This and that

Called to check in with Monica on Monday to see if we knew why Watson was owner surrendered and we don't. She called me back and said our night guy was going home sick and asked if I could come close up the shelter after the night shift. I was okay skipping scouts, so I left Ben with Watson and went over to the shelter for a few hours. It was a bit cold out but Duane was taking dogs out on their after dinner walks and putting them in their runs. I helped out a bit and took Hermes for a walk and put him in a run. He paced back and forth in the run while I was walking other dogs. After all the dogs were out and the dinner bowls were put away, I let Duane bring in the dogs while I spent some time in the office with Hermes. He was glad to see me but kept looking at the door wanting to go get in the car. We had a nice visit and he was bummed that I put him back in his run for the night. I came home to see that Watson had wanted to play with Ben and Ben hadn't been able to get any homework done and was having problems getting Watson to listen. Seems Watson didn't see him as dominant and wanted to sit on the couch to watch TV too. I set Watson straight.

Watson seems to be all better from his stomach upset. He seems to be a typical (but big) puppy and he either wants to play or just go lay about. I guess that describes a bunch of dogs though. I checked his intake material from Town Lake and they estimated his age at 5 months (7/1 birthdate). I weighed him today and he is 50.5 lbs. The paperwork for him from Town Lake had him at 46 lbs. Seems like a growing pup. He seems to like his crate. When I am working at the kitchen table and not playing, he will wander over to his crate and lay down on the comforter in there even though there is one in the family room just across from me.

I ran out to the store last night to pick up a few things for dinner and asked Ben to watch Watson. I got about 2 blocks and Ben called me and Watson was howling in the background. He told me that the dog started howling as soon as I left and wouldn't stop. I told Ben to give Watson a chicken jerky treat and that seemed to fix the whole thing. He does seem to have some separation anxiety issues. I will have to try some of those separation anxiety exercises that Dana sent to me.

Watson seems healthy enough to go to the shelter when there is space. Monica told me that Bo and Tehya are going home this weekend and that will free up space for Watson and I can bring Hermes back. I considered introducing Hermes and Watson and see how they get along so that I could have them both here, but I think it better to just bring Hermes until his adoption is finalized and then to foster KD. I think that Watson will find a home fairly quickly.