She's growing! The perspectives aren't quite the same, but if you use the horizontal bars on the cage as a guide Kila looks about 50% bigger! Or you could compare her to Sir Hopkins. She was his size when she came home.
When Carrie took her to the vet (7/14) for her shots/checkup, they said she weight 4.1 lbs.
A week later, Carrie asked me to stand on a scale with her and she weight 5.4 lbs on our scale! I checked this week and she was up to 6.0 lbs. Our scale isn't the best, so we'll have an exact number at Kila's next check up mid-August.
Kila's name has nearly changed multiple times. I picked Kila as a play on Loki. I reversed the syllables and made it 'la' like the feminine form in Spanish. Carrie and I wanted to avoid ending on an 'ee' note (Maddy...Abby....Ernie....Eddie....Indy.....Lilly....Happy.....Tsuki.....I mean, really!).
However, my continuous practice of creating puns nearly drove Carrie mad. I told her I wanted to be able to call both dogs with one call, "Lo-ki-la!" Only I said it just like the Riiiiiicola commercial! Ha! I thought "Ki-Love" was clever, but I was having too much fun with my shenanigans.
Carrie registered Kila as "Keelah" on the AKC registry to be phonetically clear...., but then Carrie couldn't stop calling her Kisa! I would have rolled with it if Carrie changed the name, but Shane staunchly opposed. He liked Kila's name as it was!
As of this week, Kila is officially sleeping through the "night."
I'd be much more excited about it if her "night" was longer than six hours.
Kila started with a bedtime of roughly 8 or 9 PM. I'd take her out at 11 AM and then again around 3:30 AM.
After a week or two, I pushed my alarm out to 4:30 AM for the dark o'clock run.
This week, I've been letting her out at midnight and then again around 6:15 AM. Monday, she was crying around 6:00 AM and had to be let out early. Tuesday, she made it to the alarm without issue, but Wednesday (8/3) I was up a few minutes before 6 AM when I heard her scratching and digging at her bedding (I might have been able to ignore it for a little, but I didn't want it to wake Carrie).
Still, 6 hours in a row without a bathroom break. I may be able to have a normal sleep schedule when the school year starts! WOOHOO!!!
Sleeping on the back must be a sheltie thing, because Loki likes to do it, too.
Right now, Kila's on a schedule that works for us. After she comes out of her crate, we take her outside to pee. She stays up for an hour on average. Then she returns to her crate to rest (and hopefully nap). Usually, she's in the crate for an hour or less, but she has one big nap midday.
The goal is to keep Kila fully active when she's awake. We want her too entertained and busy to pee in the house! The more energy we burn off, the more soundly she sleeps when it's rest time, too!
Shane likes to throw the frisbee for Loki.
Kila can't keep up, but she chases after a while and then tries to mug Loki for the frisbee on his return.
Carrie's started some basic training. It looked much rougher a week and a half ago.
Kila's much better at 'Sit' now. Carrie's working 'Come' into the routine with some success
Sometimes it helps that Loki is all about earning a treat. Other times, he runs in between Kila and Carrie! He's sat on Kila before!
Sheltie's in general seem to be wallowers. Kila's normally too hyper to want to sit in my lap, but if something scares her she runs to the nearest human and ducks between your legs or hops in your lap.
Like the garage door. It's terrifying.
If I walk into the garage, Kila runs back around the house. Thankfully, she normally heads to the front porch.
And don't even get Kila started on the BIG garage door.
If I am holding Kila and start to near the garage she goes into panicked wiggles trying to escape. Loki doesn't notice or care. He says, "AC this way? Okay! Let's go!"
It's one of the various signs that Kila is in a 'fear stage.' They're a normal part of puppy development.
Another example: the kitchen. Kila won't enter the kitchen willingly. If we come in through the back, sliding glass door straight into the kitchen, she's not sure what to do.
She's gotten to where she's okay hiding out under the table.
Loki's presence helps (and it's a guarantee since my presence comforts him!).
The moment Kila leaves the kitchen she won't come back. She will run freely between the dining room, living room, and bunny room. But it's like there's an invisible boundary she won't cross to go into the hallway towards Shane's room, behind the couch, or into the kitchen.
Kila is adventurous in the areas she considers safe and she's interested in all of the other animals around her. She can't get in the rabbit cages, but she has discovered rabbit poop sometimes falls into her zone.
We call them "coco puffs." Kila is cuckoo for them.
The cats are a constant fascination. Whenever they're on Kila's level (and she notices them), she's quick to run over and introduce herself. This....goes about as well as you can expect.
As long as the cats hold their ground, nothing much happens. Kila looks. She eventually barks. She can't stay still too long and eventually starts bouncing back and forth wanting to play.
The cats don't like it. Sometimes they run off (which triggers the chase game). Other times they hiss for a bit, and then run off (still a chase game!). The cats go vertical in a hurry, so the game ends quickly.
Max is the only cat who normally holds her ground. It's probably in part that she's old and can't be bothered with moving too fast! She'll whap Kila on the nose a few times, and Kila normally darts off (maybe thinking "Max can chase me!"). Max is declawed, so there's never any damage. It's unpleasant enough that Kila runs off, but I don't think she's learned the "Don't mess with cats" lesson.
Tsuki has been running a little less often lately. I saw her take a swipe or two, so maybe the cats lesson will come sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, Loki the diplomat, walks up, sniffs a growling cat butt without causing a stir, and then wanders off.
Kila hopes to emulate him one day. She's gotten a taste from Max while I've been scratching her ears. I guess cat ass is addictive for dogs?
Kila would love to develop a paper towel addiction, too, but she can't jump up anywhere....yet.
Kila's favorite animal (to mess with) is Loki. She won't leave him alone! This picture captured a split second of calm before she bounced on him.
Any toy Loki shows an interest in, Kila wants. She'll try and take it right out of his mouth!
She jumps and nips at the toy or his face. Whatever works! She'll jump up on his back while he stands and chews on a ball. His fur seems to act like armor. I've seen Kila have full mouth fulls and try to tug without much of a reaction from him!
Loki rarely corrects Kila. She's yelped only a couple of times and it's normally from Loki stepping or tripping over her as he tries to fetch a ball. The only time I've ever seen him "bite" her was when they were running and Kila basically half jumped into his mouth (no skin was broken and she was jumping all over him again a minute later.).
It used to be Loki ignored and shunned her. However, he wants to be wherever I am. Since I'm supervising Kila, he's within her easy reach.
They've started to play together. I got one of the first times they had a positive play time on camera.
We've tried to foster it since. Loki loves to fetch and sometimes it's developed into tug of war! We think Loki is finally realizing that Kila's a dog!
The pups spend a lot of time in proximity of each other, so the sooner they become friends the better!
Shane keeps saying stuff, "Because Kila will want to have his babies!" or "Because he wants to mate with her!" ("No, kid. She's a baby."). I don't know if he's just excited about the prospect of puppies or if he's got other questions brewing he's indirectly looking for answers about (Oh, boy...).
We're hoping Kila is learning a lot from Loki. When she runs from the garage, he hops in. When cars go by, he doesn't freak out (other than to run the fence line if we're in "Go-go-go!" land). When I dump ice from my drink as we walk, Loki says "It's delicious!" Where Loki goes, Kila tends to go, so we hope she's learning all the good things from him.
One thing she hasn't picked up on yet: Watch out for the polywire in the fields. The bottom line isn't electrified. Plants kept grounding it out, so we detached it from the generator....but chewing on those wires still isn't a good idea, Kila! She'll be in for a terrible surprise if she ever tries to bite an active line from an open gate or when she's taller.
And that's the big Kila update for now. I was looking back at some old Loki updates. There's a lot of memories there and a lot of stuff that I thought I wrote down, but I never did. It was a busy season of life when he showed up. Kila will probably get more blog attention since she showed up in the summer.
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