On a training note more my style, Lilly has finally accepted being in the same room with a television on! She can now live in a proper home. Or perhaps she likes me enough now that being with me is worth being in the same room as that kooky moving-picture box.
Last night she still left the room as soon as I turned it on. I turned it off, called her back in, and when she walked in the room she looked at me, then stared at the TV, then back to me. "Okay, you're not going to turn it on again, are you? This best not be a trick." Then she came up to sit with me.
This afternoon I turned it on while she was busy scratching herself next to me on the couch but turned the volume all the way down. When she looked up she was shocked to see that the previously black screen now had moving images on it. She was about to leave but I stopped her with a hug and a few pleas. She stayed a little longer, then I let her wander off. I called her back, and she actually came into the room and stayed for about six seconds, all the while keeping an eye on the television.
The third time I called her in I sat on the floor and asked if she wanted to play. She half-played with me, trying to get the rope toy all the while, having one eye on the screen where the team at the 4077 silently went about their business on M*A*S*H. When she wasn't looking I increased the volume to where I couldn't hear it, but maybe she could. It didn't bother her. But once I raised it to a normal-hearing level, she began to want to leave again. I enticed her to stay still playing until she fell asleep.
I am worried she might be getting attached today. Once I rose up from the floor where she was sleeping and moved to the couch, she too rose up and followed me to lie on the couch with me. I must say it was nice to sit on the couch and watch TV with a dog snoring next to me. When I got up to come into the office to write this, she once more rose up and followed me, and is currently sleeping behind me.
As for actual night time sleeping considerations, the second night was much better than the first. When it was bedtime I asked if she needed help up onto the bed (it's a little high and I had lifted her the first time), but every time I went to help her she took her front paws off the bed and walked away. I said, "Fine" and got into bed. That's when she turned and took a running leap, landing on top of me. She just wanted to prove to me that she could do it herself.
She still slept with her head on the pillow, the length of her body next to me, and although she didn't pant heavily when awake, she did snore just as loudly. I slept more hours, so I must be getting used to it.
Last night she slept on the bed almost as if a normal dog would. She didn't have her head on the pillow, but since she's not a dog that curls up at the end of the bed but sprawls out taking up as much room as possible, it meant her head was at the end of the bed, but I got the other end in my face. I appreciated the noisy end being farther away, but the smelly one up close wasn't really a great trade-off.
Lilly is a grass connoisseur. I assume it's because she's eating dog food that she's a tad gassy and possibly the reason for wanting to eat grass. But she only wants a certain kind of grass. I don't know the name of it, but she's very particular in picking out which blades she wants--very thin, tall, possibly a weed and not grass at all. I didn't let her eat much though since I don't know what insecticides or whatnot people put on their lawns around here.
There is grass for eating, but there is also grass for scratching. I'm sort of embarrassed to say this, but I can pick out which lawn Lilly will choose before she gets there for her back-scratching mayhem. It's freshly-cut, freshly-watered thick bladed grass in case you're wondering. I've attached a video of it that I took with my phone; I hope you can see it. Still photography just doesn't do it justice. The first time she did it, I thought she was just lying down taking a break, but then she burrowed her face into the grass and began this strange twisty dance. And of course she chose the lawn next to the house with the dog going nuts in the window because she was there. That was a very brief back-scratching. But on our evening walk last night she found a large lawn with no one around and rather enjoyed it, so I let her have at it. In the video she is sliding off the hill onto the sidewalk while growling. It wasn't until ten minutes later that I looked up and realized there was a person in the front window of the house; she was fixing the windowpane and didn't look at us, but I had to wonder how long she watched me with this crazy dog spazing out on her front lawn.
Lilly has also met two kinder cats--two that live in my building. I think the problem is that she doesn't always show her intent. She just stares, ears up but not forward or back, eyes wide, and legs stable, and tail hung low but loose. It's not an invitation to play, nor is it a warning....or maybe it is. Perhaps this is the equivalent of a canine about to go postal--I don't know because I don't let it get that far. The cat and her stared at one another through a metal screen door for quite some time while the cat's owner and I chatted. Lilly took a step forward, the cat hissed, and Lilly continued going forward (not really since I stopped her--but she would have had I not). She didn't understand the cat hissing. She barked back in response, but that was it. Spying another cat in the window next door, she took her loss and went to try to make a new friend.
The next cat was meowing her, and she wanted to meet her, but I couldn't have her jumping up on the side of the building. She's getting better at listening to me (or rather, doing as I tell her to). When I told her we'd meet that cat another day she got down and followed me back to my apartment. And earlier in the day when it was clear there was no way she could reach the squirrel who was taunting her in the tree, she backed away and moved on.
Maybe it's a respect thing. Maybe it's just getting used to being here, but she is starting to come when called, and if I have to jump up and down and be all excited to get her to end the stand-offs on walks, so be it. It's far better than yelling and swearing and trying to pick her up to move her. Who knows--maybe she just joins me when I do that because I amuse her.
Here's a couple of other pics of her on the couch as well.
Lilly demonstrates how to have an entire couch to yourself.
Sexy Mama.
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