Monday, Jan 27, 2020 @ 6-8 am
It's wake up time and I release Aurora from her crate, taking her immediately outside where she pees in the grass and does her turn and poop routine. The poop is less liquid. Yay? She coughs disturbingly and sprays her cone collar with spittle. There is no vomit. She is hacking up what I can only assume is mucus. I remove her cone collar before taking her back inside for kibble and her antibiotics, which are fed to her hidden in cheese gladly taken from my hand. I ask her to sit but she doesn't appear to know this command. We are watching her carefully to make sure she isn't licking at her sores while I clean the cone. Molly, meanwhile, is still hiding upstairs. Working as a team, we usher Molly downstairs and to her bowl, carefully avoiding interaction with Aurora who growls as Molly passes. This is not a good sign. As the kids leave for school and work, Molly goes outside and I set to work rearranging the living room to allow for a more open area where Aurora can be isolated but not confined to her crate. Meanwhile, she has discovered a toy bear that is not a dog toy. I take it from her and replace it with a dog toy from the basket. Her reaction was delightful, and she's starting to behave like a normal happy dog. I leave the toy in the completed enclosure. Molly must be coaxed back inside and into the living room, where she assumes her position on the sofa. Aurora is safely separate from her and I leave for work.
@ 10:30 am
I receive an update from my son "B". Aurora escaped her enclosure. Apparently excited to see him, she jumped onto the boxes forming the wall and succeeded in pushing them far enough apart that she can escape between them. Molly is still fine on the couch. B returns her to her space and rebuilds the wall. I leave instructions with him to take her outside mid day, and then return her to the enclosure.
@ 6-9pm
I arrived home to discover the solution my son adopted for Aurora. His first solution for building a wall wasn't effective, as she could jump over anything that was low enough for him to step over. So instead, he looped her leash to the crate so she could move freely but not go farther than the leash would allow. He reported that she whined if she couldn't see him so he created a makeshift desk in the enclosure so she could sit on the floor next to him. That seemed to make her content.
Tonight was family game night so the whole crew was over. My daughter "E" greeted Aurora for the first time, who immediately peed on the floor. Not sure if it was the excitement or the smell (on E) of a new dog, but it was a small mess that wasn't repeated. She was sent outside while they cleaned up and that's where I greeted her tonight as I arrived home. I took her into the yard and she pooped, still soft but not so liquid. And lots of wags. She seems to be so much happier than yesterday. To be fair, yesterday was a lot of new things.
After dinner, we settled into our game, and then sat down to watch a TV episode. I sat on the floor with Aurora. To her delight, she had found a ball and was completely obsessed. I took pictures and video because she was so animated. She allowed me to put the cream on her sores and then went about playing with the ball. We played a limited form of fetch (she can't really go far) and she would chase the ball and bring it back to me. I can foresee this being her favorite toy.
Around 9 pm she went outside for the last time to pee before being crated for the night. I unhooked her leash and she followed me outside. There was no interaction with Molly on either the way in or the way out, so this is an improvement.
Medical notes - Aurora is coughing intermittently and sneezing. I don't know if I should be worried or not. It's time to re-read the fostering instructions. Also, I noticed tonight that the tip of her tail has no fur. I don't recall whether it was like that when I picked her up.
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