Friday, April 30, 2010

Xena is going to a new home!!

















Well, we all knew the time would come, and here it is! Xena is going to a new home in Maryland with a wonderful family who will take excellent care of her and will love her dearly! Thank you all for your support of Xena. She is a lucky girl to have a second chance at a forever home, and I am confident she will have only happy days to come.

It is a bitter sweet day for me, because I am thrilled with her new home and deeply joyed that I know she is going to such a wonderful family, but at the same time, I have grown to love Xena and I will truly miss her.

Best of luck, Xena! Lucy, Jay and I will all miss you dearly!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Xena feeling much better!




Xena is feeling great! She is back to her old self, playing with toys, wagging her tail and walking back and forth between your legs. She now lifts her head/neck as she goes under and a few times; she's actually lifted me off the ground! But then I turn around and pick up her front legs and dance with her. She has taken a liking to many of Lucy's toys. Xena loves the small fuzzy squeaky toys. I've never seen a large dog play with them without ripping them, but Xena is a gentle girl. She takes them up in her mouth, stands up and throws them in the air and tries to catch them. She almost always misses. She will not be a contender for the blue man group, but she is still our sweetheart :) She also likes larger teddy bears.

While Xena was sick, I was supposed to keep her and Lucy apart, but that was very difficult! Lucy KEPT going right over to Xena and laying right next to her, at times shoving her nose under Xena's belly for warmth. Now, Lucy is a not a social dog... she is very fearful of dogs. However, you can see that even a scared chihuahua can warm up to Xena! If your dog is shy, I'm sure in some time they will be close friends, just like Xena and Lucy are now!

Last night Xena went off-leash in Central Park. There were many dogs off-leash (and just as many on-leash) and I was ready to see how Xena did. A few times I have taken her off leash in a non-fenced in area, and she walked right next to me. However, this was different because there were sooo many dogs around. Xena went up to many of them and sniffed them. She is quite fearful of dogs (and cats too) who are too interested in her. But for the average dog, she is happy to bend down and sniff for awhile. She did wander off a bit, but responded to "Xena, come" or just followed me if I walked away. She did take a liking to a few of the people who were carrying fanny packs filled with treats. I got the sense she was bothering them so I had to leash her for a bit. She kept shoving her nose in their fanny packs and sitting and looking at them intently. But, once we walked away from there, I didn't need to worry about her running back to the people with the treats. She does love her food, but I think she's more loyal to her people :)

Friday, April 16, 2010

Xena resting off a tummy bug

















So Xena had a rough few days. She had a tummy bug and wasn't feeling too great. She's been resting it off and is feeling much better, on a prescription diet from the vet for the next few days and some antibiotic. So far, she seems like she's feeling much better! Not much to report... I've been keeping her indoors a lot and letting her sleep this thing off. I did take her for a calm stroll through central park today though. She's very tired though and needs her rest. What to expect from Xena if she is ill: She will cry to let you know she's in pain or in this case, has a stomach ache and needs to go out. She will sleep more than she usually does and will have no interest in drinking water (which is highly unusual for her... usually she gulps down as much as you give her!) and won't try to eat all food in sight (also unusual for her). She has not shown any interest in playing with toys, but she lets you lay down next to her and gently rub her back and legs, kiss her head and talk to her. When you leave her alone (and this goes for even when she is not under the weather) she prefers to have the TV on if you'll be gone for awhile. I think she likes the noise. I've used the tv to calm Xena down when she first arrived at my apartment and was having difficulty settling in the first few hours. Maybe she was used to the sound of the TV in her old house. Anyway, she is doing much better now and hopefully she will be back to her old fun self shortly.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Another fabulous week with Miss Xena
















As you can see, the girls are getting along very well. The picture on the left is of a substitute dog walker who met Xena for the first time. You can see, Xena had no difficulty walking along side him. She is perfectly fine towards strangers... you don't have to worry about her being scared or nervous. It's dogs she is picky about!

I actually had to go to FL this weekend for a wedding, and I had my friend/Lucy's dog walker come and sit Xena. My friend reported absolutely no problems all weekend. You can leave Xena if you need to go away for the weekend, and she will not be a nervous wreck most likely. She adapts well to different situations. Of course, when I returned last night, she was all full of tail wags! She does this thing when she is REALLY happy and walks back and forth through your legs. It's very cute :) I received many kisses upon my return, and then we threw around some stuffed animals, went for a walk and called it a night.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Xena in the sunshine!



What a great weekend with Xena! This weekend, we went to lunch together outdoors. I didn't even need to hold her leash. She took a snooze by my side in the sun and paid no attention to the food and people all around her.

Then we went on a very long walk around the upper west side apartment hunting. Whenever she is in a new place, she does the same routine... it's a bit of restlessness I think. She basically walks around and around the new space, smells everything, sits down, gets back up right away and continues to walk around. It takes some affirmative action on my part to get her to calm down, but once she does she is good to return to that space without the same anxiety.

Took Xena to Central Park. She loves it there!! Xena napped (she's such a napper!) in the sun in the park and got up a few times to look around. I did not have to worry about her trying to run away/wandering into the road or anything like that. She seemed to be able to block out the bikers, kids, dogs and all the like.

When I got home with Xena, she began her new "play" routine. This involves taking stuffed animals and throwing them around the room. She does this by picking them up with her mouth, shaking her head dramatically back and forth, and then finally letting go, as the stuffed animal flies across the room. It's quite funny!