So, Saturday morning I got up kind of early and headed to Kalispell to pick up Panda.  It was a LONG drive, seriously 200+ miles each way.  Not too bad but, long.

I met her previous family in a parking log and they said their good-byes.  Then I strapped her in to the car and we headed home.

The colorful pile is her turtle bed and special blanket.  So, the first question everyone asks is:  “how’d she do on the drive?”  So, I’ll tell you, she slept.  No joke, she slept the 3 1/2 hours it took us to get home.  I stopped at a rest-stop for her to go potty, but she didn’t need to.  We also ran into a problem with the travel dog bowl I bought for her.  So, we had to improvise.

After that stop we hit the road for the rest of  drive.  I had to stop somewhere to pick up a dog bed for her because I’d prefer if she slept on a comfy bed that is all hers rather than on my couch.  I found a super ugly (I’m sorry, but it’s ugly) but comfy looking tiger striped bed that I bought.  Of course, she LOVES it.  So, no matter how ugly I think it is she can have it.  Then we stopped at Petco hoping to see the lady who helped me pick out the stuff we’d need for the drive home but she was already gone for the day.  So, I bought a toothbrush (don’t laugh…the family who had her had started brushing her teeth so I’ll keep it up because brushing her teeth is a heck of a lot cheaper than dental work for rotten teeth).  She actually doesn’t mind getting her teeth brushed.

We got home, she and I explored the house with her on a leash, then I let her off the leash to check things out.  She seems to like the house.  Then, she met Jeeves.  That didn’t go over too well.  Jeeves isn’t so sure about a dog coming to invade his house.  Especially a dog that actually wants to greet him.  All was fine with that until Panda realized she could almost reach the window sill that Jeeves was taking refuge on.  Thus the great chase began and ended with one shattered glass and my dinner all over the floor.  The cat hid, the dog had to go to the laundry room so I could clean up the shattered glass (she wasn’t in trouble, I needed to keep her safe).  Jeeves decided to venture out again which resulted in another shattered bowl.  Yeah, I learned my lesson and have put things away for now.

So bedtime came and Panda wasn’t too sure about that.  She wandered the house and explored and made lots of noise all night.  I think she was nervous or anxious and didn’t know what to do.  I also learned that her back legs creak when she walks.

And, she snores.

Loud.

So, that cemented my decision to get her a crate.  I went yesterday to pick up the crate and brought it home.  Put the ugly dog bed (that she loves) in there.  She LOVES the crate.  She laid in it a lot yesterday and when it was bedtime I told her to go to bed and she walked right in and settled in for the night.  Not a peep out of her all night.

This morning I decided to bring her to work with me.  I wanted to give Jeeves a break at home and it’s hot so I didn’t want Panda stuck inside all day.  When I picked up the crate yesterday I also bought her another bed which I brought to the office.  Of course, she’d rather sleep on the floor than on the comfy bed I bought her (crazy dog).  So, now she’s laying on the floor behind me snoozing (luckily not snoring yet).

Brian came over last night, he wasn’t too impressed with how cute she is but she sure likes him.  She danced around and shared her nasty bone with him.  He even played with it with her.  Faye and Kyle came over this morning to meet her.  She loves both of them but Kyle isn’t so sure about her.  She just wanted to play with him but he just wasn’t so sure about that.  So, we’ll slowly work up to them playing together.  Kyle did like her, and she was super nice to him just excited to have a kid around.

So, there’s the shortened version (yeah, it’s the short version) of the weekend with Panda.