Welcome Home Luna & Nova: The First 24 Hours

 

Waiting and watching

On Friday, September 27, we welcomed two new additions to our home--Luna and Nova, sisters that were rescued from a really bad situation earlier this year. They are about a year old and just the sweetest dogs and we've all fallen in love.  But, the first 24 hours have been challenging.  For me especially, I've gone through a lot of emotions--mostly negative ones.  I feel overwhelmed and despairing.  I'm honestly not sure at all that I can do this.

Probably the single biggest--and really the only challenge we've had so far, is house training Luna.  at 1:57 PM, she's been here for less than 24 hours and she's pooped once and peed three times.  The poop was last night, not long after she got here.  The foster hadn't even left yet.  The first two urinations were last night--the first being mostly out of fear and anxiety, when we were getting ready to take her outside for the first time.  Getting the dogs outside is always tricky--more on that later.  The second was a more regular urination after we'd come in from our first trip outside.

The third was this morning after we'd been outside for about 40 minutes.  We came in, and she went to her water bowl and drank quite a bit and then about five to ten minutes later she had a major elimination--a big old pool in what we fear is becoming her favorite spot, near the piano in the living room.  We cleaned it up, using the enzyme cleaner to neutralize the odor.  Since then it's a waiting game. We've taken her out a few times and nothing.  The last two times were after she'd taken a big old drink of water from her bowl. So we know she must have to go.  We just need it to not be inside.  So right now, it's constant supervision. I sit in the living room where I can watch them.  By the end of the first 24 hours there'd been no more peeing in the house-but none outside either.

We always called Kimo the perfect dog, but we had no idea.  It's like we've never had dogs before.  Because with Kimo, we never had to house train her.  She just arrived in our lives with no desire to pee or poop inside.  Not one accident in 9 years! We never had to be concerned with things like crates. She had the run of the house from day one and we never had any kinds of problems with her.  We love our new additions but they broke the mold with Kimo--there's just no other dog like her.