Update April 17, 2006:

Let me start off with this: Donner (formerly Pegasus) LOVESLOVESLOVES his walks. Oh my goodness! I have to get his water bottle from the fridge before I put on my shoes, and while I'm putting on my shoes, he's giving me kisses `cause he's so excited. I've trained him to sit before we go outside, so he'll throw his bum on the floor and start pawing at the wall and the door. And while we're on the walk, he'll gallop ahead a few paces. (Who knew he could gallop?)

He also seems to have gotten over his food obsession, not only not snarfing down his food, but leaving a little in his bowl both this morning and this evening. He'll even stop to take some water while he's eating. We have our first vet visit on Thursday, so we can start tracking his progress. We met the dog walker this evening. I noticed that he drinks A LOT of water, so much so that he needs an early afternoon potty break.

He's not yet tried to go after anything other than some birds while we're on our walks. He seems pretty good when we approach other dogs, but sometimes they start barking at him, so I keep him away from them. I've kept him entirely away from small dogs because I don't want to risk it. When he sees them through the sliding glass door, his ears perk up, but then he looks away.

I've learned that he "purrs" when you pet him, especially when he's laying on his side and you're rubbing his chest.

Granted, I'm guessing we're still in the honeymoon stage of our relationship, so who knows if he'll maintain this good behavior or not. He's only started napping during the day today, so he may just have been too exhausted to demonstrate any undesirable behaviors. Hopefully not. :-)

Susan

Update 1/29/08:

Donner and I doing well here in mostly sunny Southern California. We’ve had quite a bit of rain of late, and for a dog who loves wading in lakes and puddles, he’s not so fond of walking in the rain.

We started seeing a holistic vet when we moved to Orange County last summer. He put Donner on traumeel (a homeopathic not-just-for-dogs remedy available at Whole Foods) for his arthritis, which worked miracles. He also doubled his Soloxine dosage (for his low thyroid) a few weeks ago, which seems to have at least restored Donner’s energy and his personality. He runs around the house wanting me to chase him, and it seems to have increased his appetite, which I’m trying to figure out how to deal with. I’m “feeding” a 40-pound dog, which, if his chemistry is now correct, means I’m starving him, but he’s got quite a bit of weight to lose, although I’m not sure if it’s healthy for him to lose it too fast. I'm excited for him to lose some of it--I've bought roller skates and an all-terrain bike to increase the pace of our walks.

He’s got quite the personality. Everyone we meet remembers him—even if they don’t remember me. He’s confident that we’ve all been put on this planet to pet him. When he’s feeling particularly neglected (yeah, right), he’ll take me over to a shopping center behind our apartments and put on his most adorable, “Pet me” face, sometimes even being so shameless as to lie down and roll over. It usually works…

This weekend will be a Donner weekend. We’re going to spend the night with some friends Friday, which will have us in LA County (near Griffith Park) on Saturday. We’ve not been there since we moved down to Orange County, and Griffith Park was Donner’s favorite place to walk. (He’s got a couple of new favorites now, including the bunny park, a rather amazing park in Irvine that is home to dozens of bunnies that he likes to chase.) We might also drive up to Switzer Falls in Angeles Na! tional Forest later in the day. With all of the rain, the falls should be pretty amazing. And then Sunday we’ve both been invited to a Super Bowl party. One of my colleagues has a big yard and a couple of dogs, and they’ve invited Donner over for a play date. There are even gophers for him to hunt--a kind of Donner Disneyland.

It's hard to believe it's been almost two years. All-in-all, I think we did a fine job of picking each other.

Susan & Donner (the puppy formerly known as Pegasus)