The first day Nadya was with us, my husband, Harry and I both had to work. I had spent most of the night staying with Nadya and reassuring her that she was going to be happy from now on and she needn't worry any more. She seemed happiest in her crate, but it broke our hearts to see her cram herself in the back
of the crate as far as she could go. Deb explained when she brought her that we would have to move very slowly and reach up under her chin to snap a leash on her collar. I had done just that the few times the night before that I took her out to go potty and it worked quite well, but I was a little worried about how Harry was going to handle it. He always gets home a few hours before me, so he was going to have to take her out when he got home. Since the decision to get her in the first place was mine, I didn't think Harry would really want the trouble of fussing over Nadya the way I had been.
Right around 3:45 that afternoon, I called home to find out how he was making out. He answered a little breathlessly and told me that he had been lying on the floor in front of her crate and "just talking" to her. For over an HOUR! He was giving her ear skritches and neck rubs and cooing in her ear. He said he just wanted to make up with her and make sure she understood that he wasn't the man who had been so mean to her all her life. I told him that when he feltcomfortable with it, he should reach up slowly and snap a leash on her
and she'd come out to go outside with him pretty easily.
His answer to that was, "Oh, I could have done that a couple of times now. I just want to make her comfortable with me!" Then, "I was doing pretty good too, until the phone rang and I had to get up to answer it!"
"Well, I'm sorry I interrupted the two of you!" "Let me know how it goes, eh?"
Nadya on her first day at home.
About a half hour later, he called me back and said, "Well, we had a major, MAJOR...I started thinking, "Oh my God! She got away! She went berserk and destroyed the house! What? What happened?
Harry simply said, "We had a major breakthrough!"
ME: "What does that mean, exactly?"
HIM: "Well, let me put it this way, If you want to get in good with this dog, you'd better stop on your way home and buy some more sliced cheese 'cause I used it all!"
He then informed me that she took cheese right out of his hand and followed him out of the crate and into the kitchen where he snapped the lead on and took her outside to "go". He told me that the expression on her face was one of a baby seeing the grass and the birds and the trees for the first time. I explained that it probably was one of the first times she'd seen any of those things.
She was estimated to be between 15 and 18 months old and I believe that she lived her entire life in that house of filth and degradation, never traveling further outside than to occasionally peer out the windows.
He said that she seemed awestruck by everything around her and he was so happy that HE got to be with her in her moment of discovery! Now I have another problem....my husband stole MY dog! I already have dibs on her first snowfall!
Later that night, Nadya got a few hops and skips in during a little romp with Malachi. Now Malachi is a 110 pound red Doberman who has a "thing" for the ladies. He waltzed around in front of her crate the very first time he saw her and coaxed her out to play. But something always scared her and sent her rushing back to the safe haven of her crate.
She seems so different from our wonderful greys, but then none of our other hounds had to face what she knew as day to day life in that other place.
