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Skina's Journal (3)

04.04. / 05.04.2016  Day 20+21

Yesterday Skina had to stay at home alone for more than a few hours for the first time. Josy and Shunka are used to it and dozed all the time. With a slightly uneasy feeling, I set out for work; Micha's first day at work after 3 weeks of vacation started early at 4 am.

Skina dutifully did both of her business in the morning and then retired to her new favorite spot in the living room. Josy in my office and Shunka as usual in the double hallway.

I drove home in the lunch break like greased lightning, I didn't have any  Quiet.  And what must my astonished eyes see? Nothing! Nothing at all! Everything was calm and fine.  After work, I took a closer look at our living room. Apparently Skina was a bit bored after all and tried her hand at trampoline jumping. In any case, the traces on the sofas and the armchair testified to lively use :-)  But otherwise everything was fine.

In the evening we started our first real linen experiment. Hallway cleared, leash cut to length, chicken cut up into appetizing bites (the end is known to justify the means every now and then), Skina collar put on. Because that's what I had managed to do in the meantime - to put a collar on the treasure. I noticed how interested Skina looked at me in the bathroom in the morning when I washed and combed my hair. So I grabbed her choker and pretended to run it through my hair. I then did the same with her - "comb" her with the collar. And Skina liked it too after a short time! Then it took longer and I was able to slip the collar over her head. She remained stock still in her corner or even crept into the corner, but she didn't resist and didn't turn her head away.

Then leash put on. Only the sound of the carabiner still irritated Skina from time to time. Micha was ready to shoot the video with his cell phone and pressed the wrong button. So no video.  In any case, Skina's "first time" turned out to be less turbulent than we feared. Although she ran excitedly from one corner to the other, she never once tried to take off her collar or bite the leash. We ended the whole thing after a few minutes - it couldn't have gone better. At first I thought that she would probably avoid us for the rest of the day and sulk - no! Not even close. She stayed close to us, let us pet her and graciously accepted various edible donations. For the first time, Skina slept that night in the living room next to my chair at the dining table. I put another blanket down for her and hey presto she lay on it. Wonderful.

Today the four-legged friends were alone again - at some point we have to earn their food! This time Skina let off steam a bit more: there were hairs on various windowsills that could undoubtedly be assigned to our Skina, in the kitchen the paper waste had obviously been of great interest and apparently my freshly poured basil pot aroused Skina's curiosity because of the water in the saucer dripped from the window sill and from the culprit's fur. But everything is green! It would change when Skina finally gets outside!

Our high fence parts arrived yesterday, they will be erected at the weekend and then we hope that Skina will finally get earth under her feet again. But this must be well prepared and planned down to the smallest detail.

06.04.-08.04.2016  Day 22-24

The week progresses. I'm already very excited when I think about the weekend - that's when Skina is supposed to be out for the first time.

On Thursday I had another great experience. In the last few weeks I've noticed that Skina is losing an insane amount of hair - change of coat, that  Summer is coming! Tufts of the finest wool flew around in all corners. Since we know that from Shunka (she always puts on the summer collection before Christmas, understand that if you want to!), I bought myself a great brush with rotating brush needles and with which you can comb out wonderfully loose undercoat painlessly . So bring on the brush. Not possible anyway, I thought immediately. Skina lay on her favorite spot next to the dining table (and the charging cables, see picture above) and let me pet her. Then I quickly exchanged a hand for the brush. First a very short twitch, a nervous look - then she lay down on her side again and let herself a whole 10 liter bucket!!!!  Brush out undercoat.  At first she didn't really know if she liked it or if she should just endure it... but when I dropped her off, she came towards me with her body. A clear sign that she wanted more of it. Hooray!! Look at the pictures below - that's not a dog, it's more of a sheep?! :-)

Yesterday I had a nice experience with Skina. As in the last few days, I drove home from work for the lunch break to check on things and let Skina out on the terrace if necessary. And you know what? When I came in through the apartment door, she came towards me! Yes! The very first time that she wasn't lying somewhere and watching me from there, but was standing right in front of me. And the same thing happened again in the afternoon after work. It was such a nice feeling! I'm sure that at some point the little tail will also start to wag very slightly - at some point!

04/09/2016   day 25

A beautiful, sunny day has begun; having a delightful morning walk with Shunka. All quiet, only the birds are chirping.  That's the way I like it. It's about time Skina finally got out!

Today's Saturday was all about ZAUNBAU.  It's not that easy to erect 2-meter construction fences on stony and even rocky ground! Micha worked really hard. He even buried the feet of the fences because otherwise the distance to the ground would have been too risky for him...  Where he's right, he's right (Did I really say that?) Unfortunately, a part of my freshly heaped up and sown soil also had to believe it, bääähhh... Well, it's growing again.

We also had to barricade all loopholes, such as the cavities under our front stairs and the stair access to the basement. And all this with as little effort and damage as possible - all of this shouldn't stay like this forever, but only be a temporary solution for our mouse. We were very busy until the evening, so the first attempt wouldn't start until tomorrow. ** jittery jittery**

The view of "Skina's garden" seen from the front door

(Of course, the fence is closed when we let Skina out. But we have to get out of our "enclosure" somehow, and our tenants aren't too keen on climbing over the fence either - so emergency opening solution).

04/10/2016  day 26

Sunday. Sunny day - in the truest sense of the word. Today is supposed to be Skina's big day. But first we got a huge surprise...

Skina was formerly Wolfskin. So we wanted to adopt a male named Wolfskin, until we were told that something had been mixed up in the papers and that Wolfskin was a girl. We didn't care - it doesn't matter! Our two girls get along well with both genders.

So Wolfskin became Skina and everything was happy.

Today at the breakfast table, Skina presented her belly to us - and then I noticed something that doesn't really belong in a girl! I thought I was flabbergasted. Due to the missing hind leg, it looked more like a girl when pulling, the lots of fur and, above all, no doubt that our third dog is also a girl, had so far lulled us into complete security.  Haha... no error in the papers! But a Wolfskin and not a Skina, great too. Somehow the ER is still hard to get off our lips, but it will be. She listens to Skina well... er... he's pretty good at it, so we'll keep the name.

In the morning we got everything ready. All doors open, everything in the way cleared away, belt bag with treats strapped on - now we could start! Nothing went off. Skina didn't move an inch from her place by the dining table. We tried to push them a bit from behind - rows of rings around the table and chairs isn't fun in the long run and just makes us look like fools. So we cleverly laid a trail of cooked chicken pieces from her down the hall and to the front door. From there she still had stairs to the actual front door. Skina couldn't resist the chicken - all the way to the living room door, then she turned around. Don't step into the hallway even if there was a warm broiler hanging there.  So from the front, lay a track... to the corridor, vice versa. Half a chicken was in her stomach now and we didn't go any further. Clever cattle.  It went like this for about 2 hours.

So change tactics. I took the transport cage out of the car, set it up in the living room and draped a piece of chicken inside. After 1 minute he was in. Close the door. Sometimes you have to force someone to be happy... So Micha and Sohnemann carried Skina outside in her...erm...his box. She was relatively calm down the stairs, just a little fidgeting and fussing, but wide open, fearful eyes. I was ready with the camera. open the cage door and......  Pure high tension.

 

Totally calm and relaxed, Skina ran the first laps in her enclosure, always with Shunka in tow. For the first time since we've had Skina with us, she's let strangers pet her! Son Kai and his girlfriend May Britt were allowed to touch him - he didn't escape and kept very still. No fear in the eyes, just caution.

After that, Skina ran back upstairs to the house, but came out again after a few seconds. So she had already found the right way! How beautiful! It went like this a few times: into the house, upstairs into the living room and down the stairs again in a flash. You hardly notice his missing leg, he's moving so fast!  Oh goodness - how happy I was... I had to shed a little tear right away, I was so touched.

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