Cobalt: Day 2

We're now through our first full day with Cobalt. She's incredibly affectionate and energetic, as you'd expect! We took her on two walks down to the local park, which she really enjoyed (she loves to chase), but it's so cold out that within 10 or 15 minutes we have to carry her home because she's shivering.

Fortunately, we have a 50-foot-long living room/dining room combo in our house, so we can run her there as well. Unfortunately, it still has bits of our old waterbed against the wall, which makes it a little hard to maneuver through while trying not to step on a dog who likes to follow you with her chin on your ankle.

We've also had her with us on the bed Saturday night & Sunday as we watched CSI & Mythbusters. She's very happy to flop out with us, though Grendel, who usually curls up at my feet, isn't too happy about her coming over to sniff him from time to time. But he was back on the bed after she went into her crate.

We're trying to crate- and pen-train her, which is being a little trying. She's got a piercing voice when she's not the centre of attention. But with both of us working 9-to-5, we have to get her used to being alone.

The current plan is for me to head home every day at lunch to feed her and take her out. I'm hoping that won't eat up too much of my office time, 'cause it doesn't help if I have to stay late to make up the time. My current plan is to work on the client-oriented projects from 9-12 and 1-5 (home for the pup from 12-1), then take my work laptop home at night and work on my big programming projects there -- the ones that are constantly getting interrupted by client projects at the office.

The biggest problem right now is toilet training. Her schedule's a little irregular right now: anywhere from 1½ hours to 8½ hours after eating (that last being 2:30 this morning!). For the moment, our plan is to take her out after breakfast and, if she doesn't do anything, leave her in her pen with her potty-pad (which she uses properly, thanks to Stoverly's paper training) until I'm back for lunch.

We've only had one accident so far, when she was crated while we ran out to get her toys & a pillow. Fortunately, the jacuzzi tub is deep enough that she can't get out while I'm cleaning her. Unfortunately, it has one sloped side that generally causes her to slide belly-down into the mess I've just washed off her...

Today, we make appointments with the vet (we'll be using Bay Dog Hospital, since we already use Bay Cat Hospital for Grendel & Mouse, and the puppy training (we'll be trying PetSmart for that).