pupdate

Two weeks after arriving in our home, Tala has really turned a corner.

For about two weeks, she was extremely hyperactive. All young dogs have a lot of energy, but this little girl was just bouncing off the walls. Then, all of a sudden, she settled down.

I realize now that the hyperactivity was her response to the overwhleming change that had been foisted on her.

When we adopted Gypsy, our first dog, from death row at the ASPCA, she was depressed. She had very little personality (boy, would that soon change), and did little but sleep. More recently, Cody was depressed when we first moved to Canada, and then again when we moved to the new house. So I was looking for that type of behavior in Tala. Not seeing it, I mistakenly thought that she showed no signs of missing her foster family, had no difficulty adjusting.

But just as people respond to crises in different ways, dogs do, too. In fact, some people, when overwhelmed with a life change, become hyper, zooming from one activity to the next, unable to sit still. And that's what Tala was doing.

I've heard from many people that dogs usually adjust to a new circumstances in about two weeks. When one dog in a family dies, the surviving dog often mourns for two weeks, then snaps out of it. Coming to a new home, which is an upheaval of enormous magnitude, the adjustment period will often last about two weeks. The two examples I mentioned, Gypsy and Cody, were both depressed for about two weeks. I don't know if there's evidence to back this up, but many people I know have observed it.

Now it seems that, two weeks in, Tala has decided that this is her home.

Right now she's dancing around the backyard with a toy in her mouth, bucking and jumping and floundering through the snow, having a great time, all by herself. Cody's standing in a corner of the yard, watching.