Meet Izzy

Meet Izzy: the reason for my prolonged absence from blogger world.

Truthfully, it has been a crazy week.  I haven't seen Walker since last Tuesday :S  I had a work "emergency" on Wednesday and was at the office until 11 PM.  We need not discuss my feelings on that topic.

I took Thursday and Friday off and went home to see my parents for awhile.  Thursday was my 25th birthday (or 22nd - as I have trained one of my friends to tell people).  On Friday I adopted Izzy from the SPCA and it has been a whirlwind ever since.  We just finally arrived back at the apartment late Saturday night and we've been spending Sunday trying to return to some sort of normalcy.

Izzy is an 11 month old "terrier mix" - or at least this is what we were told at the SPCA.  Upon further research, I believe she's a pointer because of several tendencies she has, not including her overall look.  She was owner-surrendered by an elderly lady who simply was not prepared for how active she is.  While I have no doubt that the lady was generally quite good to her, she was using a pinch collar on her because she couldn't control her.  She is only about 25 lbs, and while she's strong on the leash (and needs some training in that regard), you can easily control her.

Other than that, she actually has a lot of pretty great training.  She is clearly very intelligent.  She already knows how to sit, stay, give me her paw, and lay down.  She is house trained and crate trained, and used to being in her crate for long periods of time.  This is ideal for me since I want to crate her while I'm away at work and probably during the night (at least for now).  She has only been at the apartment for under 24 hours, and she already knows that she's not allowed in the second bedroom which I have designated as the cat's safe space (and my wind-down space).

She laid at the edge of the doorway
while I sat in the forbidden room.

She is quite timid though.  She is absolutely TERRIFIED of the cat.  Of course, I don't blame her.  The cat has threatened to eat her whole on several occasions, and although Izzy is probably 3 times his size, Chester already chased her around the house and attacked her several times.  So much for the "supervised introduction" I was attempting.  She is afraid of other dogs and some birds (like pigeons, which have also been known to carry off medium-sized dogs).  However, I believe all this stems from the simple fact that she never got much exercise and thus never got any socialization.  She LOVES to run and would much rather run than do anything else, including play with a ball or any toys.  Needless to say, we'll wait a while before she meets Walker.

On Monday, my mom is coming down to the apartment for a few days to help smooth over the transition for me going back to work.  She is also bringing Chester, who didn't make the trip with Izzy and me.  Hopefully they can learn to co-exist.  We will give it all our best.  Hopefully I'll make it to the barn by Monday or Tuesday, especially since, you know, I'm allowed to ride my horse again.

Never a dull moment on Natalie's Funny Farm.