Considering Vista

Vista as she is right now. It's extremely difficult to get a good shot of her unless she's lying down, so expect more of these. She's a very IN YOUR FACE/CAMERA girl.

I am by no means an expert on dogs, but I've spent my entire life around them and my first word was a dog's name, so that's got to mean something, right?  Anyway, based on my less than a week with her, here is what I have concluded about Vista's life before it intersected with mine:

- She was an outside dog, most likely tied up.
- She was fed scraps of people food, never dog food.
- She had never even been inside of a house before.
- She had never been walked on a leash before.

It adds up to a life that breaks my heart a little, and she's got so many insecurities because of it.  Don't even attempt to leave her on a tie in the yard, because she was FREAK THE HECK OUT.  I don't mean  a little whining and crying, I mean flinging herself bodily around until I'm afraid she'll hurt herself.  She'll come outside with me, and is hesitant wandering at first, but as soon as she gets going it's romp, romp, romp all over the yard.  As heartening as that is, she remains perpetually terrified that I'm going to leave her outside, especially at night.  She won't go two feet from me if we're outside in the dark, and that makes me want to punch her previous owners, a little bit.

We're working on the food thing, although it requires that I feed her fancy rice and meat dog food in addition to her kibble, or she wouldn't eat anything at all.  I'm hoping to gradually give her less and less of it and more and more of just kibble and veggies.  Since finding me, she's already lost a little of the excess weight she was carrying thanks to her diet.

I don't know if she ever had toys, but she sure does love the ones she has now.  She also loves towels and bath mats, and this weekend she discovered the wonderful world of discarded shoes and sunglasses. She definitely never had a bed, and her new one so far is only used as a place to put her toys.  But she's bright, and is learning.  As hard as it is for her, it's equally strange for me.  She's an extremely clingy dog, and my most recent experience has been with rather independent pets.  We're getting there, however, both of us.  Little by little.

I ordered her a collar from Harry Barker and a tag from Lucky Pet, both very cute.  Now if the vet would just answer her goshdarn phone so I can get this little girl fixed, everything would be hunky dorey.