 

Currently and for the indeterminate future, I am a dog mom. Really I’m only an aunt but it’s full custody until Shelby’s mom can figure out how to get her back to America.

Due to COVID and United Airlines’ current dog policies, she’s stuck being a Minsk mutt for at least a few weeks and more likely a couple of months. My hope is that she’s home in September or so but it’s likely going to be a little while longer. There are a couple of options to get her home, but until United says go, she stays.

It’s been a week, and so far, she doesn’t suspect anything; she has stayed with me this long before. She’s got to know something is up, though, because for the first time, her crate is over here, too.

It’s the dog days of summer and she is living it up. We go on at least four walks a day, two long and two short and we do at least 10k steps a day, usually more. Today, Sunday, we had that many in by breakfast.

In between walks, though, she has nothing to do and just sleeps. The walks tire her out, I think, and for the rest of the day, she just moves from one place to another, closes her eyes, and dozes off. Right now, she’s on the floor next to the kitchen table. In 10 minutes, she’ll probably move to under the table.

She’s sleeping all over my apartment, rotating through about seven spot in the TV area before lumbering off to the bedroom.

It’s hard to look at a domesticated dog like Shelby and think her ancestors used to spent all day hunting and scavenging. In between walks, all she does is sleep.

The most excitable it’s been was after a short rain. For some reason, that electrified her and she started darting around the apartment and kicking up my rugs. (Nonskid rug pads, my hind end.) We found a ball near the dog park and she had a lot of fun chasing it, but only for about 3-4 throws. She lost interest at that point.

Poor thing. Her life is in upheaval. She got baffled when she came over the first time, because we’d all been on the road trip and she got left with me and not her mom. She then went back to stay with her mom, but the house had been packed out and it looked different. Then I took her to work and, since my old office was being renovated, we worked out of a different building.  She didn’t like that much and barked at far more people than she usually barks at.

Now, my office is redone – and missing walls – but, other than tomorrow, she probably won’t be coming in because my new boss has arrived. I’m not sure how he feels like dogs, so between that and the new carpet, she will likely just sit at home all day and sleep. Not much different than now, but this way she’ll be excited when I come home. Now, I am basically furniture that feeds her.

Update: It didn’t take 10 minutes. I leave a window open so she can people-watch and a fly came in. It buzzed by and she leapt up to chase it. Now she’s curled up into her crate. She’s not a bad fly-catcher.