New home

Just 6 months ago, after settling in, Kayla began her new life as Kumbira by taking over the house and the yard and, by proxy, all neighboring yards! She decided that all sounds and moving things in the realms beyond our backyard fence ought to be brought under her control by much running and barking! Thankfully winter was on its way and most of her time was spent indoors - to the neighbors' relief I am sure - even then, whatever moved in the street out front got the usual noisy address. The snow at first was a strange thing to be avoided, and then played in, and then pee'd on when the grass wasn't available. Then after a time, the snows melted away and we thought we had escaped the remainder of winter. That was a joke...

...the blizzard hit, and Kumbi who is usually pretty good at going outside to do her business even in unpleasant weather, tucked tail and literally ran! Craig had to grab hold of her and move her by her butt and push her through the door into the yard to do her thing - which ended up being a very hasty exercise! After that, Kumbi could tackle any weather! SuperDog!

Many things in our house are sources of amusement for Kumbi - getting between the shower curtains for one, though recently, eating cotton squares is much more fun! It is just as well that she has a strong constitution - she has eaten wood filler putty sticks, kleenex (she enjoys shredding a corner of the box and pulling out at least half of the contents and ripping those to pieces too), cotton squares, fluff off tennis balls, heaven-alone-knows-what-in-the-park, and various bits of food scrounged from the counters when we are not looking. The good thing is, she is not destructive except for mutilating her toys. Playing "fetch" is definitely beneath her, so we play "chase" where I seldom get my hands on the trophy!

It has been fascinating to watch the phases she has been through in these short 6 months. Over the past month or so, Kumbi has really settled well and calmed down a lot - in the first period that we had her, she was so wired, she wanted to go walking literally every 30 minutes! And when we did, she would pull on the leash and take me for the walk! It was exhausting! She was always asking for something (living up to her name!). Everything was new and exciting and had to be investigated - still does. Now she has met some of the neighborhood dogs and has taken well to 3 of them (while on her leash), but wants to fight with a fourth who doesn't care much for her either, and thinks he owns the neighborhood. Now that she is a little more used to yard noises from neighbors, she does not always bark. She is also not quite so intent on chasing local joggers and cyclists. She now understands that they are just part of the world around.

Kumbira is very affectionate and even when she has met little kids for the first time, she tries to give them a kiss - right on the mouth!

I was told that it takes about 6 months for a dog to settle in a new home - it's true.