We found that she does not respond well to the name Marlena, so we have changed her call name to Spirit. My husband discovered that she really responds to the name and he came up with it because she is so spirited.
We have had some small issues that can be expected with a new puppy. Her skin was a bit irritated and she must have caught some fleas from the other dogs on the truck. We gave her some K9 Adavantix and got some great shampoo from our Vet. Then, we had to go to Christmas Eve dinner at my sister's house which is 2 hours drive away. We put Marlena in a wire kennel with her plastic bucket [which I have used for all of my previous GSDs]. Well, she ate the rim off of the bucket and threw some up a bit later. The next Monday, she had bloody stools and again vomited. I rushed her to our vet and her temp was 105.1 degrees F. Yikes! The vet kept her overnight and gave her IV fluids and Metronidazole. She recovered with a temp of 103 and we took her home. Since then she has recovered further and is back to her old self. But the vet bill was $861!!!! Sigh. What can one do? At least we have a great outcome. Now she has a steel bucket. D'oh!
We have found that Spirit has a proclivity to track people, animals and things by scent. This is so exciting for me, as I have had such a dog before and love training for this! Its also great if we lose something outdoors! She is smart as a whip and eager to please. She is also a terrific cuddler! My dogs in the past had slept at the foot of the bed, but Spirit likes to snuggle next to my pillow. Once she put her muzzle on my neck.
WE JUST LOVE HER!!!!!!
Thanks so much to Give a Dog a Home!!!!!
Here are some new photos:
Here Spirit is on the bed in my office.
Here she is proud of the mess she's made by destroying a box:
We are really spoiling her! LOL! She can stand on her hind feet and it is so adorable!
