I am sitting here exhausted sipping a nice glass of red at the side of Mitzie's crate after chasing her around the living room for the last hour removing anything and everything from her mouth... iPod case anyone? Tupperware container? Bag of sneakers? Slippers? Pink horse whip? Silk cushion? I could go on... this is, of course, aside from the 'authorized' chew toys imported from the four corners of the earth before her arrival Chez McGuire. Aside from these things, earliero on our walk around the building I had to remove an either dead or comatose mini-frog from her mouth as she tried to digest it, as well as a 2" piece of unidentifiable bone, and I think some cow cud... I cannot imagine having a baby would be this hard - just kidding, all mommas out there!
The last few days have seen a massive improvement in sleeping habits; her crate is in our bedroom and with the aid of "Relaxing Music for Dogs" (I kid you not) and a little patience on our part, she's now sleeping most of the night in there, undisturbed, apart from telling us she wanted to poop last night at 2am. My pilates instructor this morning asked what was wrong in class, I told her, "Baby crying..." It may as well have been.
Mitzie is still very timid outside the apartment but has actually developed a bad barking/growling habit in the last two days... Her first outburst yesterday was at the stables, where she slept happily on the sofa for an hour at the side of me, but then when my friend Tara came to chat to me, she went ballistic, barking and agrowling. Same thing today when the doorbell went a couple of times, and later today when our maid brought the kid she looks after to meet the dog... Actually, I was quite pleased about that one!!!
To be fair, Mitzie had a stressful day... we visited the vets, which was lovely, but out of nowhere, a thermometer was shoved up her bum... she didn't flinch! After nail clipping, skin check, ears cleaning, heart monitoring, and a good old squeezing from the vet, she was subjected to a (not so experienced) assistant shaving the back of her neck and not one, but two local anaesthetics, before a needle as big as your finger was injected into her containing a microchip. She was scanned, successfully, and the numbers matched up. Now we can swipe her at the supermarket! Maybe she'll bleep through security at the airport or shops? Whatever, she didn't move a muscle and was very much a lady throughout the whole process.
And now she sleeps... after a little whining, and my first glass of wine, she and I are both relaxed. Please let it stay this way just through dinner!!!
