Ghost's First Day!

I would like to introduce everyone to the latest addition to Nathan and my family.

This is Ghost.

We picked her up last night from the Cochrane shelter. She's about a year and a half old and pretty darn sweet. The best guess of the shelter is that she's a Husky cross with a Border Collie. She's absolutely precious and we are so happy!

The car ride home was a little scary for her. She was panting and very fidgety. When we got home, we let her have a good sniff around the house and she seemed pretty excited. And then she figured out that she had TOYS!! She had to give them all a good try and then when Nathan took her bed out of it's bag, she had to give that a good drag around the kitchen too. She wasn't too sure about the furnace kicking in. And the holes in the floor that blow hot air? That was pretty scary too. She slept pretty good last night. She spent the first part of it on the landing upstairs and then when Nathan got up to go to the bathroom around 1am, she came into the bedroom and slept on her bed. We didn't hear much from her until it was time to get up, but of course I was in hyper-awareness mode, so I didn't sleep so well.

This morning, I got up to take her out for a potty break and darn it, she wouldn't go. We were out for about 20 minutes and still nothing. She had gone when we left the shelter at 7pm the night before, but hadn't since then, so I knew she MUST have to go. But I gave up too early I guess. As soon as we got back in the door, she promptly peed on the carpet. Oh well. That was as much my fault as hers. I think the outside was still too new for her and she wasn't comfortable. I guess I can take it as a compliment that she finds our house secure enough to pee in? So I took her back out and walked up and down one little section of sidewalk by our mailbox until she did both of her businesses.

When Nathan left this morning, that upset her a bit. She whined and was a little jittery. My goal was to have a low key, quiet morning, since she'll be by herself both tomorrow and Friday morning. I read my book and she played a bit and then napped. Around 11:30, I thought I'd let her have a sniff around the backyard while I shoveled a path to the park pad. She was a little uncertain at first and kept standing by the gate where Nathan had left from. After a bit she started to poke around and then started running around like a maniac. Up and down the stairs, back and forth from the compost bin to the front gate. She's pretty fearless too, she jumped off the top step of the deck to the ground multiple times! Then we went inside and she looked at me like I was crazy. Why aren't we playing outside? So I had some lunch and then decided to take her out for her first walk. It wasn't long (half an hour), since it's still pretty cold out. When we got home, she stood at the door and whined again, like she needed to go out. Here's my inexperience coming into play. She'd gone pee but not poo. So we went out again and sure enough, she needed to go.

Now, we're home again, and she's having a little snooze as I write this. It'll certainly take some getting used to on all our parts, but I think everything will work out good. She seems pretty happy and is eating and playing. One thing I discovered we need to practice at: wiping her feet when she comes in! Anyway, here's a little video of her playing with her toy. There's not much playing (usually she's whipping the thing back and forth, trying to kill the squeaker, I'm sure), but it'll give you an idea of what she's like.