Good weekend . . . and better with Gigi

Jerry came by first thing Saturday morning and helped me move that giant crate from the living room into the dining room.  (That big white gate in the picture below is screwed into the wall so that giant crate had to be lifted over since it's way too large to slide through the opening.) 

 

To make room for the big crate, I  moved her small crate over in front of the other corner cabinet to protect it as well and it turned out she LOVES it that way.  Now that it's back in a dark corner, once she's done eating and drinking and if I'm out of the kitchen, she goes in there and goes to sleep without me having to close her in there!  Amazing.  

Gigi is sitting all the way in the back of that crate and you can't even tell she's there. 

 I did have her crate door closed yesterday morning, though, while Jerry was helping me haul out that big crate.  And he had no idea she was anywhere around -- she watched him like a hawk without moving or making a single sound.  Wow -- since she already behaves like that whenever anyone new and different comes around, I guess she WILL be a fine protective dog!   But as we discussed when Jan called earlier, I'm sure it will be helpful for us to take Gigi and Jan's mastiff, Gus, out to places like outdoor restaurants to be sure they will behave well with strangers (unless they feel us being afraid - in which case she will be free to "disassemble" that guy as far as I'm concerned!). 

Here's that huge bright pink crate that she will go into once she outgrows
that smaller one completely.  Right now, she's just eating in there
so she doesn't spread all her food all over the floor!

When Mark comes home, he's going to put that TV that's on top of it up on the wall.  We've had a wall attachment for it for quite a while, but it has just been sitting on a narrow table -- until now.  But I need to be able to move that crate around if Gigi dumps water under it or if I need to pull out the bottom in order to clean it, so the TV does need to come off of there. 

 

Then I'm going to make a cover for it from that roll of heavy fabric that's laying up there on top of it in the picture.  Since Gigi likes to sleep in a space where she feels hidden, I'm sure she'll be happier with the crate covered.  (And I'll be happier if that bright pink is bit less obvious!)  I WAS going to put that crate over there flat against that side wall -- it would have looked a lot better that way -- but I decided instead to angle it so it would protect our cook books there in that corner bookcase until we can trust her not to chew them up!  ;-D

 

Here's the arrangement we made the day before we picked her up.  She stayed in there all of about an hour!   
The very first thing she did once she was in there was climb right out of it!  Gees! 
Who would have thought a puppy that little could DO that!!



So here she is standing up against the gate we have installed to keep her in the kitchen/dining room. 
She can't climb over that one (yet) since there are no cross pieces for her to climb up on. 



Here she is in that smaller crate back on 2/23.  

And here she is in the same one less than a month later on 3/8.
So I imagine she will be large enough to need to be moved into that giant crate
full time in another couple months. 

 

When it's nice outside, I feed her out on the patio instead of in the kitchen.  That way if she dumps out some of her food I don't have to be the one to clean them up -- either the other dogs or the birds pick them up.

 

I took this just after I put her out.  Duke hadn't noticed her yet.

 

 

Here she's waiting for me to hand her the food bowl.

When she gets ready to go out to the bathroom, she sniffs really carefully before deciding where to go.  Odd.

Duke did come on up once he saw her and she ran over to say "hello."

Once she goes over and sniffs and licks him, she goes back to racing around,
but he hangs out and just watches her.  I love it. 
He never has acted at all like that with any of the other dogs.

Well, it WAS a good weekend, but I never did get done any of the things I THOUGHT I would do - like wash clothes or put away things up in the library.  Oh well.  When Mark comes home we're planning to just get rid of everything we aren't using -- EVERYTHING!  We don't want to end up on TV as hoarders!  (And we don't want Wendy to be stuck with 3000 square feet packed full of JUNK once we're gone, either!!) 

 

I am definitely looking forward to having a lot of open space in our house!  Hey - if any of you read mystery paperbacks or magazines, DO give us a holler.  All you need to do is come pick them up!  No charge. 

 

And if you think I'm exaggerating, check out these pics -- all those books ARE going to go! . . . except my horse and dog books and Mark's history books, of course.  ;-D

 

Those two saddles sitting there on the back of that yellow sofa are there until
we can be absolutely positive they can no longer get moldy out in the barn.