8 State Hurricane Kate

We went for a walk this afternoon. Zulu ate, and she looks at me now. She still shies away from Bandit, who likes to be in charge. He charged and growled at her once, then I stopped him. I hope she likes water—she needs a bath!

Zulu is still skittish, but is showing more interest in me, like she wants to go along.I took her for a walk on-leash around the property while the boys were in the yard. Zulu accompanied me while I cleaned out the bluebird houses and went along when I took the garbage out to the end of the driveway. She is curious and is getting familiar with the place. 

While editing Kate’s book today, I came across the following that someone had told me with regard to Kate and me. It seems to fit Zulu too.

Kate’s been through a lot, and you’re likely the only human that’s shown any real interest in her. Losing you could set her back.

I gave Zulu a bath this evening, a must before bringing her into the living area of the house. She stunk so badly, not just like a dog, but like manure too. Anything she touched, like the towels in her crate, got dirty stinky. I especially noticed the smell when she was riding in the crate in the back seat of my truck. I found out from Katie that the smell is probably from a pond that she swam in at the other foster home.

Zulu was afraid of the tub and the running water, but I think she became ok with my touch. When afraid, she hasn’t tried to bite or nip, but seems to turn in on herself, like a turtle going back into its shell.

Now she is mostly clean, but may need another bath to get rid of all of the smell. I’ll need to take off her martingale collar and give it a good washing too. I think it also stinks. She has some pretty speckles on her left back leg and has a sort of cartoon-like back end, a bit rubbery and gangly when she trots, plus her hocks hyperextend sometimes. She has a nice Bentley on her forehead. Some bastard cut off her tail real short. Damn him! She’s going to make the best of it though, I think. I’ve started calling her “Cayenne”, like the red peppers. There’s some spice in there somewhere, we just need to find a way to let it out! When Cay tries new things, she reminds me of the little engine that could, and I think of her as “Cayenne IthinkIcan”.

Posted on April 9th, 2008 Filed under: Cayenne/ Zulu