On the plus side, Mark found an ad for a Cane Corso PUPPY -- just 8 weeks old. And it's just up in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Great!
The puppy we're getting is the black female (actually black brindle). The only other Cane Corso puppies I had ever seen advertised were in places like California or Georgia so I was really excited when Mark sent me that ad and I called them right away. The owner said he had one puppy left -- the black brindle female. She's only 8 weeks old! Wonderful! Of course, it's going to take a lot of effort to care for her for these first few months - house training her and teaching her NOT to eat the furniture, etc. But since she's already had 2 of her 3 injections, it will also be possible to begin taking her to puppy classes right away so she will get used to strange dogs and people. It's going to be very easy at this age, compared to re-training an adult.
And speaking of adult Cane Corsos, we are being told that we must come to New Orleans to "meet" Bettie before they will bring her up to meet our other dogs. And then they'll take her back home again and bring her back again down the road. If it were up to Mark, he would simply cancel that adoption. But I do want to at least go meet her before cancelling. If she does well with other dogs AND with the puppy, I'll be happy to have TWO Cane Corsos! But we'll have to see how things go.
On the negative side, Boo is back at LSU today. They're going to be doing an abdominal ultrasound and extracting cells from his liver to do an exam of some sort concerning liver problems, as well.
When I took him back in this morning, I talked with Dr. Courtney Brines and told her about his odd behavior yesterday. She had given me a couple kinds of canned dog food that had a strong smell that was supposed to encourage a dog to eat. When I gave it to him in his regular stainless steel bowl he wouldn't eat it at all, so I put it back in the refrigerator. Then a few hours later, I got it out and, because it was so cold, I put in on a paper plate and stuck it in the microwave for a few seconds. When I held out that paper plate, he instantly scarfed down a couple huge bites then I heard his stomach growl and he froze for a few seconds, then turned around and ran off. Hmm. Maybe it hurt him or something. But when I followed him over and held out the plate again, he grabbed another couple big bites -- until his stomach made that huge noise -- and then he stopped and ran away again. I did that several times until he finally got it all down. Then he had the same behavior with his water. He wouldn't drink out of any of the water buckets all over the house, but if I put water into a china bowl he thought it looked like "people" food he would drink some of that, as well. Maybe he thinks the pain or whatever problem he is having is being caused by his "standard" food and water so he will only eat and drink from different containers. Who knows. It's VERY odd. So I sure hope they can figure out what the heck his problem is.
I will certainly be busy full time for a while handling both Boo and the new puppy. I'll have to continue taking Boo outside on a leash so he can't eat muddy water and weeds, and then the puppy will need to go out really often! . . . as many months as she is old - plus one according to John. So now that she is only 2 months old, she will need to be taken out every THREE hours! Gees! But John is going to loan me a little dog fence thing that I can set up in the kitchen attached to one of our crates. That way she can sleep inside the crate or play out in that 8-foot square fence thing. And I'll add a container of "dog litter." Once I can get her to urinate in that, she should figure out that she needs to use that container if she can't go outside. But it should only take a few months to get her completely house trained. At least it BETTER only take that long because by the time she's several more months old she will probably be big enough to climb out of that fence container -- and she'll have gotten too large to be using that dog litter pan, too! A Chihuahua is one thing - a Cane Corso is ENTIRELY something else!
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