Hello everyone!
I adopted Pickles two weeks ago. She is 7 months old... a tri colour little sweetie.
This is the first time in my adult life that I've adopted a doggie and I just wondered if anyone else felt a little -- shocked -- after they adopted.
I've wanted a cavalier for years. I'm just thrilled with her. She's lovely. However, for the first several days I was just overwhelmed and I felt stupid. I had to contend with my step children feeling jealous (I was surprised at THAT) and my cats feeling jealous and Pickles having separation anxiety and my husband's worries.
I became very anxious myself and started to feel very embattled. I even lost my appetite for a few days!!
I'm happy to report that everyone's ruffled feathers seemed to have smoothed. My appetite is back. Pickles is sleeping through the night and doesn't cry when left. Even the cats are sitting with us while we all watch TV in the evenings. They tolerate Pickles because she doesn't bother them at all.
I feel rather silly for being so unprepared for the stress of adjusting to a new dog. Maybe it's like having a baby -- you can never really be prepared for it because you don't know how things will actually play out.
Anyhow... that's a bit of my story. I'm feeling much less stressed these days. Pickles is darned near perfect, as far as I'm concerned. I'll post some photos as soon as I get my flickr account sorted.
I adopted Pickles two weeks ago. She is 7 months old... a tri colour little sweetie.
This is the first time in my adult life that I've adopted a doggie and I just wondered if anyone else felt a little -- shocked -- after they adopted.
I've wanted a cavalier for years. I'm just thrilled with her. She's lovely. However, for the first several days I was just overwhelmed and I felt stupid. I had to contend with my step children feeling jealous (I was surprised at THAT) and my cats feeling jealous and Pickles having separation anxiety and my husband's worries.
I became very anxious myself and started to feel very embattled. I even lost my appetite for a few days!!
I'm happy to report that everyone's ruffled feathers seemed to have smoothed. My appetite is back. Pickles is sleeping through the night and doesn't cry when left. Even the cats are sitting with us while we all watch TV in the evenings. They tolerate Pickles because she doesn't bother them at all.
I feel rather silly for being so unprepared for the stress of adjusting to a new dog. Maybe it's like having a baby -- you can never really be prepared for it because you don't know how things will actually play out.
Anyhow... that's a bit of my story. I'm feeling much less stressed these days. Pickles is darned near perfect, as far as I'm concerned. I'll post some photos as soon as I get my flickr account sorted.