Day 4

During their lives of six years, Zuzu and Petal have been sheltered from outdoor threats, they’ve been fed, and they’ve been medicated (albeit inconsistently, based on their medical reports). That seems to be the extent of their understanding of what it means to live with humans. We speak to them gently, and we pet them (only occasionally, while reaching into their crate and attempting not to seem threatening). I think they understand we’re not going to hurt them, but it would be too much to say they trust us.

They have each other, though, and that is their source of strength. We managed to capture video of them playing pretty hard during the night, when they felt confident we were “out of range.” They act like opossums, preferring not to have humans observing their movements. In the night-time videos, they regularly interrupt their play in order to look quickly toward all the places from which we might be observing them, and when they don’t see us, they resume playing. Their secret nightlife also includes looking out through the glass wall (where we leave the curtains partially open) to scan the back yard and observe any visitors (sometimes there are real opossums during the night, just ambling across the patio).

These videos (live and recorded) are helping us feel better about the girls’ current emotional health and physical fitness, and we will allow them to maintain their nocturnal schedule with the expectation that it will gradually shift as they gain comfort and familiarity with us, and with their new surroundings.

We set their food bowls down a few feet from their crate’s opening, morning and evening, and we watch from another room as they make several quick excursions to get just one or two bites at a time. They step out, eat a little food, then walk backwards into the crate, like those tiny aquarium fish that retreat backwards into their holes. They often seem to be taking turns, with one watching from the crate as the other is at her bowl. It’s like they’re thinking, “Okay, that’s enough for you. It’s my turn to eat, and it’s your turn to cover me.” They don’t eat each other’s food (much).

For four days they have been listening to our conversations (our voices and tone) and other house noises including music and TV, not too loud. They listen from their crate, which has not yet had its door closed with them in it. We spend some of our time in their room (where we have recliners), and the door to their room usually stands open when we are elsewhere in the house, but they have not explored the house more than a few steps from their room, and they usually just stay in their crate (often sleeping), especially when we are nearby. It’s almost like we still don’t have any dogs in the house.

Once a day we carry them to a small pet fence/enclosure that we placed in the back yard (and from which they can see out), and they seem to have a good understanding of where to potty (grass or papers), but for now the great outdoors seems a bit overwhelming to them, at least when they’re not protected by a glass window, so they haven’t been outside for more than a few minutes. Either one of them could walk right through our wrought-iron fence, so we won’t be able to go forever without improving their experience of harnesses and leashes, but for now we expect to use two sling carriers (or a travel crate) for their initial visit to the vet.

We have a long way to go, but we’re pretty pleased with these two girls.