Preparing for Olivia's Homecoming

I have spent the past two days excitedly getting ready for Olivia's homecoming.  Well, actually, I got everything ready as quickly as I could and have run out of things to prepare to keep my mind occupied so I won't miss her too much.  (Somehow other things like job applications just don't seem to do the trick.)  These preparations certainly aren't the most exciting part of the story, but I thought I'd share them anyway, if for no other reason than to get to do something else related to her to try to keep myself from getting too impatient.

First things first.  She will never again leave this house without proper identification.  She is getting a microchip at the vet, but I have created a complement to that.  When she ran away, she had only been living with me for about 8 days, so the ID tag I had for her had not even come yet.  She had her rabies tag but no tag with contact information.  I saved it all this time, though, and now it's all ready for her - I put it on a cute pumpkin collar for Halloween.

I also want to make her as comfortable as possible.  I got her old crate ready for her again.  When she first moved in with me, she was so scared that she basically didn't leave it for the first three days (except to go outside, and I had to physically drag her out of it even to get her to do that).  She may need a period of re-adjustment, so I got it ready for her, as did Leah, who has been warming it up for her.  I don't have the blanket she used before because Sam still has it as Livvie's scent article. It's so wonderful to think that she won't need it for that anymore and that, instead, Livvie can sleep on it at home in her crate, safe and sound!

Ironically, even back then, once she would venture out of her crate, when she wanted to go back in, she'd squeeze herself into Leah's little (well, large) crate instead of her own big (extra-large) one.  (In this picture, both girls look a bit demonic, but disregard their glowing eyes - they're much more like angels than demons!)

Even after her initial readjustment, she may just like hanging out in her crate (as Leah does).  If she follows her earlier pattern, though, once she's ready to venture forth from the crate, she'll leave it behind and relocate permanently to one corner of my bed.  As far as I'm concerned, she's more than welcome to do that, so I got that ready for her too. (Actually, I just recently switched from a lighter duvet I use in the summer to this one, which I use in the winter.  The top / back pillow you see in the picture was one of my original scent items, though, so I always stored it in a plastic bag, and even now I barely touch it because I still think of it as "hers"!  It'll be really interesting to see if she recognizes her own scent if it's still on it.

I'll just have one nice little change to make.  Along the side by the window, I have a framed picture of her lying in her corner of the bed back in 2010.  Over the past two years, when I've missed her, it's been nice to be able to look over and at least see a picture of her there. Now, happily, I can take the picture away because I'll have something infinitely better:  the real thing!

As I mentioned before, Olivia is severely underweight:  she is only a bit over 80 pounds when she should weigh at least 100.  So yesterday I did a little subtraction, headed to the store, and bought her over 20 pounds of meat.  I got her steak, chicken, pork chops, hamburger, a big pot roast, and liverwurst (the new love of Leah's life) - as she did when Ally was in charge of stocking the feeding stations, Olivia will be eating at least as well as I will!  And if helping Livvie put some meat on her bones also happens to serve as a good excuse for me to spoil her rotten, so be it!

There's one last element of her homecoming about which I can't stop thinking:  Olivia's reunion with Leah.  Leah has never forgotten Olivia. She still perks up her ears and looks around to find her whenever I call out Olivia's name. Until Monday, though, I had no way of knowing whether the memory was reciprocal. Then one of the cutest moments at the shelter came when I went to get Olivia ready to leave.  I had brought Leah's harness to use in addition to a leash. (I'm currently planning to quintuple-leash Olivia for the rest of her life!)  I went to put Leah's harness on Olivia and mellow Livvie started sniffing it intently and got quite animated (by her standards). Sam laughed and said that that was indeed an example of one dog recognizing another's scent.  Also, many of you know that Leah's beloved "big brother" and fearless protector, who was older, bigger, and calmer than she is, who lived across the hall moved away a few months ago.  (Here's my favorite picture of the two of them.)

Not only does she (/do we) miss him, she has been quite a bit more anxious and fearful since then.  Having her big sister (also older, bigger, and calmer than she is) come home might just work out perfectly for both of them!

I'll end this with a little shameless projection.  For the past two years, Leah has been sad because she missed Olivia.

Now, though, she is happy because Livvie has been found and eagerly awaits her homecoming!

Get well soon, Livvie - we can't wait to welcome you home!