(Excerpts from my emails with Kate, Thani's adoption coordinator)...

BTW, we changed Duke's name to Thani, which means "the second one". Yoshi the cat is "the first one".

1. Duke is recovering well following his surgery. There has not been any need to give him pain medication. He's a very quiet dog. Besides a soft, short moan now and then you hardly know that we have a dog in our family room. Yesterday he had a few short "snorting" episodes but nothing today. We are watching that.
2. We're be taking turns feeding him and taking him out for short potty walks in the backyard. Michael slept downstairs on the couch the last two nights to bond with him. I spend the evenings in the family room with Duke while Michael stays with Yoshi. This evening we went for a short slow 20-minute walk around the neighborhood.
3. He's very well behaved. No countersurfing, no garbage can turnovers, no fighting with the baby gates. He's walking around nicely and doesn't rush to get out the door for potty breaks (what I'm used to at RCHS). He's housetrained and doesn't beg for food while we are eating (except for wanting some popcorn this afternoon while we were watching baseball). He keeps me company in the kitchen but doesn't ask for anything. He's just totally mellow and content with hanging around with us on the sofa or laying on his dog bed. He started eating yesterday and he's eating all of his food & drinking water. Potty breaks have been regular.
4. He knows sit, stay, shake, leave it (we practiced this alot today), etc. He doesn't know/like "down". We've spent time hugging, brushing his coat, and massaging all over his body. He'll turn over and show us everything. He's very calm and obedient. We feel like he's bonding with us nicely. There's good eye contact and he'll even sit for me before I have to say anything. His tail starts thumping quickly when we speak to him with happy voices.
5. Because of all of this we decided that it felt right to have Duke and Yoshi meet. Yes alot sooner than I thought it would be but Yoshi was very curious about what was going on downstairs, could see us walking around outside and didn't seem bothered by his scent. We have the gates set up so she could/can run though. We got Duke ready on his leash (with plenty of treats handy). Yoshi walked in and just looked at him. Duke barely blinked. He was more interested in the hot dog treats. Yoshi walked around slowly, stared at him and eventually came up and smelled his bum. Duke was not phased at all. We spent a few hours today (1.5 hours on, 3 hours off, 1.5 hours on) with Yoshi roaming around with Duke on his leash. They are usually three-four feet from each other and it was great. I'm still very very cautious about the whole thing but felt like it was good timing. He's still obviously recovering and probably slower than normal and can't get around as quick with his collar. I was also feeling like he needed to meet everyone in the family before he thought he was the "one and only" with us & would feel like Yoshi was an intruder/competition if we waited much longer.
6. Today we left the house for three hours (the first time all weekend). We have a small den in the front of the house with nice windows so we kept Duke in there with his bed. He was snoozing when we came home so I think that was OK with him. We are thinking we will keep him in there when we are gone so that he can't get into anything and Yoshi can roam the house a little bit on her own. Better set-up and larger than a crate situation. I don't know if I'll ever feel comfortable leaving both of them on their own together. I'm a "better safe than sorry" type of person. Very conservative about these types of things.


Please let me know your thoughts on our first few days together. We feel so fortunate to have him with us. He's a wonderful, beautiful, affectionate guy. He was obviously trained well and lived with a family before. I can't understand what happened... it's sad. But sooo lucky for us.