I can't believe it's been 10 whole months since Lilly joined our family!
The timid, scared of everything, pees if you look at her wrong little girl is no more. She is a confident, happy, precocious two year old little girl that is rarely intimidated. She has gone from knowing 5 signs when I adopted her to 23 signs today. Little Missy has learned to fetch and will bring specific toys when asked. She loves walks now & does just fine having her harness and leash put on (no more rolling over and peeing all over herself). She gets in and out of the car by herself and is confident enough to sit up and bark at the cars behind us. She also learned about the lake this summer & discovered how much she LOVES to swim. She still hides under the bed when told she has to take a bath, but will actually crawl out on her own now and doesn't fight being put in the tub or jump out at the first opportunity. I no longer find pockets of dog food hidden throughout the house (there's still a small stash hidden under my bed for "emergencies") and she no longer tries to guard all of the food bowls (just hers). We haven't had to use the crate in over 5 months and there have been absolutely no "scared the pee out of her" accidents in almost 4 months. She gets along very well with big brother Rocco, still hates cousin Sarah with a passion (the girls can't seem to settle the argument of who is in charge), loves it when Grandma visits with cousins Toby & Maverick, and is best friends with Sylvester the cat. It's hilarious to watch 45 pound Lilly and 21 pound Sylvester play tag and hide & seek through the house - yes, they take turns. It's even better to watch them play ball. Lilly will throw the tennis ball toward Sylvester and then wait for him to bat it back to her. They'll play this back and forth with the tennis ball for a good 20 minutes before Sylvester gets that disgusted cat look on his face and walks off. She has mastered the art of greeting other dogs while we're out on walks without getting scared and freaking out, and has even discovered that it's o.k. to let human children pet her and will sit quietly beside me to let them tell her how soft and pretty she is (this is something that had her crying, rolling over on her back, and peeing all over herself back in March '07). Lilly has learned that any light flashing on and off (both inside and outside) means you're calling her. She has also learned that when outside, if she looks away she doesn't see the light flashing on and off and can therefore ignore you until you go get your shoes & coat and actually go get her. Fortunately, she has not figured this tactic out with hand signals (the deaf dog I had in high school, Vander, figured this out and would actually cover his eyes with his paw so he didn't have to "listen"). She is a huge fan of the well executed tummy rub and will take advantage of any opportunity to climb in your lap and lick your hand until you comply with the tummy rub request. She was ingenious enough to learn that if she climbs up on the back of the sofa and walks across it, she can reach her leash and harness that hang by the front door - she hasn't managed to get them off the hook yet, but it makes it quite clear what she wants. I know I'm a bit biased, but I think she's pretty amazing for a severely abused, deaf, and partially blind little girl who was in at least 2 shelters and 3 homes before coming to live with me at 15 months old.
Our goals for this year are to continue learning new signs, completely stop scratching holes in the wall next to the door when she wants out (she's gotten much better, but I'd like to be able to repair the drywall without her digging another hole in it), stop guarding food altogether, successfully visit the dog park (we haven't even tried yet), have fun being left at the groomers/dogie day care for the day (haven't tried this either), and actually go get in the tub on her own when it's bath time (Rocco does this). They may be a bit ambitious, but she's progressed further in 10 months than I'd even hoped for in 2 years so I thought I'd set the bar a bit higher for 2008.
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