Long Journey Home

Kim and I set out for Houston at about 12:30 a.m.  We'd gone to bed early so that we could get up and out and home quickly.  As it turns out, the trip was a couple hours longer than usual for extra stops and time for walking Lola. 

Lola was a great traveler and slept the vast majority of the trip on her knew car blanket.

When we finally made it to my apartment, I was surprised to discover that Lola had never done stairs before.  Guess who carried her up three flights?

She was shaking and very afraid by the time we made it inside.  She looked around and investigated a little, but mostly stayed right beside me.

She finally began to wander around and investigate.  She disappeared in to my room and suddenly began to bark.  It was the first time she had barked all day.  I hopped up and went to see what she had cornered.  This is what I found.

In case you can't quite make that out, she found herself, in my bathroom mirror.  Too funny.  I finally had to close the bathroom door because she kept going back to check out the scary dog in the other room.

Not long after figuring out where her food and water were, she needed to go out.  This time, my arms were free of bags, and it was just me and Lola.  With very little prompting, she walked down all three flights of stairs by herself.  Yay!  We then walked all the way around the lake so she could get the lay of the land and sniff things out.  At the beginning of the walk, she battled against the leash.  By the end, she was walking right beside me on my right, almost perfectly.  I was pretty impressed.  So glad I've been getting trained watching all of those dog shows on the Animal Network!

We got to the stairs, and she slowly made her way the entire three flights back up.  I'm pretty sure she knew I meant it when I'd told Kim there was no way I'd be hauling her up the stairs every time.  =]  Or, she is just a smart dog!  Lucky me!

As we've settled in this evening, she has definitely figured out that I'm her momma.  She has followed me everywhere and wants to be sitting beside me constantly.  I put her blanket in her dog bed so that it would have her smell, and I nearly cried when she curled up inside, right next to me.  She's found her home.

But she occasionally gets up for a little lovin' from her momma.

I think she's had all she can handle for one day!