Miko's First Night

Miko is the first fearful dog we've taken in since Sugar about 2 years ago. And she's our first new foster dog (Jewel doesn't really count) since taking in Popeye about 16 months ago. For a long time, I worried that adding another dog would be too overwhelming for me with my increased work load and the extra care that goes into Popeye. Dogsitting Reese a few months ago showed us that having a 4th dog was doable--although Reese is an "easy" dog. In fact, Reese is so easy(except for his potentially annoying whining/talking habit--this dog just won't shut up sometimes!) and provides such a good distraction for Popeye that having him is almost like having minus a dog. Well, minus 1/2.

I'm actually shocked that Tyler agreed to have 4 dogs in the house, let alone 5. He was always very adamant about 3 being our limit. I hope nobody talks sense into him.

Although, with Miko being so fearful, her presence will not even be felt for at least a while. She is still feeling scared and confused by the change in environment. Everybody that she has gotten comfortable with is gone. I have actually met Miko a couple of times before this, and Robin did bring her to our house before, so that this would not be a completely sudden change. But it's still a big step for her to have to learn to get comfortable again.

With all of our previous fearful foster dogs, we were the first long-term home they knew. As they became comfortable in our home, there was nobody they trusted more than me. This time, with Miko, we get a chance to experience what the adopters of all those other dogs experienced--being a second home. Miko trusts Robin, and her sidekick David, most. Now they are gone. She sometimes looks out the window for them.

She is withdrawn and does not engage with the other dogs or with me or Tyler, although she sometimes cautiously follows one or the other of us around the house. She will freeze if we look at her. It's very reminiscent of how Isis was when we first got her. We don't try to pet her though we sometimes feed her treats. I managed to put a leash on her and was able to take her outside to the backyard. She is a high flight risk so she must have a leash on her even in the backyard. Although is she still very scared of me, she walks very well on leash and does not fight it.

Her place of comfort turned out to be the corner in our kitchen, beside the dining table. Probably because this is where we hung out with Robin and David while they were here. So we put her dog bed there, along with a dirty shirt of Tyler's and a dirty shirt of mine so that she could get a little more used to our scent. The other dogs don't bother her and she has no problem showing them her teeth if they do.



We will see how this plays out in the next week or so.