Kitty

Pennsylvania 28

March 31, 2015: As you can see Kitty has had a great time this Winter whenever there was decent snow, playing with her boy toy Percy. They really did have fun !!
She continues to be an awesome dog, am completely amazed that she has never ‘pottied’ in the house. We still have occasional arguments between her and Zoey but as long as they’re not left alone together unsupervised, all is well. She’s also still flaky around everyone but us.
Kitty has been a busy little beaver… literally… in addition to the several rugs and towels, my computer power cord, the Dachshunds sweater and my rubber barn boot… she added my Ugs to her list. How did it happen? I didn’t put them away and my idiot husband left her loose while he went off to a doctor’s appointment… aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh… and they don’t make that model anymore!

Nov. 26, 2014: The day before Thanksgiving last year I brought Pa28/Natalia home. She’d been at the boarding kennel for a year or more and the right adopter for her just hadn’t shown up.
The first few weeks were rough, big adjustments for all, especially her. She didn’t really know her name so I tried ‘morphing’ it but one night I called her Kitty, watched her tail go up and wag so that became her new name and she has always responded well to it.
Amazingly she has always been house trained, have no idea how that happened except that maybe it’s because our floor isn’t made of rabbit wire. For the most part she’s gotten along w/all the resident dogs…….except Zoey. They have a part time friendship, both being growly or worse at times. Currently Kitty stalks her and Zoey hides, not great but manageable.
Kitty has grown some hutzpa when new foster dogs come here, she insists on letting them know she is above them in the pack. If they are worthy she ends up playing with them.
She still has her moments of fearfulness, sometimes major but all in all has adapted well to life outside a cage. We love her and she’s staying:)
Happy Gotcha Day!!!

July 5, 2014: Last week little Hugo came to live w/us for a little while, he’s my mother in law’s dachshound. I fully expected Sally & Riggs (Belgian Sheepdogs) and Nasty Mc Nasty aka Zoey to try to eat him for lunch but… I was only right about Sally… who still wants a little Hugo snack:) Riggs and Zoey were/are interested in him but it’s just curiosity.
Kitty on the other hand has been a big surprise, she most definitely wanted to eat him. It’s taken 5 days to be able to trust her for 5 minutes alone with him in the kitchen and he KNOWS it!! I had to set up a little x-pen area for him in the yard so they could all be outside together.
This morning I decided to try Kitty, Zoey and Percy loose in the yard w/Hugo while I did yard patrol. As you can see from the pics Kitty stalked him, sorry no shots close enough to see the drool falling out of her mouth (lol)… you can also see that the 14 yr old little hot dog is smart enough to stay near stuff he can scoot under. He’s only here for a couple more weeks, maybe they’ll be friends by the time he leaves… maybe not:)
 
April 26, 2014: Today the weather was fabulous and it being ‘my’ day of rest, I decided to hang out in the yard and hunt dandelions with the dogs. I also decided that they’ve been so wonderful this week that they should each get a marrow bone. Needless to say we were all happy…..

… And then a visitor came… within 10 minutes of those marrow bones being disbursed, amazing the sense of smell those nasty things have. Dogs didn’t notice the visitor right away so it got really close, then Percy reacted, gave a half hearted chase which only sent Mr.Bird up and not ‘away’. It wasn’t until my killer black dog, Riggs, went after Mr. Bird that it actually left and that was after it hovered over where Kitty (Pa28) was chewing her bone. The white dogs were hilarious, they looked up at Mr. Bird but nothing more.

Kitty (PA28) has blossomed since I wrote about her last. She’s still skittish in a big way especially going in and out through the back door but there are those little baby steps she takes that put a huge smile on my face. She will stay laying down when my husband get’s up and walks around, a true sign of trust in my opinion. She used to poop nightly at the kennel, step in it and pain the walls w/it (poor Marlene) yet here, she hasn’t had a single accident in the house here. She LOVES her new name, her tail always goes up when I call her ‘Pitty Kitty’. She also loves attention and to be petted and will always come looking for some when I use my happy voice. She stopped counter surfing after being busted one time but will still go stand near the counter with her nose up in the air sniffing and wishing. Kitty LOVES to chew, amongst her kills are my barn boots, several towels, the power cord for my computer and one of the deck chairs………I now try to make sure she has stuff of her own to chew and/or that she’s not left unattended with anything we care about. When Kitty get’s scared she beeline’s it to the safety of her crate, she doesn’t necessarily like being crated but she does feel safe there. Out in the yard she is never far away from me but rarely comes to me when I am standing unless I have a leash in my hand, she always comes when I’m sitting though. Kitty’s coat is blowing like crazy, she’s not fond of being brushed but loves being plucked. She’s just all around weird but when I think about how far she’s come since Thanksgiving I always smile. Oh…almost forgot, she’s been doing pretty well with the few visitors we’ve had and the longer they stay the more outgoing she becomes.

1/1/14: As you know I’ve been trying to ‘morph’ Natalia’s name because we have a good friend named Natalia. She was Talia for awhile, still too close to the original so it morphed into Tally, then Cally, also not good because we already have a Sally here. Well, yesterday it happened and the morph is complete… she is now Kitty. I don’t know why I called her that but her tail went up, she came immediately and was all happy so I kept calling her that and results were phenomenal. I grew up with a 150 lbs Newfoundland that we called ‘Puppy’ so why not have a dog named Kitty… ha ha ha!!In other news we had our first visitor/stranger a couple nights ago since Kitty came here. KItty was good w/it but definitely a little nervous which showed itself w/her not spending all her time in the crate. Once the stranger was gone she stayed out of the crate until bedtime. Kind of weird but I liked it:)
Last week one of the times she came in from outside she stepped on the foot pedal that opens the kitchen trash can, this caused a huge bang noise. Now she needs more coaxing to go in and out and ‘zooms’ through the door like her tail is on fire. Wonder how long this phase will last.

12/30/13: 2 Sundays before Christmas Talia decided she wasn’t going to be caught at bedtime after the last potty break. I have the bigger brain but it still took me an hour to catch her… causing me to get only 4 1/2 hours sleep that night. (not a good thing when you have to drive screaming children in a big yellow tin can). She pulled the same crap Monday and Tuesday nights making me doubt my bigger brain… uuuggghhh.
Finally I started using a 20 ft training lead for that last potty break and stopped pulling out my hair:) Turns out she was in some sort of mental transition, she wanted nothing to do w/the kennel run, or the house and didn’t want to be in the yard alone either.
Well… how times have changed… I can’t keep her out of the house and now I sometimes have to put a leash on her to go out to potty<lol>
It took a couple weeks for her to stop freaking out every time the furnace came on, thankfully that phase is over with. She has definitely gotten with the program and i even get ‘happy dances’ at meal time. When we have to leave she is ok with being crated and does spend a lot of time in the crate when the door is open. My next step is to keep the crate door closed more especially since she’s becoming a little too protective of that space.
New picture below showing her in a position we all want to see. That’s Talia with Zoey in the background. Zoey only gets upside down inside her crate.

12/13/13: Natalia has been here 2 1/2 weeks and in that time has taken more baby steps than I can count resulting in HUGE progress.
This Summer when turned loose at the boarding kennel she went whacko trying to get back into a run… any run. Now she get’s all happy and paws to get out of the run so she can run and play with Percy (her black boyfriend). In the beginning here I had to fake letting her into the run to catch her, I still do that when needed but now she’ll come to me in the yard 50% of the time. She also comes up to me for ‘pets’ when I’m doing yard patrol and no leash is involved.
The leash means she’s coming in the house for awhile. I started off doing 2 hrs a night, then 4 and now I’m making her sleep inside with me and the other fuzzballs. Inside she’s overwhelmed by the TV, us moving around, Zoey growling at her, general kitchen noises etc so I just let her be and freak out as needed. Her freaking out consists of pacing from the open crate to the back door. If we’re sitting down she settles into the crate but comes out for pets when I call her. I’ve also been teaching her to beg at the dinner table (bad Danielle, bad, bad, bad…) and that being inside has it’s benefits.
She’s getting along w/all the dogs here, is totally non confrontational so they can easily pick on her if I let them (which I don’t). My worst offended is Riggs (biggest evil black dog), he likes to charge her but is easily called ‘off’ her.
Running the yard has become one of her favorite pastimes, her tail is almost always up when she’s doing it.
I have a very good human friend named Natalia so am slowly ‘morphing’ this Natalia’s name. As of today, she is Talia… we’ll see what that turns into… (pics below)

11/20/13: After a year in a boarding kennel and plenty of ‘wrong’ adoption inquiries, I brought Natalia home/here. She was definitely freaked out having her world turned upside down yet again so I put her in my biggest kennel run and pretty much ignored her for a few days until she became comfortable in there. Of course now that the kennel is her safe place it’s time to rock her world some more…..he he he……
First I let her loose in the yard with Percy (sweet evil black dog) where she ran the yard, came up to me a few times, avoided Percy and tried several times to get back into the kennel run while I did yard patrol.
I faked her out, let her think I was going to let her back into the run, instead put the leash on her and brought her in the house. I crated Zoey/DE19 prior to any of this because she is Mc Nasty w/all the dogs except Percy and Natalia didn’t need any of that.
She spent the first 20 mins. pacing and looking to the windows to get out the she settled into a sitting position next to Percy’s crate. Thankfully Zoey only barked at her a few times from her crate which sits on top of Percy’s. My other 2 REALLY evil black dogs were on the other side of the dog gate and not once did they react to her being in here…..THANK GOODNESS!!
I did dishes, cleaned some stuff, made lunch and ate it while giving her little morsels. Found out she likes ham but not turkey. Finally 2 hours later she is lying down and looking a little less terrified. I figure that as long as I take it slow she should be ok, she might be laying down right now but she is ready to spring at any moment:) Pictures below.
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7/22/13: Danielle has posted about Natalia in her diary. New pictures below.
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7/14/13: Natalia is doing great at the kennel in Marlene’s care. Yesterday while visiting her we had a first: when I went into her run to take pictures she didn’t freak out. She still paced but it wasn’t crazy trying to get away. The biggest ‘deal’ was that when I offered the leash she allowed me to walk up to her and put it on.
Marlene and I tag teamed her on the grooming table for about half an hour. There were some mats behind her ears, instead of trying to comb or cut them out w/scissors, Marlene broke out her clippers. Natalia was not amused and spent that time trying to get off the table. All in all it was a positive grooming session and go figure……she survived!!
I asked one of our local Samoyed groups if we could have some volunteers come to hang out with her to socialize and also take her on dates and now I’ve changed my mind. I think it would be better if her future parent(s) did this so have listed her on Petfinder in hopes of finding them.

12/9/12: New pictures from 12/7 added.
   

12/8/12: For a video of Natalia, click HERE. For an album with more pics, click HERE.

12/6/12: Natalia was in heat and had one big mammary tumor. She did well for surgery, I left her at the vets overnight. (Lymes+)

Earlier Pictures
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