Mellow puppy

Daisy's now snoring at my feet, the perfect angel.

She has made quite a bit of progress. We can even leave the front door open and expect her to stay inside ... most of the time. Over the past few days it has been unusually hot in our foggy little coastal town so I let her lie in the doorway, giant head hanging outside, big fuzzy body inside. But today when she heard Tom start to drive away in my red Mini Cooper, she jumped up and tried to crawl under the fence after him. Even though he posted that idiotic video you see below here.

We took her to the beach for the first time earlier this week. Daisy seems to enjoy the sand in her toes. She'll sit watching the waves, and Tom thinks it has a mellowing effect.
Perhaps. She's been through a tough few weeks: red gooey hotspot on the chin, followed by an unmentionably awful digestive disorder likely caused by too many antibiotics. Then she wouldn't put weight on her left foot for two whole days and morosely plastered herself to the floor most of the time. After a manicure and some foxtail pulling, it took a day but she got better. We still have to cook her meals because of that delicate tummy: Today after our walk I boiled up 12 cups of 5-minute oatmeal, which will last a couple of mornings. Delicious with a little goat milk protein.

Sometimes I read back to the first days of our Daisy Diary for comfort:

3/16 PROGRESS DURING WEEK
*Began sitting alone on deck okay
*Began using yard without acting wild
*Follows me around and sits in the room I'm in
(Uh oh, that's not so good)
*Responds very well to "unh unh" and "no."

Really stretching there, eh? And then there's the next entry:

3/25 RELAPSE
Sally left downstairs door open, neighbors let dogs out below and Daisy snuck down and jumped over fence. Luckily dogs had gone back inside.

My friend Mara tells me that we have to expect it to take years. She worked every day with her nutcase dog for five years in order to get all the tricks down for her Canine Good Citizen test. That girl even achieved a four-minute unsupervised down-stay. Wow!!!