One Month!

Her future's so bright she needs shades!
Okay, I REALLY wouldn't normally put things like this on  her, but my daughter "shared" them with her as we were  all getting ready to go out one day and Charlee didn't even mind at all, so I had to take a picture!

Our Charlee has been with us one month and feels like she's been here for years... in a REALLY good way!
We thought she was amazing from the moment she arrived and that she settled in so well.  But as we've gotten to know her, its apparent that she still had/has a lot of coming out of her shell to do.  She has shown herself more wonderful with each unfolding day.  I mention often that we take things slow with her.  We try to introduce her to only one or two new things a week and space them out over the week.  Its amazing what time and love can do.  In addition to all the things I wrote about in the last post here are some new developments!

Here she is sporting her new pink bandanna   I have to say, I think the color looks fabulous on her.  And with a name like Charlee, and the way she lifts her legs to pee... I think she needs a little pink to help keep the record straight :) 

She lets us clip her toe nails and brush her teeth without hesitation.

We have introduced her to two doggie friends.  And one thing has been confirmed... she LOVES other dogs.  She LOVES to play with them.  She's stinkin' adorable!  She does the play bow, wags her tail, sort of hops and pounces with her front feet to say, "c'mon, come play!" and she loves to run and run and run with the other pooches.  And she certainly does like to "herd" the other dog which I'm guessing is her Aussie blood :)

She took her first trip to the dog park.  We met a doggie friend there that she was already acquainted with and she did beautifully!  She met a 3rd dog there and did fabulous with him too.

I neglected to mention that we are not crating her.  Her foster home told us that she tried crating her and Charlee got very agitated and damaged the crate, but that she did fine when left home and given reign of the house.  I'm guessing she was never crate trained and then her trauma surrounding being in the kennel did not help.  So we tested the whole free reign idea in small increments   And even though she's not at home alone much anyway... when she does have to be, she stays loose in the house and has never scratched, chewed, or gotten into anything.  She doesn't show any signs of separation anxiety.

This is what you get when you say, "Charlee, wanna go for a walk!?"
Her photos are starting to really reflect more of her true personality...  the gentle, patient, kind, sweet, fun, spunky gal we've come to know and love.

And last but not least... this is a biggie.  Yesterday and today she rolled onto her side and lifted her legs, inviting me to scratch her belly.  I think this shows that she's really starting to trust us, because she would gladly accept all sorts of love and petting and brushing and hugging and kissing up until now, but she would never let her guard down enough to roll over and let us scratch her belly.  I wasn't sure if she just didn't like it, or if she was still nervous about that.  But she's showed that she does indeed love belly rubs!