You do the Hokey Pokey and You Turn Yourself Around...

Jilly is home, safe and sound. We arrived at the breeder's right on time. We spent about an hour visiting with the breeder and Jilly and Jilly's parents. She was so much cuter in person than the pictures! Which is saying a lot, because she's pretty darn cute in the pictures. Her little face stripe has gotten thinner and is simply adorable. She greeted us along with the other dogs and her parents were very friendly and loving. We took a couple of toys in for her to see and had a really good time. I did take some pictures of her parents, so I'll get those posted in a bit. After a little more than an hour, we hit the road. I think Jilly knew something was up, because she started whining while I was holding her. We got in the car and headed out after getting a few treats out for her. Then the crying began.

She cried and cried and cried, and whined, and whined. She sounded so sad and pathetic, and she was shaking. I tried talking to her, offering her toys and treats, petting her, you name it. Then I tried singing, for some reason the first song that popped into my head was The Hokey Pokey. So that's what I sang, while making her little crazy bird toy dance. She quieted down almost immediately. So I tried a couple of other songs and she started whining again, howling, almost. I went back to The Hokey Pokey and she quieted down again. It was so weird. I must have sung The Hokey Pokey to her at least 40 times. As soon as I stopped or tried talking to her or singing something else she'd whine again.

At one point her cries got really frantic, so we stopped in a parking lot and took her out to go potty and she went right away, we were so proud of her. After we'd been driving for an hour and a half she started to doze off, her head would drop, and then bounce up all of the sudden and she'd whine a little. The last 20 minutes to PetSmart went like that, and I didn't have to sing nearly as much.

We went to PetSmart to get her a big pen and a couple of jackets. My sister works next to PetSmart, so she met us there (we arrived just as she was getting off work) so that she could meet Jilly and help us pick things out for her since she knows a lot more about dogs than I do. She seemed to like her a lot, she carried her around most of the time in PetSmart. We also got Jilly a soft, cushy pink bed.

Jilly did really well in PetSmart though. She didn't whine at all, she did shake a little in the beginning, but stopped quickly. We headed home from there and the last 2 hours of the drive went really well. She slept most of the way and when we stopped to let her go potty she didn't even shake while outside, or once back in the car.

Then we arrived at home. We gave her the chance to go potty outside and she didn't want to, so into the house she went. Kitty was waiting. Jilly saw Kitty and gave a couple of "arfs!" and Kitty growled. Jilly growled. Kitty puffed up her tail. And that was about it. They've touched noses a few times. Kitty sat in Jilly's pen with her (on the other end) for a while, while Jilly ate and then whined about being in her pen. Elphie jumped on her once, accidentally, because she didn't know Jilly was on that end of the couch until she practically landed on her. Mainly, Jilly and the cats watch each other, but Jilly hasn't done anymore barking or growling. Though she did bark at the neighbor that was outside grilling when I took her out to go potty.

She's passed out on the couch right now, on the empty cushion next to me, and Kitty is curled up on my other side. Jilly did go potty on her litter pan, despite our taking her outside every 45 minutes. But that's ok. As soon as she went potty we let her out of her pen (the last hour before she went potty she was kept in her pen and taken out every 20 minutes). She still gets too excited when going outside to think about going potty. She doesn't like being in her pen, but it's in the living room and we sit in here too, quietly working and ignoring her. She hasn't whined very badly at all, and quickly settles down to chew on her toys or sleep. We'll see how she is tonight, since she's done a lot of sleeping this evening.

Craig and I have both been working on encouraging her to come with us while on the lead. And tonight I was crawling from one end of the living room to the other, calling her once I got as far away as possible and then praising the heck out of her when she came to me. Craig came up with the idea of using a piece of my model horse shelving (the kind that sits on brackets drilled into the wall) to block off the kitchen/entryway doorways. Worked like a charm and they're only 14 or so inches tall, so the cats can jump them easily. So far Jilly hasn't tried to jump out, though I don't think it will be long before she can if she wants. She still needs us to lift her up and down on the couch, but she makes it pretty apparent when she wants up or down.

The cats are handling her appearance much better than we thought they would. Kitty will sit within 2 feet of her on the couch, Elphie isn't quite as friendly, but she also isn't hiding, so overall we're really pleased. Craig and I have both fallen in love with Jilly in just one day. She may not go potty when we take her outside but she looks so cute diving into the grass and chasing leaves. And I'm sure the potty issue will come along soon, plus, as long as she's using the litter box, we're happy!