Welcome Home

Oh my princess!  Ignore that scratch on her nose... she totally didn't get that at daycare from another dog because she deserved it.  This was a text photo update from one of the daycare people while we were en route to Maui.  She looks so cute, sort of like she's wearing her tail for a hat.

I figured that she'd probably be boarded for 8 days and then come home and be a little insane for like 3-4 days getting back into her routine.  That was not the case at all, she was back to normal like 24 hours later.  She was basically normal the first night she came home, the only weird thing she did was a lot of extra backwards walking in the kitchen (which she usually does) and she didn't go right into her crate at bedtime (I had to scoot her in there).  I feel like the difference here is that we boarded her at her daycare where she knows the people and the dogs and the smells.  My childhood dog Buffy would be boarded when we went away (at her vet), and when she came home, she was bat shit crazy for like a full week and her eating and bowel movements were all off.  She was so confused and annoyed and surprised all at once for a full week, but not Mia.  We picked her up on Monday, and by Wednesday the house was her's again - including her favorite nap spot on the bed.

I did miss her a lot when we were away, but... not as much as I thought I would.  I mean, I love her and her company but it also felt kind of nice to have a week where my life didn't revolve around her needs like my weekends typically do.

I picked her up yesterday at daycare, and two boys were telling me how they took her to the agility course in the back yard to play fetch and they were like, "your dog is So Fast!!  We'd throw the ball and she'd get it and bring it back in like 4 seconds!  She was jumping over all of the course obstacles, she's such an agility dog."  She's totally super fast and athletic.  Sometimes when she's in the yard, if I turn my back for 2 seconds, she's gone... usually she's just in the front yard running at top speeds for fun, but man she's crazy fast.  Later that night, I noticed that she had scratched her upper foot pads... like the ones on her ankles, they are all scraped up like the equivalent to little kids skinned knees or something.  I sprayed Neosporin on them but since she doesn't actually use them to walk, I figured they'd heal on their own.  I think I have a full first aid kit in her cabinet at this point: hydrogen peroxide, tweezers, gauze, athletic tape, athletic wraps, Neosporin, Claratin etc.  I'm happy to patch her up at home when I can, it saves us the $65 vet visit, but why must she be so rough and tumble?!