Motherhood

Kiwi arrived to us safely yesterday around 6pm. She was a shivery ball of nerves for a while but seems to be more herself today. She is very sweet and loving. I think she will be the type of pup to like everyone, which is something that I was hoping for. She has had a few very frisky moments, and some good naps. She even slept alright. She did cry a little bit last night, but I think my anticipation of her cries kept me awake more than her actual crying.

Last night we decided to try putting her in her kennel for a little while while we were home, just to start to get her used to the idea. We plan to put her in the kennel off and on during the day just so we don't have to be watching her ALL the time. She wasn't too fond of being in there. She cried and cried, and screamed. I don't know if I have ever heard a dog scream, but I think some of her noises were screams. Everything I have read says that you shouldn't try to pacify her with words or she will just realize that crying = attention. It is hard to let her cry like that. She sounds quite distraught. I hope that we are not traumatizing her....but I know that when we go to church tomorrow morning she is going to have to be in her kennel while we are gone, and I hope that she will cry herself to sleep. It makes me think of being a new parent...which I have never been...but how long do you let them cry? You have to let them cry for a while, or they will just cry for attention all the time....but it is hard!

She has made a few messes in the house, but we will get her signals figured out yet. It seems that every time she needs to poo, she gets very frisky and acts quite strange and runs off on her own to poo. We will get it figured out yet. Every time I take her outside she eats snow. She loves to eat snow. A couple of times last night I took her out the front door and she was licking snow off of the ramp. One time I looked down and she was squatting, facing down the ramp and licking the snow as her pee ran down the ramp to where she was licking...haha, puppies are funny! I realize that we haven't even had her home for a day yet, but it is quite an adjustment already!