Thursday, April 30, 2009

Shayna Moves In


NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY


Addendum: I had this set to post yesterday, or so I thought . . .


But Academic Crunch Time has the ability to turn even the most straightforward operation into something more sinister.



Two months have passed since we brought Shayna home from the Albuquerque Animal Shelter.

She is still shy, and when someone comes to the house she runs to the master bedroom; but she can't contain herself.
She peers around corner, and whines, as if an invisible force field is keeping her from coming out.












She is still shy when there are loud kitchen noises. She has a mannerism by which she shows deference and submission. She will come up to the Pack Leader present, turn her head sideways, and place her paw on the nearest presentable body part. Although it is usually someone's thigh, her it is the Engineering Geeks hand.


We found out a little more about our Shy Shayna Sunshine. When we had our first 9-12 book club meeting a few weeks ago, one of the members, a dog person extraordinaire, said she had seen Shayna hanging around Highway 14 North two times, three weeks apart. One was in a snowstorm. L. thought she had been dumped, and was hanging around awaiting the b*****d who did it. L. said she had looked for her several times, and even dreamed about her, but did not see her again.

The last time L. saw her--in the snowstorm, was a few days before the records show that Shayna was brought to the East Side Shelter.




Now that Shayna has a home, and is becoming positively comfortable, all of that is past.

And since the very late spring started last week, which seems to have morphed quickly into early summer, she has been shedding that winter coat she grew while living outside last winter.

She even allowed me to groom her. You can see the tufts and tufts of hair.






After I groomed her for 30 minutes with the loop, Shayna was positively happy!


I have been vacuuming up hair by the bucketful, several times a week. There will be more.


I remember promising myself before Zoey died that I would not get another white dog. I can't wear black, you see.

But that was before I saw Shayna's beautiful face at the Shelter website.



Oh, well. Light colors are happier anyway!

Just like Miss Shayna Sunshine her own self!


. . . And now that the post is finally up, it's back to writing about the two theories of visual perception in ASD. Wish me end-of-the-semester luck.



1 comment:

Headmistress, zookeeper said...

She's lovely. All three of our dogs (I am counting the late Sadie-Lady) are black shelter dogs, and we can't wear white socks.=)

The D-man dog and Zeus were both picked up hanging around a busy intersection where we believe they were dumped.