One of the best surprises from Dos Mabel Ploppers has been the heart. She has grown in a heart shaped spot on her side, which has developed as her fur has grown in. It fits her so well. She has also grown out of a lot of the wrinkles she originally had, which, as I can see now, were mostly from the swelling all over her body.
She has also grown into her personality a lot more in the past month. She is affectionate, and still very clingy. She waits at the door for me to come home, and once I do, she does not leave my side. She has decided that she must be in my lap at all times.
As sweet as she is, she is also a cranky ol' lady. She doesn't like when the other dogs run too fast past her unless she is in the mood to play (which isn't terribly often). She doesn't like when Walter whines at night. If it's bedtime and Walter wants to whine or bark at something, she growls and barks and will give Walter a little nip to quiet him down. She's definitely a mama dog, and if she were a human, she would definitely be telling kids to get off her lawn.
I've found that she's also pretty territorial, and very anxious around dogs she doesn't know. She loves her brothers (when they aren't playing ball in the house) but if a dog approaches our yard, she gets a little aggressive. A friend of mine brought her dogs over recently, and she went immediately on the defensive and got very snarly with one of them. After an hour or so, however, she settled down and she was fine, but I think the initial response is fear based.
I have taken her to work with me a few times, and at work she seems to be more interested in sniffing around -but not with any of the dogs staying here because I am concerned about what could happen. . I know from working at the kennel that dogs behave SO differently when they aren't around their people-so Im not sure if it's just because I am around-I haven't let her around strange dogs without me at all so I am not sure what her reaction would be.
Thankfully, she's grown fond(er) of the yard, and as long as Francis is out there, she is content with it. But because Francis has been sick, he hasn't spent much time out there lately and I think she is happy about that.
At the end of the month, she will finally get her heartworm treatments. She will need to take a severe painkiller before the injections, because the injections go deep in the muscle.
She will also be seeing my vet soon about the lump in her neck-all signs point to a lipoma, which is just a fatty tumor, but we will see..I'm really hoping for the best. She's already gone through so much.
Now that things have settled down, the updates will be coming more frequently. (I have been doing more updates on Dos Facebook page, which is facebook.com/doschances if anyone is interested in seeing more pictures.)
I love this sweet girl so much-and she loves me more than any living creature probably ever will, ever in my life.
